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LIBRARY OF MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY

WOODS HOLE, MASS.

Loaned by American Museum of Natural History

IGNORANCE, A LOSS WITHOUT EXCUSE

TAR-GAZING was never more popular than it
is now. Yet, notwithstanding this activity in
the cultivation of astronomical studies, it is
probably safe to assert that hardly one person
in a hundred knows the chief stars by name, or
can even recognize the principal' constellations^
miuch less distinguish the planets from the
fixed stars. And of course they know nothing
of the intellectual pleasure that accompanies a knowledge
of the stars.. Modern astronomy is so rapidly and wonder-
fully linking the earth and the sun together, with all the
orbs of space, in the bonds of close physical relationship,
that a person of education and general intelligence can
offer no valid excuse for not knowing where to look for
Sirius or Aldebaran, or the Orion nebula, or the planet
Jupiter. As Australia and New Zealand and the islands
of the sea are made a part of the civilized world through
the expanding influence of commerce and cultivation,
so the suns and planets around us are, in a certain
sense, falling under the dominion of the restless and re-
sistless mind of man. We have come to possess vested in-
tellectual interest in Mars and Saturn, and in the sun and
all his multitude of fellows, which nobody can afford to
ignore. — Serviss.

' Vol. VIII
No. 1

June

1915

EDWARD F. BIGELOW

MANAGING EDITOR

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Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA; Sound Beach, Connecticut,

Subscription, $1.00 a year Single copy, 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12, 1909. at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897.

Vol

Vlli

JUNE.

Number 1

Concerning Opossum.

BY JOSEPH \V. Lli'Pi:- COTT, PHILADEL-
PHIA, PA.

It is, to be sure, an accepted fact that
the opossum, our neighbor of the woods,
occasionally likes to eat chicken, in fact
loves chicken. This has indeed been re-
peatedly proved in my own hen house,
so that if I were ever disposed to ques-
tion it, I am now convinced to my entire
satisfaction.

But there were several questions
which, for the sake of those hens, I used
to lie awake at night pondering-, and one
was how did the stealth}- fellow manage
to take a chicken from the roost and kill
it without a noticeable sound coming
from it or from the dozens of others
roosting all around.

One night I even experimented bv
pretending I was a 'possum and stealthi-
ly trying to take a hen by the neck, as
the 'possum himself evidently did, and
carry it off without waking the neigh-
borhood. It was an interesting escap-
ade up to the time I succeeded in seizing
the hen, then the dust, feathers and
squawks convinced me I was all wrong.
T tried it again and again, however, and
found that some hens didn't seem to
mind it : so the trick seemed to depend
upon finding a hen that wasn't skittish.

Perhaps it doesn't mean that the "pos-
sum went around patting each chicken
to see if it belonged to the scary kind;
but I think it may be inferred that the

Copyright 1915 by The Agassiz Associat:

old fellow was foxy or lucky enough to
look around until he found a setting hen
or a slow-witted lazy old biddy that
roosted on the ground or otherwise sep-
arate from the flock.

Sometimes the "possum does raise a
big rumpus among the chickens, a lot
of cackling and squawking and disorder
that spoils their peace of mind for days
afterwards : but two of the particular
raids of this kind that I remember, oc-
curred in the depth of the South Jersey
pine barrens and two in the Florida sand
hill country, both wild places where the
"possums were not used to man's wavs —
still uneducated. But even there the
"possum did not "cut loose'' as a weasel
would and kill everything in sight from
the rooster down.

It seemed oossible that ordinary sub-
urban chickens, never having a chance
to see "possums in daytime, would not
know that they were any more danger-
ous than the neiglibor's gray cat, and to
test their sagacity I trapped in a box
one of several "possunis that T knew
lived in a certain set of drains. I should
exnlain here tliat while I always took
the animal census of the woods in track-
ing time and knew prettv well where
each one lived, I respected the 'possums
far too much to molest them ordinarily.

The one I dropped in the chicken yard
was a big fellow. . He seemed to know
all about the chicken yard. too. for no
sooner had I turned my back than up he

on, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

THE OPOSSUM AND THE BANTAM

got from his "playing 'possum" attitude
and scurried for the gate some distance
away. There were chickens everywhere
and they set up a great cackh'ng. Some
ran and all kept a safe distance between,
but all showed intense interest and
closed in behind to respectfully follow
him.

A more sheepish expression than that
'possum wore as he continually looked
back over his shoulder while being es-
corted out by the array of fowls, I "have
never seen, but he did not hesitate until
I caught up to him ; then he climbed a
pear tree. "Now, old fellow, one more
test," thought I, so running back to the
yard, I caught a tame bantam rooster
and placed him in the tree about six
inches from the 'possum. He cackled
apologetically once and then began to
edge backwards and forwards on the
limb very alert and full of fighting spirit.
The 'possum hardly stirred.

Finally the bantam leaped to a limb

let the 'possum go free after that; he
waited until 1 was out of sight, then
slipped down the tree and scurried all
the way back to his drain, brimful of
vengeance perhaps. Ijut never to show
himself to me again.

1 learned one great truth about 'pos-
sums and that was that as long as the
cover was left oiT the garbage can at
night, not a chicken would they molest,
which fact brought me to the firm con-
clusion that though they love chickens,
they only steal when the\' have to in or-
der to live and that they are not such bad
neio'hbors after all.

A Pure White Opossum.

Dallas City. Illinois.
To the Editor :

I enclose a photograph of a white
opossum which was captured on the
shore of Lake Cooper by Mr. William E.
Hoskins, of this city. The eyes and ears
take this specimen out of the albino type

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A WIliTE OPOSSUM.

although it has every other characteristic

peculiar to that type. It thrives well in

confinement and makes an interesting

close by, flapped his wings almost in the and docile pet.

'possum's sheepish face and crowed, not
once but again and again, each time
cocking his eye on the enemy to see
what efifect it had. After that he flew
to the ground, crowed again and ran oft'
to tell the admiring hens all about it. I

Aery respectfullv,

M. Tandy,

What the banker sis^hs for, the mean-
est clown may have, leisure and a quiet
mind. — Thoreau.

THE CASHMERE ANGORA GOAT

The Cashmere Angora Goat.
The Cashmere Ang-ora goat is a cross
between the East Indian Cashmere goat
and the Angora goat. The buck, Singa-
pore Billy, the only one of his kind in
this country, is owned by ^liss Irene
Chilton of Xew York Citv. having heen

Klein's Staff of Greenwich lioard of
Health. The fat test was 6.8% and the
bacterial count was fifty thousand. The
bacterial count in cow's milk is fifty
thousand in the coldest weather ; in the
simimer it frequently reaches a million.
The goat makes a pretty good showing

MR. TODD'S FAMOUS GOAT.

presented to her by Dr. \\'illiam T.
Hornaday of the Bronx Zoological Gar-
dens.

Miss Chilton bred Singapore Billy to
some pure bred Angora does and the off-
spring is now owned by Mr. Walter
Todd of Greenwich, Connecticut. They
are Billy Singapore bred from the An-
gora doe. Molly C, and Daisy S.. bred
from the Angora doe, Susie B.

]\Ir. Todd has also a grade Toggen-
burg, a Swiss milch goat. Billy Singa-
pore and Daisy S. are the oldest ma-
tured Cashmere Angora goats in the
United States at this time ; they will be
two years old in February of this year.

The milk of Daisy S. and of the grade
Toggenburg was tested for the fat and
the bacterial count on August 29th. 1914.
bv Dr. Bennett. Bacteriologist of Dr.

with a bacterial count of fifty thousand
in August.

The fat test of 6.8% is almost 2%
higher than that of the Jersey cow. It
was received two hours after milking,
and was tested twenty-four hours after
it had been received. Goats have been
known to give milk for a period of two
years without renewed gestation. The
period of gestation is five months.

Goat's milk is easily digested because
the fatty globules are so infinitesimally
small. It is nearest to mother's milk. In
time, when people become better ac-
quainted with the goat, the milk will be
used for infant feeding. Goats are im-
mune from tuberculosis.

The goat is a useful animal but is de-
spised by most persons. It is looked upon
as a scavenger.

THE GUIDK TO NATURE

TIIEY ARE GOOD .MILKERS.

Some people have an idea that goats
can exist on next to nothing-. This is
true to a certain extent, hut one has to
g-ive them the nearest to nothing' on
which they will thrive.

The best and cheapest way to keep
a herd is to turn them out on some cheap
brush land. They will clean up the
brush in a wood lot as well as it can be
done by hand and at practically no cost.

The State of New York stocked the
Adirondacks with some eight thousand
goats to keep the brush down. As a pre-
ventative of fire this is a good invest-
ment.

Two invalid sisters, the Misses Wood,
went to California for their health. The}'
settled on a small farm near Los An-
geles. They traded three Pekin ducks
for a young goat. They raised the goat,
found it profitable and raised more. At
present they are milking twelve does,
and obtain on an average thirty-six
quarts of milk a da\'. The milk finds
regular customers at twenty-five cents a
quart. They figure that a goat costs
them a dollar and fifty cents a month.

The Angora and other long haired
goats do not give as much milk as the
milch breeds, but contribute their fleece
as profit. Mohair is the product of the
Angora goat. The fibre is coarse, long,
lustrous and with little crimp. It is used
for the manufacture of braids, felts,
linings and plushes. It is also being now
used as a substitute for human hair in
switches and wigs. Alpaca, Vicuna and
Llama, natives of South America, are

destructive types of goats which produce
fibres used to some extent in commerce.
Tlie annual yield is uncertain, as the ani-
mals are not domesticated. The hair
varies in color froni white and reddish-
brown to black.

When the goat's good qualities are
better appreciated, more will be raised.
It is a profitable animal.

From an Amateur Goat Raiser.

The much ridiculed goat had been the
subject of much thought and discussion
until it was decided to give them a trial.
The idea was toward production of milk
for household use in quantities sufficient
and in quarters which ])rohibited the
keeping of a cow.

A few goats were purchased at a verv
nominal figure, which is point number
one in favor of the goat as the initial price

THE KIDS ARE A TOY.

TWO I'REE STUDIES

in comparison to a cow in milk produc-
tion is greatl}' in favor of the goat. The
goat is clean and eats nothing but clean
food, it is true they eat the cheapest of
things and thrive on them, such as dried
leaves — a great delicacy — corn stalks, po-
tato peelings and the like, and it is true
they are eccentric in the matter of eating.
In milking one day. a lighted cigarette
was laid on the ground for the moment,
the goat spied it and ate fire, ashes, to-
bacco and paper, seemingly enjoying it,
and without tliscomfort.

It is of course necessary to keep them
tethered or placed in a yard for the pur-
pose as they will damage foliage and
nibble at other things not for their use.

The upkeep is scarcely anything, point
number two ; as stated, they will thrive
on almost anything and be productive :
they are hardy, only needing a shed in
the coldest winter nights. A goat will
give as high as four quarts of milk a
day, of a very fine cjuality, almost free
from bacteria, and is not subject to tuber-
culosis. Goats are cunning pets and if
treated kindly are absolutely gentle, not
showing in the least the tendency for
which they are so renowned.

The adults, however, are well able to
take care of themselves against dogs,
even thougdi tethered. The male must
be segregated from the young at birth
as he is apt to injure and frequentl}' kill
them.

The good points in relation to goats
are very numerous and the bad not worth
mentioning.

To'^e'~;h Grinnel. in Science for Feb-
ruary 12, puts up a strong plea for the
old-fashioned collector who named his
birds "With a gun." Eye, camera, and
field glass, he admits, are the proper
weapons for nine hundred and ninety-
nine observers in each thousand. But
unless there is a thousandth man to
form a permanent collection, and to
study it diligently, there will be no
accurate knowledge to guide the dil-
ettante. Unfortunately, most of our
game laws favor the sportsman who
kills and eats, not the man of science
who kills and studies.

Was tlie city girl in the country
whollv mistaken when she interpreted
"T?. E. D." as meaning "Room for De-
velopment?"— The Youth's Comi)anion.

Two Tree Studies.

Kcarneys\ille, West Virginia.
To the I'^ditor :

I am sending you two snap shots
from Berkeley County, \\'est Virginia.
One is of an oak and a walinit tree that

TREE STUDIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA.

seem to be one tree. The larger is the
walnut. The other picture shows a
large oak completely covered by a
grapevine that Avinds around it.
Sincerely,
Samuel G. W^illiamson.

Morton L. Clark, of the Amherst,
Massachusetts, Experiment Station,
riescri'es in Scieiire for January 22, an
ingenious device - of his invention for
counting small seeds. A short pipe,
about a quarter inch in diameter is
filed flat on one side, and along this flat
surface are drilled ten holes. Suction
on the pipe by a small air pump, causes
ten seeds to cling to the ten holes.
The size of the holes and the power
of the draft have to be adjusted to the
particular seeds; but the method is
convenient for anv smooth object.

Copyright Notice Was Omitted.

The animal ]Mctures l)y Mr. Harry W.
Frees ap])earing in our May issue were
renroduced from photographs all copy-
righted U)14 by Harry \\'. Frees. .Ml
.'■iijhts reserved.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

SEA BASS TAKKN WTTH ORDINARY ROD AN'D REEL.
This is not a fake photograph but a real bass much larger than the woman that caught it with a light rod

and reel.
Photograph bv Professor Charles Frederick Holder. Cut by courtesy of the "Outer's Book."

MONSTER BLACK BASS

A Monster Black Bass.

\\"e here present an impressive illus-
tration of a monster 1 kicK bass that was
taken with ordinary roi and reel. For
the illustration we are indebted to an
interesting" article by Professor Fred-
erick Flolder in the "'Outer's Book." The
author tells its of the joy of seeing- one
of these ponderous fellows and how it
eyed the bait.

"The l)Iack sea bass, or Stcrcolepis
gigas, as the scientific men call him, is
a ponderous fellow, yet 1 jncture him as
a most graceful creature. Only the day
before Pinchot and I had been drifting
over a great rock which rose from the
slope of the sea mountain in deep water.
I was lying fiat on the deck, gazing down
into the depths, wondering at the vari-
ants of blue, the splendid tone that ap-
peared to pervade everything, when sud-
denly I became aware that 1 was looking
directly at something moving. It w-as
tinted blue, the same hue as the sea, and
the algae-covered rock ; then I saw that
I was looking at a big black sea bass in
its native lair, not ten feet below me and
as distinct as though it had been laid oitt
on the beach.

'T called the attention of my com-
panion to it, and for several minutes we
watched the 'king of the bass.' My bait
was in a cleft of the rock and doubtless
the fish had scented it like a hound. Its
movements suggested caution, suspicion
and cunning to a more remarkable de-
gree than I should have believed.

"Such a monster of a, fish, at least five
or six feet in length and proportionately
robust, might have been supposed to
have an appetite to correspond and to
have rushed at the lure, a shining sar-
dine ; yet it did exactly the reverse. It
would come up out of the blue waters,
swim along with the greatest dignity,
passing over the bait, then return, eyeing
it coyly, with all the cleverness a trout
is supposed to possess, all in all, present-
ing an attractive and fascinating spec-
tacle."

Professor Holder says that some of
the largest bass are captured with rod
and reel. "Even ladies have taken some
of the largest bass ever|hooked, as ]Mrs.
Everett of Eos Angeles, who landed
w'ith rod and reel a colossus which
weighed four hundred and sixteen
pounds. I once had the pleasure of see-
ing her play one nearly as large."

Think of playing with ordinary rod
and reel a fish weighing almost a quarter
of a ton.

Fear of Our Woods.

V.y KATIIERYXE SIKKIXG, SECRETARY

EOUISVILLE girls' HIGH SCHOOL

CHAPTER, LOUISVILLE, KY.

Tliere are few dangers in the Ken-
tucky woodlands, and these few may be
easil}' overcome. It is impossible for us
to enjoy the woods until we have driven
these fears "into the dark of the moon."

We, the pitrsuers, often become pur-
sued and driven back to the well-worn
footpath. Every time a bird cries in
alarm or a mouse squeaks in pain, or a
rabbit leaps in fear from beneath our
feet, we too, jump and run if our fears
are not allayed. From those who fear
the woods, nature withholds her mys-
teries.

Let us go into the woodland wdth one
who knows its dangers. We go boldly
ahead until the woods become denser ;
here the tree trunks are enveloped in a
mass of hard stems from which hangs a
three-leaved foliage ; in the axil of those
leaves are dull whitish berries. The
leader calls out in alarm as some one
starts toward the vine. What is the
trouble? Only poison ivy, harmless if
you keep away from it.

At another time we walk near a
swampy tract where one plant in par-
ticular predominates. So beautiful is it
that we are tempted to fill our arms with
its brilliantly colored leaves. Our de-
sire is a rash one, for this, with its dull
gray bark, red leaf-stalks, feather-veined
leaves, rather far apart with the bright
red berries, is the poison dogwood, the
most dangerous plant .of our coimtry.

If we cared to know the plants the
wood fear could be blotted out in a short
time. \\'e might go to a botany or a
plant guidebook and read of the struc-
ture of the poisonous plants, but such
plants are not so well remembered -as
when observed in the woods. There are
several magazines in wdiich we can find
such things discussed in so original a
way that we soon learn to know them.
As a suggestion, ask for a copy of The
Guide to Nature. - What is this? A
magazine, best described by this quota-
tion : "Slie leads in beauty and interest
from homes to nature's realms."

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Plants Growing From Leaves.

Leaves seem about the last thing
from which one would ever think that
plants might grow. One would as soon
think that a plant might spring from the
bark. Leaves are the temporary ser-
vants of the plant, attending it during
its period of growth, but when they
have outlived their usefulness, they
wither and fall. It therefore seems es-
pecially astonishing that in the variet\'
of Nature's methods she has in some
plants acquired the hal^t of producing
subsequent generations from the leaves.

THE BRYOPIlVlJ.LiM DROPS ITS LEAVES TO
GROW NEW PLANTS.

THE LEAN'ES GROWING NEW PLANTS IN A
PAN OF EARTir.

The live-for-ever plant, Byyof>/ixlliiiii
calycinuiii , has this habit. The leaves
fall when they are still green and in
good condition. When they touch the
ground or perhaps even before they fall,
the growth of tiny roots begins along
the edge. If these rootlets reach moist
earth, an upward shoot soon appears and
develops into a large and beautiful plant,
sometimes called the chandelier plant on
account of its numerous branches.

Another remarkable characteristic
mentioned by liailey, the well-known
botanist, in his "Cyclopedia of Horticul-
ture." is that the leaves of the Bryophyl-
litin are sour in the morning, tasteless
at noon and bitter toward evening. He
attributes this to the absorption of oxy-
gen at night and its disengagement in
daylight.

We suggest that our readers secure
leaves or specimens of this plant for ex-
periment.

We will mail, well packed and post-
paid, a leaf from which several plants
may be grown, for twenty-five (25c)
cents. Address The Agassiz Associa-
tion. Arc Am A: Sound Beach, Conn.

A leaf will be sent to any present sub-
scriber who will send a dollar for a new
subscription for one year.

THE PLANT \\"()RLD UNDER CARE

SEXERAL P.RYOPIIYLLUM PLANTS MAY BE GROWN FROM OXE LEAF.

An Interesting Twining Root.

IIY DR. C.KokCK T. SThVK-XS, XK\V YORK Cri'Y

Plants such as bear flowers and
fruit, grasses, the common field plants,
trees and others, are characterized by
certain general forms of their three
principle parts. These three parts are
the stem, the leaves and the root.
There is a diversity of form for each
of these structures depending largely
upon the species of plant. To the fea-
tures of only two of these parts is at-
tention called here.

First, if Ave examine the stems of
many plants, we soon find that we may,
in a pretty general way, divide them
into three groups. These groups are
the erect stems, such as those of trees,
grasses and many familiar plants ; then
the weak stems, one group of which
lies prone upon the surface of the
ground, as for example, do the stems
of the creeping- partridge berry (Mitch-
cUa rrpciis), or those of the twin flower
(Liiniaea borealis) ; or in a sub-
group of these prostrate stems a con-
siderable part may be covered by the
soil as in the case of the gold thread
(Copfis tri folia).

A third group of stems includes
those which, although too w-eak to sup-
port themselves, prefer to rise above
the soil by the aid of more robust
stems or other objects. Familiar ex-
amples are the stems or vines of the
climbing bean, the hop, the pea and the
morning glory.

Here again we find a grouping de-
pending on the method of support. For a twixing parsxip.

10

THE GUIDE TO iNATURE

example, the climbing" bean and the hop
have slender stems which wind about
stronger plants, while the pea, the
grape and other vines support them-
selves by tendrils.

The stems which wind about the
supporting object are, in nearly all
cases, characterized by the fact that all
stems of a given species wind in a
single direction. Thus, the morning
glory winds always from the left to the
right as it ascends, while the stem of
the hop as it ascends winds to the left.
Such twining stems are said to be
voluble.

If the stem of the morning glory, the
bean or the hop finds no other support
about which to wind, it seeks a neigh-
boring stem and the two wind about
each other and thus, in some measure,
form mutual support.

There are also some pretty clear
groupings in the form and arrangement
of roots. Thus we have the pivotal
root of the carrot, the tap root, and the
fascicular roots of grass.

X'oluble roots, twining roots, are so
rare that I have thought it worth while
to show a photograph of a pair in
which the twining is as regular and as
perfect as it would be found between
two stems of any twining plant.

The photograph of the specimen here
shown is that of a parsnip. Dining re-
cently with a lady in New Haven, I
observed the specimen arranged as an
object of interest in the fruit dish. The
lady kindly gave it to me and I am in
turn presenting its picture to the read-
ers of The Guide to Nature.

It will he seen that the tap root of
the parsnip divides near its origin into
two roots and that these two branches
at once assume the nature of twiners
and continue this characteristic to the
end. The thickness of the root before
division is two and one-eighth inches
and the length of the specimen is nine
and one fourth inches. There are ten
full turns of each of the members.

Very rarely do roots assume the
voluble character and only in rarest in-
stances do we find so perfect a twining
as is here shown.

It might be easy to understand why
weak stems should acquire the twining
character but it would be difficult to
guess why these deeply penetrating
roots should assume the habit of
twiners unless in imitation of above
ground voluble stems.

[By a curious coincidence, just be-
fore your letter was received, there
came from the kitchen of my home a
similarly entwined carrot. A photo-
graph of this was taken and is shown
herewith.— E. F. B.]

The knowledge of an unlearned man
is living and luxuriant like a forest, but
covered with mosses and lichens, and for
the most part inaccessible and going to
waste; the knowledge of the man of sci-
ence is like timber collected in yards for
public works, which still supports a green
sDrout here and there, but even this is
liable to drv rot. — Thoreau.

"HE ENTWINED CARROT.

Several different scholars have re-
cently expressed the opinion that the
Tree of Life of the Garden of Eden,
mentioned in the early parts of Gene-
sis, is the date palm.

THE PLANT WORLD UXDI'-R CARE

II

An Adventurous Ivy Vine.

Seattle. Washint^'ton.
To the E litor :

It is a welLknown fact that ivy is Iiard
to check in growth, and many ])eople can
testif}- tliat it will i^row u]) inside of a
window casing and ont at the top, but
it remained for a house in Morton,

in the boards of the entrance building and
sent a branch of luxurious grow'th into the
interior in Arcadian picturesc^ueness.— Ed.

You are producing a marvelous maga-
zine and each number is a joy to any
lover of nature. — Ximena AlcGlashan,
Truckee, California.

LR'ING I^'Y THAT MADE ITS W'AY THROUGH WALLS AND WALL PAPER.

Washington, to prove that it can pierce
wall paper. In this house the tendency
to explore led the ivy that cover.s the out-
side of the house through the walls into
the living room and into the kitchen. At
three diiTerent places it has broken
through the wall paper and is still grow-
ing. The illustration shows wdiere it has
forced itself into the living room near
the clock shelf and already grown long-
enough to festoon the picture on the ad-
joining wall.

Resoectfull\-.

Helen L. Bushnell.

In replv to an inquiry in a later letter
Miss Bushnell wrote :

'T took the picture myself, and the
old lady who lives in the house said that
the vine broke through the paper of it-
self. She cut it off several times and
kept it cut off in the kitchen, but finally
decided it would make a good decoration
in the living room, so let it grow and
trained it around the picture."

A rambler rose on the Home Of^ce of
The Agassiz Association is true to its
name. In its randdes it found a crack-

Keeping Lettuce Fresh.

In picking lettuce from the garden,
do not cut oft' the root or even pull
it violently from the ground. Instead,
lift the plant carefully with a trowel
as if for transplanting ; then shake the
root free of earth without injuring the
small fibers.

^^'ash. Set in tumbler of water,
leaves resting on the end ; root im-
mersed. In a cool place, the plant will
keep fresh for several days, wdthout
losing flavor as wdien the leaves are
wet. Plants treated in this way, even
though plucked while wilted by the
sun's heat, become crisp and edible in
a couple of hours.

The device is especially useful in
the absence of ice.

Lipman and Fowler report the first
successful attempt to isolate in pure
culture and directly from the soil the
nitrifying bacteria which forms the
nodules on the roots of peas, beans,
and other legumes.

12

THE GUIDK TO NATURE

A Bird Home Among the Cat-tails.

BY EDWIN h. JACK, PORTLAND, ME.
Photographs from life by the Author.
Almost everyone interested in orni-
thology knows the red-winged black-
bird, but owing to the general location
chosen by the bird for its nesting site,
few people have become intimately
acquainted with its "Home Life." For

three successive years a number of
red-winged blackbirds had nested in a
small swamp a short distance from my
home. Their domestic life among the
cat-tails appeared so interesting and
picturescjue to me that this season I
introduced my camera into their sur-
roundings and succeeded in ol)taining
the studies here sfiven :

THE HAUNT OF THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD.

ORNITHOLOGY

The birds arrived at the swamp on
the seventeenth of last May, and im-
mediately began the construction ot
their homes.

On the twenty-ninth, the nest which
I had chosen for my photographs was
completed, and June fifth it contained
four beautiful, light green eggs, thick-
ly marked with irregular scrolls of
chocolate around the larger end.

The following day I started for the
swamp with a five by seven camera,
folates, tripod, long hose, and rubber
waders. The location proved most dif-
ficult for camera work, but in a short
time I had my outfit arranged and se-
cured the study of the nest and eggs
here given.

My next attempt was for a study of
the female brooding, so I attached the
long tubing to the shutter, went off
fifty feet and waited ; the bird was ex-
tremely shy of the camera, regardless
of the fact that I had concealed it with
reeds. She knew it was no natural
part of the landscape, and she simply
would not go to the nest. In fear that
the eggs would chill, I removed the
camera and came to the conclusion
that a picture of her was possible only,
when the eg-gs were farther advanced
in incubation, or when the young had
hatched.

In twelve days, I paid the birds a
second visit and, as I approached the
swamp ; on a swaying cat-tail was
perched the female, with what ap-
peared to be an insect in her bill, and
I knew that in all probability the
young birds had hatched. Leaving
the camera on the bank, I carefully
worked my way toward the nest. As
I neared it, the female flew from one
cat-tail to another, uttering her harsh
"click—click," while the male, perched
in the top of a nearby tree, occasion-
ally sent forth his clear "con-quer-ee
— con-quer-ee— . On reaching the
nest, my expectations were realized,
for it contained three young birds, and
one unhatched egg. AVith all possible
haste I arranged the camera, focussed
sharply on the nest, attached the long
tubing, throwing the bulb back to the
edge of the bank, and concealing my-
self as much as possiple, I waited.

It was one-half hour before the fe-
male showed the slightest signs of
feeding the young. At last, she flew
to an adjoining field, and in the

"INSTANTLY UP WENT THREE GAPING
MOUTHS AND LONG SCRAGGY NECKS."

course of a few minutes, returned,
with a grasshopper in her bill. Flying
from one reed to another, and each
time going a little nearer, she at last
flew to a cattail stock to which the
nest w^as attached. Here, she medi-
tated, scanned the surroundings, and
seemingly finding things to her satis-
faction, flew to the rear of the nest;
instantly up went three gaping mouths
and long scraggy necks. I squeezed
the bulb, and the click of the shutter
sent her flying to the nearest fence
post. This all happened in an instant,
but in that instant I secured the like-
ness of the bird here given.

On the following day I made a sec-
ond attempt at . picturing the bird in
some desirable attitude in her domes-

T4

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

^^^^^

■■

^^BK.f»^i^^^-^ ,,_^^^ ^^I^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

HKi^^J^^^^^H

H

Hp^l

'^^ISIIJH

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A YOUNG BLACKBIRD TWO DAYS BEFORE
LEAVING NEST.

tic duties. Having focussed the cam-
era on the nest, I repeated the per-
formance of the previous day ; but I
had only to wait a comparatively short
time, for the bird immediately flew to
the nest, this time lighting in full view.
I snapped and secured a second like-
ness, which to me is one of my best
pictures of the bird As the nest was
very deep, and only the heads of the
young birds would show in a picture,
I concluded to wait until they were
fully feathered and ready to leave the
nest, before photographing them. This
meant a period of about twelve days,
and during that time I often waited by
the hour with my camera focussed on
the nest, hoping to secure a study of
the male bird.

What a fitting picture he made in
the landscape, perched either on the
old wooden fence, which bordered one
side of the swamp, or swaying back
and forth on a cat-tail ! But not once
during the time I had worked about
the ne>^t did he approach within fifty
feet of it. He did not appear disturbed
or frightened in the least, but evident-
ly he took small part in the rearing of
his family.

When it was almost time for the
young to leave their nest, there came a
rainstorm of three days' duration. On
the fourth day it cleared, and in the

afternoon I went to the swamp, only
to find the nest empty ; and although I
searched in vain, not one young black-
bird from that nest could be found.

\\'ithin forty feet of the nest I had
been working on, I located another,
which contained one young bird. Its
feathers were not fully developed, but
not caring to take another chance with
the weather, I carefully placed him on
the top rail of the old fence and pho-
tographed him. It is to be regretted
that I did not have two more to place
lieside him, but this is only a small
circumstance in the many disappoint-
ments encountered by the "bird pho-
tographer."

The red-winged blackbird occasion-
;illy places its nest in alder and wild
rose bushes, bordering a swamp or
>tream; but the majority are placed
among cat-tails, in swamps.

Just why the bird most frequently
selects this location I do not know,
but doubtless instinct teaches them,
that there in the swamp, the nest care-
fully hidden among the rushes, with
often three or four feet of water be-
neath, they are safe from four-footed
as well as two-footed enemies.

Birds of New York.

r>v special arrangement, the Massa-
chusetts Audubon Society, 234 Berkeley
Street, Boston, is able to furnish the
complete set of the plates of the Birds of
Xew York for 57 cents postpaid to any
address in the first or second zone. These
are complete, just as found in- this in-
v;duable book. They figure in color every
bird — land or water- -that flies over the
State, done on a heavy coated paper 9 x
12 in size. There are io5 of these plates
and they are enclosed in a neat and ser-
viceable portfolio, the whole in a card-
board box.

The total cost is 57 cents, and the op-
portunity for bird-lovers is unique.

Tropical Humming Birds.

A London ornithologist has been
keeping tropical humming birds alive
in special steam-heated cages in which
grow orchids to provide nectar for
their food. When the supply of nectar
fails, the birds are fed on a mixture of
honey, sponge cake, crumbs, and in-
fant's food.

ORNITHOLOGY

15

The Ancients and Birds.

. ..,umg- Llie latest of the ptiblica-
tions of Leland Stanford Junior Uni-
\ersity is Ernest Whitney Martin's
"The Birds of the Latin Poets.'' The
author has brought together virtually
every mention in Latin poetry of
every several bird. These amount to
some seventy species in all ; and each
of these so far as possible, is identified,
and in addition, compared with our
own American forms.

The striking feature of this work,
besides the remarkable learning and
industry of its author, is the small
knowledge of ancients concerning bird
life. They concerned themselves lit-
tle Avith their neighbors of the air, and
took little delight in them. In this,
they seem to have been of like mind
with their descendants of to-day, who
prefer to eat a robin or a lark to hear-
ing it sing.

Doubtless as the author points out,
the fact that the Romans belicA ed that
the birds are metamorphosed human
children had something to do with
their feeling toward them. Neverthe-
less, they did not always think sad-
ly of the feathered tribes — as witness
Horace's famous lines about the duck
and his habitat in the "aqua, qua,
qua, qua, qua !"

Trinity Churchyard a Bird Refuge.

The vestry of Trinity Church, in
New York City, has recently adopted
measures for the protection of the
birds that frequent the churchyard dur-
ing migration. This action was taken
at the instance of Miss Elizabeth S.
Day, of Brooklyn, who reported that
she had noted thirty species of birds
in the churchyard, despite its location
at the junction of Broadway and W'alh
Street, in the heart of the financial
section of the city. — Henry Oldys.

A tern, ringed in the Fame Islands,
almost at the north of England, in July
was captured the following February
on the African Gold Coast almost
under the equator.

The Hatching Egg.

BY W. I. EEECROFT, ADAMS, MASS.

A wonderful provision of nature im-
pels the lower animals to do the right
things at the right time, things which
they could not have been taught nor have
learned by previous experience ; in the
case of very young animals omission
would prove fatal. The chick breaks its
way out of the shell unaided. But it
does not work aimlessly. Starting at a
point where it first breaks the shell, it
continues all around in the same plane by
turning itself bodily as it proceeds, until
by vigorous kicks and struggles it forces
the lid off.

Another wonderful thing in this con-
nection is that nature has provided a
temporary means for the breaking of the
shell. The chick's bill is soft, so nature
has placed in the tip of the upper man-
dible a tiny hard scale that drops ofT a
few days after the chick emerges as it is
then of no f:'r Iv/r •.'.-c.

--__ _

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HOW THE CHICK BREAKS THE EGGSHELI.

i6

THE GUIDE TO NATURb:

The Black-crowned Night Herons.

BY G. B. AFFLECK, A. R., M. P. E., SPRING-
FIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

In tlie Connecticut river about ten
miles below Springfield. Mass., and a
mile or so above Windsor Locks. Conn.,
is an island somewhat more than a mile

"OTLIERS REMAINED PERCHED NEAR THEIR

NESTS."

in length and about half a mile across at
its widest part. Locally it is known as
Terry's Island, but the Geological Sur-
vey maps indicate King's Island. On its
southerh- part the black-crowned night
herons have nested for at least several
years. The field trip of the S])ringfield
Allen Bird Club to this heronry is thus
described by one of the party:

"On approaching the island by boat we
noted the slow, steady flight of the adult
birds and their occasional, contented

'Ouack!'.. 'Quack!' as they passed up
or dowai the river on their way to and
from the marshes. Landing at a point
remote from the rookery we walked
without special precaution towards the
nests and soon noted the whirling, cir-
cling flight of the overhead birds accom-
panied by their frequent, vigorous and
high-pitched alarm notes. We were not
only discovered but also announced as
dangerous. Our nearer approach was
greeted by clamor from the several hun-
dred adult birds which after quietly
leaving their nests circled excitedly
overhead. Others remained perched
near their nests and 'froze' among the
dry bare branches of the dead hemlocks
among which for the most part the nests
were placed — they can scarcely be de-
scribed as built as they consisted en-
tirely of sticks loosely thrown together
in a pile with slight depressions on the
upper side from which at intervals the
fledgling- young scrambled in twos or
threes or fours.

"These platforms of sticks were usu-
ally thirty or more feet from the ground
and in some cases as manv as four or

AND 'FROZE' AMONG THE DRV BARE
r.RAXCHES OF THE DEAD HEMLOCKS."

ORNITHOLOGY

five were found on a single tree. Koth
old and young birds would stand silent
and motionless with their bills pointed
upwards thereby assuming a position in

YOUNG BLACK-CROWXKI) NIGHT HP:R0NS.

which they most closely resembled the
dead branches among which they posed.
"A few of the young birds frightened
by our approach attempted to stride
away from the lower branches upon
which they had been resting, but were
easily captured by the more acrobatic
members of the i:)arty. Upon close ex-
amination the jjjin-feaJthered^ fledglings
presented a plumage of brown spotted
or streaked with light so that while the
back was decidedly brownish the under
parts were gray, their legs and feet were
pale green, wdiile the glaring yellow eyes
and massive mouths combined various-
ly to give expressions sulky, threatening
or stupid. Being placed upon the
ground they made off as fast as they
could but after a few attempts they ap-
peared to lose some of their fear, and
after food had been thrown into one
cavernous, hissing mouth there was
little difficulty in persuading them to
swallow whatever was dropped into
their gullets — sandwich, cake, or orange
peel were equally acceptable. Some of
these were appropriately tagged wdth the
aluminum bands supplied by the Ameri-
can Bird Banding Association, and after
being thus duly appreciated consented to
pose for their photographs. Unshapely
and to some forbidding they are intense-
ly interesting to those who wisli to make
comijarisons and note stages of develo])-

'.nent. 1 hese were returned to the lower
branches and though as yet unable to
fly were, we trust, able to regain their
nests higher up none the worse for their
iniique experiences.

'The trunks, branches and ground be-
neath the nests were bespattered with
excrementa, giving a whitewashed ap-
pearance, and scattered about were
feathers, fragments of dull light blue
egg shells, portions of fish and occasion-
al dead yoimg birds wdiich evidently had
fallen from the nests or branches above.

"Desiring to know the size of the col-
ony a count was made which placed the
number of nests at approximately two
hundred and fifty, while the estimate of
more than a thousand birds, adult and
\oimg, seems to be conservative."

Vivid Description of the Grackle.

Will Webb Tuttle, of Aluncie, Indiana,
is doing good work in his community by
contributing to the local paper stories and
articles on nature topics. In a recent es-
say he speaks of the large flocks of
grackles. The following paragraphs are
an example of his vivid and poetical de-
scription of the birds" songs :

"They rap on the door with their four
knuckles, pound the piano and hammer
their snare drums as if finger movement
and muscular expression are their main
achievement. Saw filing, boiler making
and dropping glass into barrels seem fit-
ting figures to describe their enthusiasm
as they rushed in upon us.

"The crooning of the owl and the
plaintive notes of the whippoorwill pos-
sess the very soul of sunset ; the song of
the cardinal harmonizes with the glory of
the winding river ; the catbird flits to the
bush and the bobolink seems like a big
overgrown cricket poised in the air, the
reeds in its harp filled with the splashing
of rain and the skirt-rustling of ripe
grain. His wing movements resemble
the heat waves that rise from the parch-
ing meadow and the daisies mock his
garments that are dyed by the colors of
the sun."

A recent inil)lication of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington is the life his-
tory of eight soecies of Xorth American
frogs and toads. The author is Mr. A.
H. Wright of Ithaca. New York. The
account is lull and the photographs are
man\' and excellent.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

M

,^M1

^ ®t|^ Nature 5^I|0tngrapI|0r0 f

Petrified Wood.

Professor Edgar T. Wherry sends to
us a photograph of logs that were plough-
ed up in the fields of Joseph Rich, near
Woodbourne, Bucks County, Pennsyl-
vania. He has grouped these around the
base of a modern conifer that as he sug-
gests may perhaps be a descendant of the
petrified trees. Petrified wood, he says,
has been found in Connecticut. Profes-
sor Hitchcock relates an incident in which
a farmer found a silicified stump that
looked so natiu'al that he tried to split it.

"The tree came from the hill and we
drew it down with a pair of oxen. It is
nearly three feet in height and two
across. The wood was plentiful on the
hill, but this is much the largest speci-
men. Another, in front of one of the
camps, came from a neighbor's (Mr.
Bradley's) land. It may be a little longer,
but is only half of a tree.

"When Professor Hobbs was here, he
said it was the finest specimen that he
had seen in these parts. He mentioned
it in his book descriptive of his work

PROFESSOR WHERRY'S PHOTOGRAPH OF

The axe broke, whereupon he pounded
to pieces the magnificent specimen.

At about the time when this letter was
received Miss Annie L . Scofield, of
Darien, Conn., visiting at ArcAdiA, told
us of petrified trees found in Connecticut
and referred to Miss Charlotte F. Cur-
tiss of South Britain, Conn. Miss Cur-
tiss has kindly contributed two speci-
mens to Arc.\diA. She reports that a
number of specimens have been found on
the hill back of her home. To Miss Sco-
field, Miss Curtiss writes dS tollows :

PETRIFIED LOGS IN PENNSYLVANIA.

along geological lines. If I remember
correctly he intimates that so much silici-
fied wood is rarely found in Connecticut
as has been found on Horse Fence Hill.
\\'e have given away a large number of
small specimens.''

Upon writing to Professor William H.
Hobbs, Director of Geological Eabora-
tor_\-, L'niversity of Michigan, Ann Ar-
bor, [Michigan, we received the follow-
ing:

"You will find a brief description ot
this and other specimens of similar char-

THE NATURE PHOTOGRAPHERS

19

Geological Survey, Part 3, pp. 55-56, and
especially in the appendix to this report
by Professor F. H. Knowlton on pages
161-162."

Color of Timber Relation to Decay.

Practical users of timber have long
known that there is a marked differ-
ence in the resistance ot ditterent
sticks to decay, one piece rotting badly
while another, under apparently lik^
conditions remains sound. It now ap-
pears that this difference is due to
varying amounts of certain antiseptics
(_ir preservatives formed in the living
tree. In general, the darker the heart-
wood is, the more of these preserva-
tives are present and the better the tim-
ber will last. This applies, however,
only to different samples of the same
sort of lumber. Different sorts of
wood are naturally light or dark, so
that the most antiseptic of white cedar
will last three or four times as long
as the much darker red. But differ-
ent whites, or different reds, resist de-
cay much in proportion to their depth
of color.

MISS CURTISS'S PHOTOGRAPH OF PETRIFIED
WOOD NEAR HER HOME IN CONNECTICUT.

acter in my Government Report en-
titled, 'Tlie Xewark System of the Pom-
peraug \'alley, Connecticut." published in
21 St Annual Reixjrt of The I'nited States

A Dog Star But Not Astronomical.

From ]\Iiss S. G. Rice, Sandy Lake,
Pennsylvania, we have received a beauti-
ful photograph with a "happy thought"
for a name. Dog Star as a photograph will
not only attract lovers of dogs but will sug-
gest a simple yet novel manner of posing.

THE DOG STAR.

20

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Mirrors in Photography.

Few photographers realize the beau-
tiful effects that may be obtained by the
use of mirrors. Suitable ones that
should preferably be without a frame
may be obtained at small expense from
dealers in plate glass, such as The
Pittsburg Plate Glass Company of New
York City. They may be of any size,
convenient to the photographer and the
space at his disposal.

One mirror may be used for photo-
graphing an object so as to show both
front and back, though owing to dis-
tance the back view will be somewhat
smaller than the front. Interesting
duplicating effects may be made, as in
the photograph of the water lilies and
the white rabbits here shown. It is also
desirable at times to picture some small
curiosity from all points of view. This
may easily be done by setting up the
object in the front of the mirror and
slanting the mirror sidewise, not from
top to bottom, so as to reflect the far-
ther side of the object, this reflection to
be a little to one side of the object.

But notable and comical effects may
be obtained by using two. so as to pro-

duce a kaleidoscopical eft"ect. Take for
example the little bunch of blooming
clematis shown in the accompanying
illustration. A wreath appears in the
photograph but there is only one bunch
of flowers. Astonishing effects may be
had in the duplicating of animals as is
shown in the photograph of the two
toads, a frog and a turtle in the accom-
panying illustration. There are appar-
ently seven turtles, while in reality
there is only one. There is no difficulty
in this kind of photography. Put the
mirrors together edgewise to form a V,
and photograph that V ; you will have
no end of interesting illustrations, ac-
cording to the angl^ of the V. More or
fewer may be obtained, according to
this angle. Three or four kittens, placed
within the V, will be multiplied until
there are seven tinjes as many. The
writer has taken several such photo-
graphs of kittens but has never suc-
ceeded in getting all sharp and in per-
fect detail. The subjects were too
lively.

Probably the funniest of all is made
by placing within this V several toads.
Put a little sticky material on the top

A BUNCH OF FLOWERS BECOMES A WREATH.

THE NATURE PHOTOGRAPHERS

21

CURIOUS DUPLICATING EFFECT DV PUTTING MIRRORS TOGETHER EDGEWISE TO

FORM A V.

of each toad's head, and place a fly on
the mucilage. It is better if the fly is
alive and the glue strong enough to
keep it quiet, though sometimes the
experiment may be successful with a
dead fly. The toad will try to catch
the reflected fly. It is funny to see him
slap his tongue against his own reflec-
tion. If the fly's struggles are lively,
the toad will frequently repeat his
tongue lapping, but will assume an ex-

pression of astonishment, evidently
mystified by the failure. The toad's
tongue will make curious little marks
on the mirror but it is almost impos-
sible to photograph these as the move-
ment is so rapid that the operator can-
not spring the shutter quickly enough.
Other pleasing eltects may be readily
obtained, as in the illustration of the
dancing toads.

A wooden base in which the mirror

LILIES PIIOToGkAPIlKI) o.\ A IIKillLV POI.ISIIKD ^L\II()G\XV lAlM.E.

22

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

WHITE J'.EI.CIAN HARES PHOTOGRAPHED ON A MIRROR.

may be set is convenient. Interesting
optical illusions and really valuable
studies along that line may be made by
a proper placing of the mirror. A piece
of plank may be easily slotted so as to
hold each unframed mirror edgewise.
The mirrors should extend beyond the
end of the base of the stand so that they
may be brought into contact.

This seems to be an undeveloped
field with unlimited opportunity for
many unexpected and decorative
effects.

Girls and Young Women, at Tarrytown-
on-Hudson, New York. She is thor-
oughly experienced in the development
and management of girls and is in thor-
ough and loving sympathy with their in-
terests. If you would know more of this
ideal camp, write to Miss Farwell, ad-
dressing her till June ist at The Castle,
Tarrytown-on-Hudson, and after that at
Wells River. Vermont. She will send
you an interesting and attractively illus-
trated book.

An Ideal Camp for Girls.

It is good for girls and young women
to leave their homes in the crowded city
and take to the woods during the sum-
mer, but where they go an:l under what
auspices they are to spend the vacation
are vastly more important. The best
girls camp of whicli the editor has
knowledge is Camj) Farwell, at Wells
River, A'ermont. The location, environ-
ment, equipment, management are ideal.
Aliss Julia H. Farwell, the director, has
been for many years the head teacher
at The Castle, Miss Mason's School for

Sale of Books and Apparatus.

]Mr. H. S. Woodman, 608 Van Buren
Street, Brooklyn, New York, offers for
sale his entire outfit of microscopes,
slides, books, etc.. at a remarkably low
price. Mr. Woodman is one of the
charter members of the club which be-
came the Microscopical Section of the
Brooklyn Institute. For a time he served
verv satisfactorilv as one of the officials.
On account of recent poor health he is
disposing of liis entire apparatus. He
will mail a descriptive circular with
prices to any one who will make appli-
cation. This is not published as an ad-
vertisement but as a favor to a long-
time, faithful worker in microscopy.

THE STARRY HEAVENS FOR JUNE

-'3

By Professor Eric Doolittle of the University of rennsvlvaiiia

THE beautiful planet. Saturn, which
has been shining" so brightly in the
heavens for so long- a time, will this
month leave the evening sky. For many
months this has been the only bright
world to be seen in the evening heavens
so that its withdrawal would have left
our evening skies planet-less were it not
that the bright and ever interesting little
]\Iercurv comes iust at this time into it?

only a short distance beyond the borders
of our evening map, and it will require
Imt a few weeks more before the steady
transformation of the celestial sphere will
bring- this beautiful golden world, with
its fo::r bright moons, into our evenino-
sky.

THE JUNE STARS.

The bright groups, Orion, Taurus,
Gemini and Auriga, have now almost en-

Figure 1. The Heavens at 9 P. M., June 1. (H facing south hold the map upright. If facing east
hold East below. H facing west hold West below. If facing north hold the map inverted.)

best position for observation of the entire
year.

This swiftly moving little world will,
however, pay us but a short visit : after
the middle of June it will again be lost in
the sun's rays, and then no bright planet
will be seen among the evening constella-
tions. But the great planet Jupiter is now

tirely disappeared, and Leo. the last of
the train of winter constellations, is sink-
ing in the west. But the two most bril-
liant summer stars, Arcturus and Spica,
which present so interesting a contrast in
color, are near the meridian in the south ;
the striking Scorpio, the most beautiful
of all the summer groups, has completely

24

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

risen in the east, while \ ega, the Eagle,
and the beautiful Northern Cross have
now completely entered the evening- sky.
As the months go by, the last constella-
tion will swing steadily across the hea-
vens, reaching its highest position in
September and not finally sinking below
the horizon in an upright position until
the very close of the year.

Above Vega, the constellation Her-
cules is now found in excellent position
for study. Above Hercules there is the
beautiful Northern Crown while, still
higher, the great Bootes now fills the
very highest area of the heavens. At the
point A, nearly in a straight line between
the stars B and C, there will readily be
found the wonderful cluster in Hercules,
a compact mass of sixty thousand stars.
This cloud of suns can even be seen as a
faint, nebulous patch of light with the
naked e}'e. In the region between the
stars H. F. and Antares, there are a great
many other interesting clusters (though
these all require a telescope to render
them visible) while at the point K there
is an interesting planetary nebula, which
shines as a greenish, misty, eighth magni-
tude star. The faint stars in the region
E form the group Cerebus, the three-
headed dog which Hercules holds in his
hand.

THE PLANET AlERCrRY.

The oberver should not fail during the
first days of June to find this most inter-
esting little planet, which is always so
nearly lost in the sun's ravs, because its

Figure 2. Appearance of the planet Mercury as
it passes around the sun.

present appearance is a very unusually
favorable one. The planet is now reach-
ing its greatest distance east of the sun,
and it happens that this month it recedes
from the sun an vmusually long distance.
Figure 2 shows the shape of the path of
the planet about the sun and also the tele-
scopic appearance of Mercury when it is
at various parts of its path. We always
view the orbit nearly edgewise, but this
orbit is not really a perfect circle, as in-
dicated in Figure 2, but the distance from
B to S is actually fifteen millions of miles
greater than that from S to D. The

planet passes the point U, and is hence
seen by us at its greatest distance to the
left, or east of the sun, on Alay 31. It
is because when it reaches this position
the planet is at nearly its greatest dis-
tance from the sun in miles that we will
see the two bodies so far apart in the
sky.

The motion of Alercury among the
stars during the month is shown in Figure
3. This figure shows the appearance of
the western sky at 7 P. M. on June i.
On this date the planet will be seen in the
northwest, almost vertically under the
Twins, above and to the left of Saturn
and separated from this planet by a dis-
tance equal to five times the apparent dis-
tance across the full moon. C)n this date
Mercury will not set until two hours after
sunset.

Having found the planet, the observer
should have no difficulty in continuing
to follow it until very nearly the middle
of the month, by which time it will set
oidy one hour after sunset. On June i
he will see that it is exactly half full, as
sliown at B in Figure 2, but during the
ensuing days he will see it narrowing
verv rapidly to a thin, silvery crescent. It
will finally pass the position C. Figure 2,
and enter the morning sky, on June 17.

THE PLANETS IN JUNE.

On June i, \'enus may still easily be
seen in the morning sky, rising one hour
and twenty-four minutes before sunrise.
But this planet is both drawing nearer
the sun and increasing its distance from
the earth, so that it is daily coming into
less favorable position for observation. It
will not finally pass the sun, however, and
enter the evening sky until September 12.

Mars rises two hours before sunrise on
June I, and this interval increases to two
hours and thirty minutes by June 30. It
is approaching the earth, and consequent-
ly growing steadily brighter, its bright-
ness now being almost exactly that of a
first magnitude star. It will not reach its
most favorable position for oliservation
until next February.

Jupiter is almost on the equator and
near the \ ernal Equinox. By the end of
the month it may be seen rising due east
so early as eleven hours, thirty minutes
P. M. '

Saturn enters the morning sky on June
2S. It is too nearly lost in the sun's ravs
to be satisfactorily oljserved during the
present month.

Uranus is in Capricornus, in the morn-
ing sky : Neptune is in Cancer and hence
low in the west.

THE STARRY HEAVENS FOR JUNE

25

THE BEGIXXIXG OF SUMMER.

On June 22, at seven hours, twenty-
seven minutes, sixteen seconds, A. ^l.,
(Eastern Standard Time) the sun will
attain its greatest distance above the celes-
tial equator, and this will consequently be

states and forty-two minutes less in the
Gulf States. On the equator the days
and nights are of exactly equal lengths,
while in southern latitudes, June 22 will,
of course, be the shortest day and mark
for them the beginning of winter.

The new comet is to attain its greatest

WE.ST

Hercuhy

JUNE. I.

Saturn

uw^a f.
riERCURr

yJw^e. 30.

Figure 3. The western heavens at 7 P. M., June 1, showing the position of the planet Mercury.

the longest day of the year. In the lati-
tudes of the Aliddle States, sunrise will
occur at 4:30 A. AL and sunset at 7:30
P. ^L, the day thus being six hours longer
than the night. This difference is six-
teen minutes greater in Xew England

brightness during the present month and
will doubtless be a very conspicuous ob-
ject in the southern skies. Unfortunately,
however, it is too far below the celestial
equator to be ^Jisible to observers in
northern latitudes on the earth.

Give Dr. Bigelow His Telescope.

[An Editorial in "The Greenwich Press,"
May 5, 1915.]

From the reading" of the war in Europe
whose horrors harrow the feelings of
most Americans, and whose nearness to
us seems to grow daily, from the struggle
against unemployment and poverty at
home, and from the local political
wranglings following the attempt to
break up machine government, the aver-
age Greenwichite will be glad to turn his
mind to Arcadia.

Arcadia, the little tract of land where-
on is situated the home of the Agassiz
Association. There one may find an-
other viewpoint, and there one, with the
friendly aid of Dr. E. F. Bigelow, its
founder, may delve into the wonders of
nature and enjoy her many beauties.
And in this sanctum of nature one may
forget for the nonce that wars rage, that
classes struggle and that human govern-
ment still far misses perfection. One
may see nature and g-limpse in the study
of the tiniest flower or animal, processes
whose greatness makes all human strife
seem small and puny and futile.

By continuous labor and devotion to
an ideal. Dr. Bigelow has built up this
little refuge. He has added department

after department in the hope of opening
the vistas of nature to both young and
old. in the hope of making' them see,
know and enjoy the world they live in.

And now he seeks to open another de-
partment— that of astronomy — the most
wonderful, the grandest, the most stu-
pendous of all sciences. He is himself
an expert astronomer, and one who loves
the science, loves it enough so that he
can enjoy communicating his knowledge
to others. And this he is willing to do
if enough money can be raised to provide
Arcadia with the proper instruments.

Certainly it would be a boon to give
our children the privilege of wandering"
in the starry fields with such a guide.
And there is something more than a
mere knowledge of facts to be gained by
such wandering. There is the op-
portunity to see our own world,
our own struggles, our own troubles
in perspective. As we sit, in the
body, and gaze off into the millions of
miles of ether, we can also sit, mentally,
away oft' there in space and gaze back on
this little troublesome, fretful world of
ours and inspect it. \\q can see it and
all our doings in com]^arison of the awe-
some order of the universe, its sulilime
calm and regularitv.

■26

THr: GUIDE TO NATURE

We are terribly upset when we learn
that a million men are being sacrificed in
Europe, that mighty guns, throwing a
ton of metal each, are destroying cities.
We are perturbed at thousands out of
•employment. We are irritated at the
stupidity of mortals who, through ig-
norance, wear the yoke of an outworn
system of government.

But let us talk with Dr. L>igelow a mo-
ment. We have considered with him the
miracle of growth that turns a seed into
a plaiHr- and the metamorphosis of a
wo^^n into a butterfly. "How large does
a star look in the telescope?" we ask. 'Tt
does not look as large as it does to the
naked eye. It really has no size what-
ever to the telescope. It is too far awav.
It is merely a geometrical point of light.
Light travels so quickly that it will go
entirely around the earth seven times
while you wink your eye, but some of the
stars are so far away that it takes light
five or six hundred years to travel from
them to the earth. If some of them
should go out of existence entirely, they
would be still apparent on this earth for
five or more centuries."

How small our earthly afifairs appear
in the lig"ht of such stupendous facts.
And it is only one of thousands of facts
equally amazing and equally interesting.

If a nroper telescope is forthcoming
there will be nightly classes in astronomy
at Arcadia, to which the public will be
■admitted. Such a telescope as is needed
.\w\\\ cost about a thousand dollars. Dr.
Bigelow says. Some of the money has
already been subscriberl. He asks the
people of Greenwich in the interest of
popular science and their own education
and enjoyment, to supply the money
needed for the instrument.

It may be added that there is not at
present a good observatory between
Fairfield and New Rochelle.

Greenwich has been generous in all
things. She has given money to helo
unemployed and the otherwise unfortun-
ate. This is good on the moral side.
She has given money to the church. This
shows interest on the religious side. She
lias demonstrated her interest in clean
government. This is excellent on the
civic side. But she is now aopealed to
on the intellectual side. She is asked to
provide for the ourely intellectual oleas-
ure of her children — and Dr. Bigelow
does not apoeal on utilitarian grounds,
He savs simolv. now let the people, chil-
'dren and grown-ups enjo}" themselves

intellectually.

We liope that Dr. Bigelow will have
his wholly unselfish desu-e to serve the
people intellectually, satisfied. He ha.^
done a good work for Greenwich, a work
wdiich will be better appreciated in the
future than it is to-day. He has not
affiliated himself with charitable move-
ments, nor social movements or political
movements. All of these things he rec-
ognizes as good, but he considers his
own work for humanity a separate one.

He does not join peace parties for the
ending of the European war. He is con-
cerned with neither peace nor war. His
interest is in science. One can almost
think of him as of Archimedes, the great
Greek mathematician of antiquity, whose
interest in science made him obvious to
all movements about him. Of him it is
said that he did not budge at the ap-
proach of the Roman army, but con-
tinued drawing his mathematical circles
on the sand. \Ad'ien a Roman soldier ap-
proached him and challenged him. he
•did not even look up but only answered :
"Get out of my circle. You're spoiling
my calculations." Whereupon, it is re-
corded, the soldier killed him, thereby
destroying his body but not his fame nor
his great work.

To those in Greenwich who have
money we sav : "Give Dr. Bigelow his
telescope. He can do more than a
thousand dollars' w'orth of good with it.
He can't rehabilitate families with it nor
mend broken l)ones nor launch oolitical
campaigns, nor feed hungry stomachs,
but he can feed huno-ry minds, and we
must always remember that 'man lives
not bv bread alone.' "

Bulletin of Scientific Supplies.

^'r. Edward Pennock of 3600 W^ood-
hnd \venue, Philadelnhia. is issuing a
"Special Bulletin" of his scientific instru-
ments and supplies that will be of in-
terest to many of our readers. A free
conv will be mailed upon request. Kindly
refer to ThK Guipe to Nature.

Si'mr^er School of Biology.

\y& tqke pleasure in calling attention
to the Summer School of the Biological
L^horitor\- at Cold Soring Harbor, Dong
T<l'infl The resfidar cl^ss \\-ork will be-
gin Tune -?oth and continue for six weeks
to August TOth. A circular with full
partirnlcij-c ma^- be obtained by address-
ing- Dr. Charles B. Davenoort, Cold
Spring BTarbor, Long Island, New York.

MISCELLANEOUS

27

Death of Thomas Edwards.
Thomas Edwards of Rye, Xevv York,
for many years a Sustaining" [Member of
The Agassiz Association, died on
Wednesday, May 5th, at the Greenwich
Hospital fohowing" an operation per-
formed a httle more than a week pre-
viously. Mr. Edwards was born Oc-
tober 20th, 1843. He was a farmer, car-
penter and veteran of the Civil War. Al-
ways a lover of outdoor life he was in
the broadest and best sense of the term
an ideal member of the AA. While not
in any sense a technical scientist, his love
of the country and the seashore was
heartfelt. His mentality was great, and
as a lover of music and the fine arts he
excelled. His disposition was quiet. He
disliked notoriety, and his reluctance to
attract attention always kept him in the
background. In his hotel work he was
famed for his management of everything
that tended to increase the enjoyment of
the seashore, but when he had large par-
ties to serve he usually kept out of sight,
preferring to oversee the affair from
Avithin, rather than to mingle whh the
visitors. He disliked ostentation of all
kiiifls. and InA-ed ? life of inward con-
temnlation. appreciation of educational
unlift. and of commonnlace nnture with
uncommon interest, that made him m-ie
of the most valued members of the AA.

A Camping and Sight-seeing Tour of
the West.

Our readers were interested in Pro-
fessor J. Chester Bradley's advertise-
ment in the last number of ThK Guide
TO Nature, repeated in this, oft'ering to
take several boys on a sight-seeing tour
through the Canadian Rockies, Yellow-
stone Park, Yosemite Valley, and other
places. Interesting phases of nature will
form an important part of the sight-see-
ing. The editor of The Guide to Na-
ture has been acquainted with Professor
Bradley for many years and knows him
to be thoroughly trustworthy. He has
had much experience with students, is
thoroughly competent to take charge of
such a tour. He says :

'T believe that nothing is so conducive
to pleasure in travel, and in life in gen-
eral, as an interest in nature, and in the
phenomena of the world around us. Such
a trip as we are about to undertake is a
great object lesson. It is geography and

geology, as well as history and human
activities lived instead of studied from a
text-book. 1 shall consider myself to
blame if any Iwy of our party fails to tind
such an interest in all that we see,
whether desert or mountains, whether
birds or butterflies, whether flowers 01
trees, and in the 'how' and 'why' of them
all"

We urge every reader of this maga-
zine to send to Professor Bradley, Cor-
nell L'niversity, Ithaca, New York, for
further particulars.

Spring Mushrooms.

Schenectady, N. Y.
To the Editor :

During May and June, in the latitude
of New York and Boston, there is found
in the woods, especially after warm rains,
an edible fungus popularly knowai as the
morel or spring mushroom.

The botanical names for the three prin-
cipal species are the Morchella deliciosa,
M. esciilenta and M. conica. These close-
ly resemble one another in that the hol-
low top is a lig"ht gray or buff yellow,
pitted so as to look somewhat like a
sponge, and supported on a white or
whitish hollow stem. Their height
usually varies from three inches to six
inches and the diameter of top from
three-quarters of an inch to one and one-
half inches.

Owing to their peculiar appearance,
and the fact that they do not in any way
resemble the more common mushrooms
with an umbrella-shaped cap on top, it
is rather difficult to describe them in
words ; and as a result of their peculiar
and distinctive characteristics, an inex-
perienced person seeing one for the first
time would probably not consider it a
mushroom. However, an examination
of one or the study of a good picture,
such as is shown in Bulletin No. 85 of
the V. S. Department of Agriculture,
will serve to familiarize any person with
this interesting plant.

Owing to the ease with which thev are
identified, and the fact that all species of
this genus are said to be edible, various
authors highly recommend them for
amateur mushroom hunters to begin
with. Thev are also credited as being
one of the finest of our mushrooms.
B. D. Miller.

Here is a good suggestion. Will our
nature photographers please obtain some
good photographs of this peculiar mush-
room ?

28

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

experiences that I am about
to relate were not uncommon, and were
not rarely repeated, on many a warm day
in the latter part of May or of June, from
thirty-five to forty years or more ago,
and at al^out ten o'clock in the morning-.
(Perhaps also in some parts of the coun-
try at the present time).

It was swarming time. Memory may
be playing a trick, but most of these oc-

-TiTK i:ees are swarming:"

currences have taken place in the liarn
lot hayfield. While some of the men
were loading the hay that had been dried
and stacked on the previous afternoon,
others were mowing in another part of
the field. The oxen and the wagon were
near one of the largest haycocks and the
wagon was about half loaded.

Suddenly, unexpected, startling, came
a shrill cry from the farmhouse, "The
bees arc szcarniiiig!" AMien did a far-
mer boy ever hear that high-pitched
warning or those magic words, without
having his heart leap in anticipation of
the joy of the coming contest, and the

blissful change in his monotonous life?
To him it meant another Fourth of July
pandemonium. Xever mind if more hav
was dried and drying than could possibly
be gathered on that day ; no matter if
thunderheads were looming ominously
above the western woods ; never mind if
nearly every hive was well filled and we
already had more bees than we knew
what to do with, drop everything and re-
spond to that far-reaching cry, "The bees
are szcaniiiiii^.'"

Father was the first and foremost in
leading the running at swarming time,
but each of the other workers came in-
for the close second, knowing by the
promptness with which he dropped the
]>itchfork and leaped across the field that
the conditions were serious. So sudden
a movement of course alarmed the oxen
and they started to run. John yelled,
"Whoa," and even I hesitated in my
rapid transit toward the house, but
Father shouted, ''Let them go; they will
run only to the farther edge of the barn
lot, and will be all right there in the
shade." I arrived just in time to see the-

"THE

ENTIRE ATMOSPHERE SEEMED FULL.
OF FLYING PILLOWS."

THE RUNNING AT SWARMING TIME

29

octogenarian Grandmother enter the
race. Upstairs she hurried to the spare
l)e(lroom — never entered except on rare
occasions when some distinguished guest
was present or expected. She pulled the
liedclothes olT. She thought that she
piled the pillows in a chair, but in her
excitement she seemed to be having a
])illow fight. She threw those pillows
right and left. There probably were only
two on that bed. but the entire atmos-
])Iiere seemed full of flying pillows. She
threw down comfortable and blanket ;
she pulled out the sheet, because, as she

was with great difficulty tliat he could
walk from the house out to that chair,
suddenly joined in the general scramble.
Forgetting his stiff joints, and even one
of his canes, he ran for the very last
empty hive — one hardly fit to use, but
in the emergency anything and every-
thing" must be brought into service if the
swarm was to be saved, even if the hay
Avere lost. With the hive he ran to the
workshop because the cover was a little
loose and one side was a little uncertain,
and like the expert carpenter that he
was, he hurriedlv drove in the necessarv

■THE COXCOCTIOX FROM THE PANTRY."

explained, all the others were in the
wash just wdien she most needed them.
She gathered up the sheet — no, gathered
is not the word — she did not fold it, she
did not crumple it, she just "wapsed"
it u]) and ])ushed it under one arm, leav-
ing the other hand free to cling to the
railing as she hurried down. I had
followed her, not expecting to be of
much assistance, but rather to see the
good old lady struggle with the bedding.
In the meantime Grandfather, who
spent a decade or more punching his
cane into the ground by his easy chair
under the apple trees, and who said it

nails, one, as I recall it, a shingle nail,
the other a spike. Anything that would
hold the parts together would do. All
this time Grandmother had been en-
gaged on a second round of running".
From the pantry slie grabbed a hand
basin, vinegar, salt, sugar, pe]i])er. mo-
lasses— perhaps 1 may be slightly in er-
ror in regard to the pepper ; possibly the
salt is a little off, but again treacherous
memory brings to me a vision of a fran-
tic g-raljbing of anything and everything
from the shelves, high and low. And
then out she dashed through the kitchen
to that bench. The whole thing was

30

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

well timed. She and Grandfather had
done their best ; 1 was the only negli-
gent spectator, remiss in running duties
at swarming tmie. "ijoy, why aon't you
run? Run, hurry up, get some walnut
leaves." I needed no second command.
I darted by the woodhouse, over the
stone wall into the cow pasture. Hur-
riedly I clambered to the top rail of the
fence under the branches of the walnut
tree. Just as I was reaching my best
and pulling down and cutting a bunch,
one of the stakes in the fence dropped
and down I went, hands full of branches
and jackknife, rails flying in every di-
rection, but somehow in the melee 1
closed the jackknife, grabbed the
branches, rubbed off the greater part of
the mud, and started on my homeward
run. But I could not arrive soon enough
to escape the storm of reprimands that
I knew was sure to follow if I kept them
waiting. The concoction from the pan-
try must be made, for, you know, the
hive must be scrubbed with the walnut
leaves, with the mixture of vinegar.

'HE TOOK A POLE IN HASTE, AND WITH IT
MOST OF THE BEANS."

water, salt, sugar, molasses. I know not
what mysterious things went into that
scouring preparation. Possibly there
was a dash of vanilla flavor. There must
have been for there seemed to be a dash
of ever\thing else in every direction.
Again there came a shout, "Run, why
don't you run?" In his frantic efl^orts,
John, the hired man, tore the g'arden
gate from its hinges, and made a wake
in the truck and the corn, such as a
swift yacht makes in the waves. His
destination was the rail fence. I could
have told him, if he had asked me, where
he could find plenty of rails spread in
delicious and extravagant profusion, for
had I not been there? But he heeded
me not, nor even thought to profit by
my experience. He wanted a rail, and
he wrecked the best part of a fence to
get it.

Father also, courageous man, ran
through the garden, for he, like a brave
general, had reconnoitered the field and
prepared his plans for the battle. He
seemed calmer than the rest, as befitted
the high dignity of his position as gen-
eral in that saltatory army. Although
the bean poles had been set in the garden
and the beans had already begun to
climl) around them, what of that? What
ff he pulled ofif a few of the tendrils?
Beans can grow more tendrils and the
poles may sometimes be returned to
th.eir places. At any rate he stopped not
to reason why, his liut to do or die ; he
took a pole in haste, and with it most
of the beans. Back through the gate he
went, closely followed by John with the
rail on his shoulder.

In the meantime Grandfather had
brought the hive and Grandmother the
sheet. Again I heard that shrill voice,
"Run, boy, run !" I was to get out of
the stone wall four cobbles, smooth and
round, "al^out as big as your two fists."
The sheet, in our frantic endeavors, was
almost torn in two, and I pulled so hard
that I almost Dulled the fatigued and
trembling old lady ofif her legs, and
worse than this, I started a rip in the
middle seam of the sheet. The sheet at
such times must be spread smooth, and
to make a sheet smooth you must oull it,
but no law in the land has ever said just
bow much you may pull, and vet esca'^e
the horrible calamit" of pulling it in two.
When it had been snapped and smoothe 1
and laid firmly on the ground, a cobble-
stone was placed on each of the corners.

THE RUNNING AT SWARMING TIME

31

Then the hive, under the skilled super-
vision of the general, must be placed just
right. It was his practiced eye that de-
cided how far the top should he inclined
backward, and when it should be held
by the rail, and where one end of the
rail should touch the hive and the other
1)6 braced against the ground. It was a
delicate and complex proceeding.

The time had come for Father to
shoulder the bean pole, and to march as
with a rifle to meet the enemy. Should
I leave him alone in a situation so peril-
ous? Xot I. I dashed through the
kitchen into that sacred spare room, and
grabbed my double-barrelled, muzzle-
loading shotgun. Hastily I pulled out
the ramrod, took off the cap of the
wormer, thrust the rod down one barrel
after the other, and pulled out the hornet
paper waddin.g. I inverted the gun and
poured into my palm two charges of
shot. It was only the powder that was
wanted. We had no desire to kill any-
body or anything. Our only object was
to make a noise and I was willing to
make my share or more. Back I ran to
the apple tree under which was the cen-
ter of all interest, in time to see the com-
pletion of the hive adjustments, and
Grandfather panting for breath, and ex-
emplifying a mixture of all sorts of gaits
in his effort to reach the wood shed,
not the workshop portion, but the open
space portion where was tlie wood pile
and where was the ladder up which the
chickens went to roost in the attic. Just
under that ladder was a wooden peg
on which hung the old string of sleigh
bells, never to be used except at swarm-
ing time. I can even now hear their
crisp, metallic music, as their vibrations
rang in sympathy with the old man's
jumping. "Run. run ; why don't you
run?" With a crash of clanging metal
he arrived, and met Grandmother, who
had been back to the pantry, where she
had snatched a polished tin nail in one
hand, and a shining tin pan in the other.
She thought that she might work double-
action in flashing the light into the
swarm, if perchance it should decide not
to accept its new and well scrubbed
home.

Philip, a boy about mv o\vn age. who
lived on an adjoining farm, grabbed a
pail and ran to the middle of the road
where was a liberal supplv of drv sand.
He went on that errand with a swiftness
so frantic that, it seemed to me, he could

never be equalled by any other boy, and
though the ])ail was nearly full, he
rushed back as if the content were as
light as feathers.

Susie ran to the sitting room, grabbed

"SUSIE . . . REACHED UP TO TAKE AN

OLD-FASHIOXEI) LOOKIXG-GLASS FROM ITS

NAIL NEAR THE CEILING."

a chair, climbed on it and reached up to
take an old-fashioned looking-glass from
its nail near the ceiling. In her haste
she lost her balance, the chair tipped
over, but by some miraculous interven-
tion, perhaps the great necessity of the
bees at that time, she escaped with a few
bruises, and the mirror without even a
crack. Even Bill, who under ordinary
circumstances could not be prevailed up-
on to mow the grass within several rods
of the hives, and who seldom knew that
there was such a thing as a well on the
place because of his familiarity with the
cider barrels in the cellar, now suddenly
became brave and an ardent advocate of
cold water. He seized one of the in-
verted milk pails that were hanging in
the sun for purification and drying; he
dashed the bucket down the well and
pulled it up as if he was thoroughly fa-
miliar with cold water and poured the
contents into that milk pail. Then hur-
riedlv grabbing a dipper, he hastened to
the scene of action.

Everybody was in readiness and there
came over the scene a hush like that
which precedes a thunderstorm. The
central figure was mv Father. All eyes
and hearts instinctively turned to him as
to one upon whom everything depended.
He shouldered the bean pole and

3^

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

marched bravely forward. ( )h, could
there have been present some rustic poet
to sing-, bees to the right of him, bees to
the left of him, bees in front of him —
and so soon, so soon, bees to be behind
him. He brought that bean pole back
•over his shoulder, firmly grasped in both

•"WITH ONE TREMENDOUS BLOW HE STRUCK

THAT LIMB, BREAKING THE BEAN POLE IN

TWO."

hands, made careful estimate with his
skilled eye of the relative distance l)e-
tween sheet and hive and hanging clus-
ter on the apple tree limb so heavily sus-
pended. Possibly the long pause and
the feints of striking at the limb were all
needed to take sure, steady and effective
aim. But as I look back upon it now
after all those years, I am inclined to
think he was like some public men whom
I have known and wdio enjoy being the
center of attraction and are the willing
recipient of laudation for bravery, al-
tliough he was, as we have known other
public men, soon to be in ignominious
flight.

With one tremendous blow he struck
that limb, breaking- the bean pole in two,
because white birch poles, although ap-
parently strong, are in reality only
whited sepulchres of deception. Down
came the black mass in a solid lump, but,
as if it had exploded when it touched the
white sheet and dashed against the slant-
ing side of the hive, its constituent par-
ticles of pungent possibility, scattered in
a humming cloud of wrath toward every
point of the compass. Then came a
tmanimous and synchronous signal to
run. No individual now ran for any
specific purpose, but everyone, old and

}-oung, lithe and limber, or with creaking-
joints, ran in one ignominious skedaddle.
Grandfather seemed to have acquired
magical agility and no longer needed a
cane. Grandmother renewed her youth
and leaped on those slender ankles as if
she was only "sweet sixteen." There
comes a vision of the bare feet of Philip,
of Susie, and of Julia and even of tiny
"tow-head," who lived in a nearby tene-
ment house, as they disappeared sudden-
ly through the gate or over the stone
wall around the corner of the house.
Here was a case in which the slowest
was the bravest, and the rear more dan-
gerous than the van. In the rear I
stayed, not so much from innate courage,
but from eagerness to fire the gun of
which I was fond. Whether the bees
were going off or not, we delighted in
construing- their hovering in the air as
susceptible of that interpretation.

Though he had not read books and
though he had never opened a hive con-
taining- live bees. Grandfather was pre-
sumed, as the outcome of long years of
observation and especially of punching
his cane into the ground, to have an ac-
quired knowledge of bees superior to
that of ordinary mortals. All eyes w^ere
turned toward him. How delightedly
we heard his decision, "The bees are go-
ing off', we must stop them." Joy of

ADDED MY OUOTA OF NOISE TO
THE DIN."

THE RUXXING AT SWARMING TLME

33

joys. \\ hen did farmer ho}' or farmer
girl ever hear more deHghtedly the sum-
mons to break forth into Fourtli of Julv
])anJemonii:m. aye. even demoniacal
racket. I loaded and hred as fast as 1
could and added my (luota (.f noise to
the din of jingling sleigh bells and the
rattling- of tin pans. I stood my ground.
I would not retreat so long as there was
any powder left. What though I be
sprinkled with sand, drenched with
water, and have the sunlight flashed in
my eyes from glistening tin pans and
heirloom mirrors? Only one other kind
of excitement do I recall as being any-
where near as deliriously delightful as
the hiving of sw^arming bees. That was
when occasionally the roof got on fire
around the chimney. If it had not been
for those occasional attic fires and the
swarming of the bees, the country boy's
pleasures in life would have been far
fewer. He would have had to content
himself with such quiet aft'airs as the
frog pond, with, at long intervals, the
excitement of breaking in a pair of steers
or a colt. It is true that sometimes it
did seem as if all these frantic endeav-
ors were wasted, because the bees had
a way of going high in air. perhaps re-
turning to a branch of the same tree, or
possibly alighting upon a little maple
only a few rods away. That maple
seemed to be a favorite position from
which to reconnoiter the field.

P)Ut perhaps the reader vdio has not
had these delightful experiences, per-
haps the pathetic reminiscences of the
long ago, will ask why all this. Let it
be explained that for centuries bee-keep-
ers have accepted the theory, or shall I
say the myth, that swarming bees must
be thrown into confusion, it makes but
little dift'erence how. Any one of a mul-
tiplicity of methods was regarded as ef-
fective— water, sand, light, noise, any-
thing and everything out of the usual or-
der of things was regarded as destruc-
tive of the discipline supposed to exist,
and by which the queen, sometimes mis-
takenly called the king, led forth her
myriads of followers in flight. At the
]:)resent time there is a lingering belief in
tlie minds of even skilled bee-keepers,
that such confusion in mid-air has an ef-
fect similar to that of pufiing smoke into
the hive. Smoke does not stuDefy. It
makes the bees think of something else
and turns their attention away from
stinging, while this confusion in mid-air
makes them think of an\thing and everv-

thing except getting away, and I should
not wonder at that. I do not see how,
amidst the showers of sand and the dip-
perfulls of water, any bees, especially
those that were struck by the flying
solids and liquids, could have gone away.
On the contrary, they brought dead bees
to the ground. But what if out of some
ninety or one hundred thousand a few
thousand were killed? One must expect
that anv "reat war will have some vic-

■HE KNOWS THEY CAME FROM MY
SKEPS.' "

tims. Xot all can reach the promised
land of vinegar-washed hives.

There are those wdio say that this
time-honored custom originated with
good King Alfred, and that it was done
in obedience to man's law, and not to the
biological or innate characteristics of the
bee. At any rate, after all these years,
King Alfred cannot dispute any charges
that may be laid on his royal shoulders.
So let us throw it all on him, and insist
that our country people have for centu-
ries been unwittingly perpetuating a
royal edict.

This is the tradition. Once upon a
time, never mind the year, but we natu-
rally infer that it was in the beautiful
month of ]\Iay, an excited bee-keeper
rushed into the royal presence shouting.
"He lies, he lies. They are not David's
bees : they are mine. He knows they
came from my skeps. I know mv bees
when I see them, and they went straight
from my apiary down across the meadow

34

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

to the tree, and there I clainietl them as
my own and was going" to gather them
in, when that thief would take them from
me."

David without waiting for him to fin-
ish this long speech had been shouting
excitedly, "He's a liar, he's a liar, he's a
thief. He knows they came from my
skeps. He is trying to get away my
property."

Meantime the calm, philosophic King
was the very personification of patience,
benignity and placid intelligence. As
David and Jonathan became almost ex-
hausted by their frantic argumentative
efforts, the good king raised his hand
and held it above his head, as a signal
for the agitated disputants to cease their
clamor. Silence reigned in that austere
court room. One could almost hear the
sands dropping through the hour-glass
and not a word broke the ominous si-
lence. The well-adjusted cell structure
of that great brain was formulating an
impartial judgment. Either David or
Jonathan, no one but that kingly brain
could know which, should go home with
full title to that colony of bees, while the
other would be ridiculed and reviled as
he passed along the street, because, "He
tried to steal his neighbor's bees."

So the silence seemed to imply, but in
fact the royal wisdom was not only puz-
zled but completely dumfounded. There
seemed to be no facts in the case upon
which to base judgment. Solomon with
the baby and two clamoring mothers had
an easy job in comparison with this. At
last the silence was broken. The king-
decided that in so evenly a contested
matter, it seemed but right that each
should take one-half of the colony. But
tradition saith not who should take the
queen, but of what importance is one
queen when the wisdom of a king is in
ieopardy? Is this the onlv time that a
judge's decision has set individual rights
at naught? Then, as an amendment, he
said to the clerk who was ready with
quill pen and sand box, "You mav, sir,
DUt it on record that hereafter when a
bee-keeper has an absconding swarm he
shall immediately, upon his first know-
ledge of such absconding tendency,
forthwith take the dinner bell or the
fish horn, whichever in his own judg-
ment shall be the most convenient, and
proceed bv vigorous clan9"ing or sten-
torian tooting to oroclaim his ownership.
Then upon the whole village having been
notified bv the first clang or official toot.

it will be readily seen by all the by-
standers and fellow neighbors that any
secondary clangings or intruding toots
shall become ridiculous in the sight and
hearing of the aforesaid neighbors and
shall thereby make it perfectly clear who
is the real owner of the colony. Thus
not necessitating the laborious workings
of a kingly brain which, on these hot,
May and June days, is more fittingly to
be indulging in peaceful slumber under
the shade of the widespreading beech
tree. Here endeth the edict."

But time passed on and the loyal sub-
jects of good King Alfred, like the old
king himself, were laid to rest, and the
daisies bloomed above them, and their
bees were forgotten, and forgotten by
their successors was the original pur-
pose of the edict. They remembered
only the clanging and the tooting and
the consequent pandemonium. David and
Jonathan and King Alfred have been the
cause of more delirious, hilarious fun
for country boys and country girls than
ever they could in their wildest imagin-
ings have dreamed of. But there is one
farmer boy whose memory runs back to
the comedy and the pathos involved in
the running at swarming time, and he
now exclaims, "Decades have gone by,
participants of that old homesiead have,
like King Alfred and his disputing sub-
jects, laid aside kingly powers, clang-
ing bells, tooting fish horns, flashing mir-
rors and noisy guns, leaving only peace-
ful, pathetic memories of the running at
swarming time."

Somewhere I have read that a traveler
in England saw a soldier walking
slowlv back and forth on guard in the
middle of a field. The curious American
went to the commandant and inquired
why a soldier was so uselessly on guard
in such a place. The reply was that it
was in accord with the time-honored cus-
tom, that his predecessor in office had
always kept an officer on guard in that
place and that his predecessor had done
so. Then why should he be so presump-
tuous as to violate the authority of prec-
edent? Our American visitor after fur-
ther investigating the matter by looking
up the records of that place found that
a few centuries ago the queen and her
attendants were walking in that particu-
lar soot and there found a beautiful
flo^ver. That it might surelv come into
its fullness of beautv the ciueen reonested
that a guard be placed by the flower.
Later on when the flower was fully ex-

THE RUNNING AT SWARMING TniE

35

1

"uL.

^^jiSa^

""^ nA^--K.^:$,_^y^^^^^;^;^

''//

'HF, SAID TO THE CLFRK WHO WAS RF-ADV WITH OUTLI. PFX AXD SAXD BOX."

l)ande(l, she walked again in the fields
and picked it in its gorgeous fruition,
but she forgot to countermand the order
to the guard. And so who would pre-
sume to go against the queen's author-
ity? The soldier went on guarding and
his successor went on guarding until
when several decades had passed every-
body had forgotten wliy there was a
■guard in that particular spot.

So I think it was with King Alfred
and Jonathan and all the loyal villagers
in the edict of the noise at swarming
time, his successors have forgotten the

reasons why it was to make an infernal
noise in the sky.

But do not laugh too much at those
good old people. Perhaps there was
something more than a legal right in-
volved in the matter and, like the pro-
verbial great smoke that implies at least
some little fire, in all those noisy demon-
strations there may be a little fire of
reason. At any rate, could I bring back
old Dutch Willie, or A'illie as most
people called him in imitation of his own
peculiar pronunciation of his name, he
would iirnve a valuable witness in favor

36

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

of the efficacy of yelling and of throw-
ing- sand. I recall that once in spite of
all the noisy demonstrations the hees per-
sisted in going- to more quiet fields. The
bees arose, a cloudy mass, high in the
air. They circled like a swaying balloon
anchored by its rope, until they had ob-
tained their bearings and across the field
they flew, straight for the woods beyond.

from \illie. Who shall say whether it
was the result of Villie's screaming and
jumping- jack performances, or whether
they unsolicited would have alighted
there ? In any case it is beyond my phil-
osophy to tell whether here was a case
of cause and efifect or only a funny co-
incidence. A'illie claimed the honor
that evening and he told the men

f ^ (f^:»

'-'f-^rC/ -.^

"I CLOSE MY F,YES AND SEE THAT EXCTTED DUTCHMAN PRANCING TN THE MTDST OF

THAT SWARM OF BEES."

Directly in their line of flight was ri-
diculous old Dutch Mllie smoking his
pipe and hoeing corn on the summit of
the hill, lost in placid memories of his
fatherland and in longings for the I^eer
of his adopted country, or thinking of
his next attempt at drinking some
three dozen mugs of that beer on the
Saturday's half holiday in the near-by
village. The bees literally took a bee
line. It led them high in air over the
valley, but close to the ground on the
summit of the hill around Dutch A'illie.
The most astonished Dutchman that ever
existed was in that cornfield, when
ninety thousand bees swarmed near him
in their slow flight onward. Bees in
swarming fly swiftly around and around
and around like the balloons of the solar
system, while the entire family moves
slowly onward. A^illie was in the very
center of that flight and he had a little
dirt throwing and a pandemonium of
yelling all to himself. He used hands,
arms, legs and mouth — a veritable jump-
ing-jack, to my great delight, as I ran
up the hill to ascertain where those bees
were going. But the thing worked, or
seemed to work, for the bees settled on
a scrub of a wild cherry bush not far

at the tavern that he had saved a swarm
of bees that was worth five dollars, be-
cause he yelled and threw dirt at them.
I am not sure of the validity of his
claim, l)ut I do know that he gave me
more than five dollars' worth of fun that
day. and many a laugh since then, as I
close my eyes and see that excited Dutch-
nian prancing in the midst of that swam
of bees.

A Peculiar Cloud-Effect.

'Twas eventide. The small lad stood
on the bridge clapping his hands vig-
orously. Beyond the brow of the hilt
a dull red glow sufifused the sky.

"Ah, little boy," remarked the stran-
ger, who was a little near-sighted, "it
does my heart good to see that you
appreciate yon cloud-efifect."

"Yes, sir," replied the lad. "I've been
watching it for ten minutes."

Upon the boy's face there appeared
a smile of perfect bliss.

"A real poet without a doubt. And
do you watch the sunset often, little
boy?" asked the stranger.

"Sunset? Why, that ain't a sunset,
gov'nor ; that's our schoolhouse burn-
ing down." — Exchansre.

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XII

THE GUIDE TO NATURE LITERARY NOTES

Practical Field Botany. By A. R. Horwood,
F. L. S. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B.
Lippincott Company.

This is an English book written with both
genuine amateur and professional spirit. Its
numerous illustrations are out of the ordinary,
and convey new ideas, especially in the
mounting and arrangement of specimens for
the herbarium.

Bill's School and ]\!ixe. By William Sud-
dards Franklin. South Bethlehem, Penn-
sylvania : Franklin, Macnutt and Charles.
An interesting collection of essays to which
the keynote is the author's statement in his
preface, that "some things in this world are
to be understood by sympathy, and some
things are to be understood by serious and
painful effort."

Nature Notes For Ocean Wu-agers. By
Captain Alfred Carpenter, R. N., D. S. O.,
and Captain D. Wilson-Barker, R. N. R.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippin-
cott Company.
This book presents a comprehensive survey

of the life, conditions and phenomena in the

great ocean depths. An amusing anecdote is

worth printing :

"^^jsthetic Passenger (to old ."^alt) : 'Can

you tell me, my good man, the name of that

fine bird hovering about?'

"Old Salt : That's a halbatros, sir."

"^. P. : 'Dear me ! Quite a rara avis, is it

not?'

"Old Salt: 'Dunno, sir, Fve always heard it

called a halbatros s.'

^. P. : 'Yes, yes, my good fellow, but 1

call that a rara avis, just as I call you a Genus

homo.'

"Old Salt (indignantly) : Oh, do you ? Then

I calls that a halhatross, just the same as I

calls vou an old humbug.' "

Seehearwrite. Guide to taking notes in Na-
ture Studv for "Hunters of the Beautiful.''
By D. S. Hartline, A. M., Head of Depart-
ment of Biology, State Normal School,
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Bloomsburg,
Pennsylvania : George E. Elwell & Son.
This is a novel form of notebook. It is
unlike anything else that the reviewer has
ever seen. It consists of a pocket, doubled
somewhat like that commonly used by clerks
in a store, and contains a large number of
appropriate quotations, many of them of a
religious nature. The principal quotation is,
"Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors ; And the
King of Glory shall come in." This is in
ornamental t3'pe within an appropriate em-
blematic design. The whole thing is so
unique that we suggest that our readers write

to Professor Hartline for descriptive circu-
lars and particulars.

One of the novel suggestions is,

"Bring a nice lot of (a) VVotisits,

(b) Wantunos."

The Pocket Nature Library. Tree Guide
(Trees East of the Rockies) by Julia Ellen
Rogers. Flower Guide (Wild Flowers East
of the Rockies), Bird Guide (Water Birds,
Game Birds and Birds of Prey East of the
Rockies) and Bird Guide Part 2 (Land Birds
East of the Rockies) bv Chester A. Reed.
700 Color Plates, 1,000 text Pages. Bound
in Leather. Price, $4.50. Garden City, New
\'ork : Doubleday, Page & Co.
These four books are convenient, attractive
and efficient. What more can be said? When
one goes afield if several books are taken in
addition to the necessary apparatus they be-
come literally impedimenta, but with these-
special books one can carry a library covering
the flowers, the trees and the birds. It probably
will not be necessary to take more than one
book on birds since one volume is devoted to
land birds and the other to water. It is a de-
light to sit under a tree, consult a little book
and compare the color plates with the living
bird and thus identify and fix it in mind.

jMiss Roo-ers has produced one of our best
books on trees and her simplification into this
pocket volume should elicit the gratitude of
everv lover of trees.

Star Lore of All Ages. By William Tyler

Olcott. N^ew "^'ork City : G. P. Putnam's

Sons.

^lany of our amateur astronomers will find
this book especially delightful. We not only
like to know the names of the stars and some-
thing of celestial mechanics but also want to
know the beautiful myths and legends that time
and fanc}^ have woven about them. People
who admire the beauty of the stars may learn
to love them b}- reason of the literar}^ and leg-
endary association recalled by their appearance.

The author, as "Who's Who in America"
tells us. is a lawyer, but it is evident that he is
also an enthusiastic amateur astronomer, since
he has written several important and interest-
ing books on the subject. A further aim has
been to revive an interest in the mythology
that twines about the stars. It has seemed
but right that this wealth of star lore, -buried
in the treasury of the past, should be brought
to the light, to charm and interest those who
scan the skies. The same author has issued
another volume entitled "Sun Lore of All
Ages." This is devoted to mythology, folk
lore, sun worship, emblematic and symbolic
forms of the sun and to the sun as r' vealed by
science. Both books are valuable. They cover
the entire field in a masterly manner.

To Know The Starry Heavens

(SEE PAGE 55)

A PROMPT RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR AN

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY AT ARCADIA
TOTAL COST FOR BUILDING AND TELESCOPE
A LITTLE OVER $i,ooo.

SEE LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS THAT HAVE SUB-
SCRIBED $322.

We Need $700 More

THE FOUNDATION IS COMPLETED. WORK IS

IN PROGRESS ON THE BUILDING. WE

HAVE FAITH THAT OUR FRIENDS

WILL NOT LET IT BE EMPTY.

^K

Vol VllI
No. 2

July 1915

EDWARD F. BIGELOW

MANAGING EDITOR

Subscriptions, $L00 a Year. Single Copies, 10 Cents

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Subscnption. $ 1 .00 a year Single copy. 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12. 1909. at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897.

Number 2

Vlll

JULY.

A Thoroughly Commendable Vagabond

BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW, ArcAdiA, Sound Beach, Conn.

CURIOUS, is it not, how some
words are a sort of slur upon the
human mind? They are pessimis-
tic in result although in themselves they
mav be only good. Take the word preju-
dice; it really means a prejudgment, yet
it conveys the impression that the mind
is thinking disparaging things. What is
a vagabond? One that exemplifies the
meaning of the Latin word '•vagus," to
wander around. It is a curious fact that
the mind usually thinks of a wanderer
as necessarily bad. Should not one sup-
pose that the language would commend
a vagabond as the very opposite of a
stolid loafer who has not life enough to
move from the position where he sits
and thinks and sometimes only sits."

Bliss Carman of New Canaan, Con-
necticut, has for many years been teach-
ing and inspiring mankind with the idea
that one may wander around, yes, even
be a highly commendable vagabond and
think thoughts that are uplifting, even
heavenlv. "His poem, "The Joys of the
Road,"' in "Songs from Vagabondia,"
gave me my first knowledge of this de-
lightful vagabond. At that time I had
become imkied with the spirit of Walt

\M-iitman"s "'Afoot and light-hearted, I
take to the open road."

One thinks of Whitman as swinging
along at a rapid pace in a rough and
ready style, but when we turn to Bliss
Carman we think more of mind and
heart than of legs. Xo one reading his
"The loys of the Road" would think of
him as hurrying. He contemplates and
uplifts. His vagabondage sees things
aright and gets their inner meaning. Xo
one has portrayed more perfectly nor
beautifully the joys of the road in
autumn. Every nature lover should know
the poem. It is almost impossible to se-
lect a quotation since the entire poem
might well be considered a single sen-
tence, a leisurely sentence wandering
along a delightful October road only
now and then to pause but not really to
stop. The thought goes on, one joy
leads to another so rapidly as to fill the
mind with a constantl\- recurring pano-
rama of beautiful pictures. Thus he
swings ofi^ leisurely :

Now the jovs of the road are chiefly these:
A crimson touch on the hard-wood trees;

A vagrant's morning wide and blue,

In early fall, when the wind walks, too;

Copyright 1915 by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn.

38

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

BLISS CARMAN of New Canaan, Connecticut

A shadowy highway cool and brown,
Alluring up and enticing down

From rippled water to dappled swamp.
From purple glory to scarlet pomp ;

The outward eye, the quiet will,

And the striding heart from hill to hill ;

The tempter apple over the fence ;

The cobweb bloom on the yellow quince;

The palish asters along the wood, —
A lyric touch of the solitude ;

An open hand, an easy shoe,

And a hope to make the day go through,-

A THOROUGHLY COMMENDABLE VAGABOND

39

Stop to get step there, the poem like
the walker goes for home :

Who never defers and never demands,
But, smiling, takes the world in his hands, —

Seeing it good as when God first saw
And gave it the weight of his will for law.

The poems, "Songs from Vagab'on-
dia," also "More Songs from Vagabon-
dia" and "Last Songs from Vagabo,n-
dia," were written in cooperation wath
his fellow traveler, Richard Hovey, who
died. "Echoes from Vagabondia" were
written by J\Ir. Carman. These delight-
ful little books are published by Small,
Maynard and Company, Boston, Mass.,
and should be familiar to every nature
lover.

"The Rough Rider and Other Poems,"
published by Mitchell Kennerly of New
York City, contains some charming bits
of nourishment for every nature lover.
In this are two poems with especial
local interest. "Easter Eve" refers to
Lake Wampanaw of New Canaan and
the accompanying illustration shows Mr.
Carman standing by that Lake in medi-
tation, and he asks in a way that startles
the reader, suppose while going from
town on Wednesday he had met Christ
walking on Ponus Street?

Then let me ask you. Last December, when

there was skating on Wampanaw,
Among the weeds and sticks and grasses un-
der the hard black ice I saw
An old mud-turtle poking about, as if he

were putting his house to rights,
Stiff with the cold perhaps, yet knowing
enough to prepare for the winter nights.

Well, I have an instinct as fine and valid,
surely, as that of the beasts and birds,
Concerning death and the life immortal, too
deep for logic, too vague for words.
No trace of beauty can pass or perish, but

other beauty is somewhere born ;
No seed of truth or good be planted, but
the yield must grow as the growing corn.

Therefore this ardent mind and spirit I give

to the glowing days of earth.
To be wrought by the Lord of life to some-
thing of lasting import and lovely worth.
If the toil I give be without self-seeking,
bestowed to the limit of will and power,
To fashion after some form ideal the in-
stant task and the waiting hour,

It matters not though defeat undo me, though

faults betray me and sorrows scar,
Already I share the life eternal with the April
buds and the evening star.
Our minister here, entrenched in doctrine,

may know no doubt upon Easter Eve.
And when it comes to the crucial question.
Doctor, you skeptic, you too believe !

Another delightful poem with local
reference is "On Ponus Ridge." In the
first stanza he propounds a question, an.
answer to which he finds on Ponus
Ridge :

I hoard the voice of our mother planet mur-
mur CO da} as the south wind blew
Over the old Connecticut granite, up from the
Sound and the rainy blue.
"What is your comment, wandering broth-
er," said Ponus Ridge to the striding rain,
"Not on the new word, Love one another,
but the harder text. Ye shall rise again?"

It is difficult to do justice to this poem
without quoting it all, but this stanza is
a sample of the beautiful thoughts that
crowd the author's mind and seek ex-
pression :

Here all day long I shall lie and ponder the

teeming life whereon I brood,

While the buds unfold, the low clouds wander,

and all things flow to rhythm and mood.

And seeing all form but the trace of mo

tion, all beauty the vestige of joy made

plain,

Shall I stint my care and my devotion, to

vex me with counting the once or again ?

One can but think of Bliss Carman
somewhat as of John Howard Payne.
Tenderly beautiful in thought, affec-
tionate in spirit, Bliss Carman lives his
life alone; he has no home. He engages
a room at one house near the railroad
station in Xew^ Canaan, and takes his
meals in another. He is not surrounded
by relatives, he knows not the joys of
home life though he has enriched thous-
ands of homes by the tenderly beautiful,
loving spirit of his poetry. He who has
sung for the delight of many a home is,
as he himself says, a vagabond. Ask at
the station in New Canaan, "Where is
Mr. Carman's home?" and the answer is,
'T suppose you mean that man who
writes for magazines and wears a broad-
brimmed hat. He has no home ; he
boards over there. I don't believe. Mis-
ter, you will find him at home ; he goes
walking over the hills and through the
woods and perhaps you will find him on
the lake where he spends much of his
time."

Is vagabondage commendable? As ex-
emplified by Bliss Carman, it is.

Is Carman singing a new song? No,
it is the old, old story of Him who walk-
ed with His disciples in the open road,
who drew His lessons from the lilies in
the field, from the vineyards that He
passed, from the birds that He saw and

40

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

'HE GOES WALKING OVER THE HILLS AND THROUGH THE WOODS.' "

from the farmer's boy feeding the pigs,
whose acquaintance He had probably
made, and from whom He drew his mosi
touching lesson. These thoughts must
have been running through Bliss Car-
man's mind Vvdien he asked the astonish-
ing question, Suppose one were to meet
Christ right on ordinary, everyday,
commonplace Ponus Street, what then is
to be done? It is to think His thoughts
and draw His lessons from nature and
realize, as Ponus Ridge said to the strid-
ing rain, there is a greater question than
"Love one another," the harder task,
"Ye shall rise again." Bliss Carman is
showing the sacredness of commonplace
nature, making really a new Canaan and
in the years to come that sacredness of
thought shall more and more be credited
to this master poet whose head and
heart tower literally and emblematically
farther toward heaven than those of
most men while his feet tread common-
place earth.

From James Whitcomb Riley's
Secretary.

Indianapolis. Ind., April 17, 191 5.
Dear Mr. Bigelow :

Your letter has been forwarded to Mr.
Riley in the South where he has no
secretary. I know he will make a special
efifort to write what you request because
of his friendship both for you and Mr.
Carman.

May 7th, 191 5.

Mr. Riley, who isn't able to take up
the pen, says he has expressed his appre-
ciation and love for Bliss Carman in the
poem which I am enclosing. He is sorry
that his health is such that it is difficult
for him to write anything new. "There
is nothing I would not do or say for
Carman," he tells me. "He is a fine,
knightly man, poet and scholar."

The man is blessed w'ho every day is
permitted to behold anything: so pure and
serene as the western skv at sunset,
while revolutions vex the world —
Thoreau.

TO BLISS CARMAN.

He is the morning's poet —

The bard of mount and moor,

The minstrel fine of dewy shine,
The dawning's troubadour :

The brother of the bluebird,

ATid blossoms, throng on throng,

Whose singing calls, o'er orchard walls,
Seem glitterings of song.

A THOROUGHLY COMMENDABLE VAGABOND

41

He meets, with brow uncovered,
The sunrise through the mist,

\\ ith raptured eyes that range the skies
And seas of ameth_vst :

The brambled rose clings to him ;

The breezy wood receives
Him as the guest she loves the best

And laughs through all her leaves :

Pan and his nymphs and dryads
They hear, in breathless pause.

This earth-born wight lilt his delight,
And envy him because ....

He is the morning's poet — -

The bard of mount and moor.

The minstrel fine of dewy shine.
The dawning's troubadour.

Stamford Salutes New Canaan.

BY CHARLES H. CRANDALL, STAMFORD, CT.

Bliss Carman? Certainly. To know
him is to know one whose head is in the
clouds (he is considerably over six feet),
so it is easy for him to see visions which
escape common mortals, as an ofificer
looks over the trenches by means of a
periscope. When you are a poet, and in
good workino- order, vou can see over

mountain tops and around corners. It
is therefore no wonder that Carman can
extract wisdom from the turtle in Lake
Wampanaw or stroll over Ponus Ridge
and fancy himself walking in the foot-
steps of Socrates, and gather up a fine
crop of philosophy as the fruit of his
walk. I have chatted with our serene
and lofty poet in his tent in the woods
near New Canaan and envied him his air
of illimitable leisure, his calm serenity
and unrufiled poise. But I am out of
patience with the shade of my old friend,
E. C. Stedman, who, in making up his
anthologies of verse, failed to class Car-
man as an American, but must remind
us that he was born under the aegis of
"Our Lady of the Snows," in far-
away Labrador or New Brunswick or
Scotia, where even the wild geese cannot
stand the winters. Having all the sense
of the goose, and then some (and mind
you, wild geese know a lot that we do
not ) . ]\Ir. Carman took flight from Can-
adian wilds to old New York town many
years ago and has been tramping over
tlie Catskills and the New Canaan hills

'CARMAN CAN EXTIi,\CT WISDOM FROM THE TURTLE IX LAKE WAMPANAW

42

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

for decades more or less. So I call him
an American, as he is to all intents and
purposes. I speak of Stedman's classi-
fications because I wanted to telJ a lady
where to find his "Make Me Over,
Mother April," and did not find him in
the group of American poets. Read this
poem of his if you wish to find Carman
in one of his choicest moods, when he
revels in rhyme and rhythm and daring-
characterization of nature, a wild sort
of Bohemian chant such as stirred his
blood in the young- days when he hit
the woodland trails and the open road
with Richard Hovey and g^ave the world
those wild, rollicking, careless, lawless
"Songs of Vagabondia." May he al-
ways renew his youth whenever he
chooses to hit the open road.

married daughter, were all successful
authors.

William Hayes Ward,
Honorary Editor of "The Independent.

Tribute from William Hayes Ward.

South Berwick, Maine.
To the Editor :

Yes, Bliss Carman was for a while
office editor of "The Independent"
while I was editor and his companion-
ship in the office it is a pleasure to
recall. He was in his youth a tall

blonde, with statuesque head and long-
hair and open neck : very quiet and
unassuming, dreamy, yet companion-
able. He was much with his cousins,
the Robertses, whose literary ambi-
tions had brought this exceptionably
gifted family to New York. It was
about this time that he did his tramp-
ing with his poet friend, Richard
Hovey, whose early death was a sad
loss to American literature. The fruit
of these wimderings appear in his
"Vagabondia," and he mentioned his
companion under the name of
"Dickon. Such poems as "The Quaker
Eadies" and the "Easter Market" at
Washington, very simple and delight-
ful, were not easily forgotten, and
ought not to be, although probal:)ly
they cost him much less labor than his
longer poems of which I mention only
the "Coronation Ode" on the accession
of King Edward, for he was a loyal
Canadian. "The Independent" pub-
lished many of his verses. Of course
he wrote prose, if not so much as did
his cousin, Charles G. D. Roberts. We
are indebted to New Brunswick for a
family of unusual worth. The senior
Roberts was an Episcopal .clergyman
of much distinction, and his three sons,
Charles, William and Theodore, and a

Associations " of Plants and Birds.

Dr. Arthur A. Allen, of Cornell Uni-
versity, in a paper before the Biologi-
cal society of Washington, recognizes
seven "associations" of plant and bird
life between pond or river on the one
side and field and forest on the other.
These are, in order :

1. The Open Water Association.
Here the plants are important sources
of food but do not provide nesting
places for any birds.

2. The Shoreline Association. This
provides little food. One of the few
birds inhabiting it is the pied-billed
grebe.

3. The Cat-tail Association. Here as
a favorite locality for such birds as the
least bitterns, coots, and various rails
The red-winged blackbird, though
having a wide range over various sorts
of country prefers this belt.

4. The Sedge Association. Marsh
wren, ordinary bittern, swamp spar-
row, and marsh hawk, are among the
birds of this district.

5. The Grass Association, of which
song sparrow and Maryland yellow-
throat are typical inhabitants.

6. The Alder-Willow Association,
with the green heron and alder fly-
catcher among nesting species.

7. The Elm-Maple Association, where
dwell a large variety of woodland birds,
while several species nest here which get
their living in other regions.

The commonest and cheapest sounds,
as the barking of a dog, produce the
same effect on fresh and healthy
ears that the rarest music does
It depends on your appetite for sound.
Just as a crust is sweeter to a healthy ap-
petite than confectionery to a pampered
or diseased one. It is better that these
cheap sounds be music to us than that
we have the rarest ears for music in any
other sense. I have lain awake at night
many a time to think of the barking of a
dog which I had heard long before, bath-
ing my being again in those waves of
sound, as a frequenter of the opera
might lie awake remembering the music
he had heard — Thoreau.

CAMP FIRE PHOTOGRAPHS AT NIGHT

43

Campfire Photographs at Night.

One of ihe simplest yet most eftective
and striking flash-light photographs that
one can make is a camp fire flash-light.
All we need is a camera, a camp fire and
about three of the flash sheets that can
be had of any photograph dealer. First
pile on a lot of wood and let your camp
fire burn until vou have a big he:l of red

between the camera and the fire we must
have three or four figures standing close
together. This is to shield the camera
from the glare of the flash which might
give up that fuzzy efifect called halation.
Xow we give our flash sheets or powder
to one of the boys sitting close to the
fire with instructions to toss it into the
hottest part of the bed of coals at our

A CAMP FIRE PHOTOGRAPHED AT NIGHT.

hot coals but no fire to speak of. Xow
then, place your camera at a convenient
distance from the fire so you can include
your group, say about twenty feet. The
camera must be on some firm support
for this will be a time exposure. If you
have no tripod set it on a log, tree stum]),
camp chair or anything that is handy.
Now then, set the shutter for a time ex-
posure. Xow our camera is ready and
it is time to arrange our group. Oh,
yes, I forgot to mention that you focus
on the fire if it is a focusing camera. oMy
reason for fixing the camera first is not
to have our subjects sitting close to the
hot fire any longer than is necessary.
Sometimes they get too hot while wait-
ing for the photograoher to get ready
and refuse to pose. Now we arrange our
Darty in a circle about the fire, sitting,
kneeling or in natural attitudes, but just

word of command. Then just before
taking the picture we .gather up a bunch
of damp leaves or green grass and
throw it on the fire. Immediately there
rises up a cloud of dense white smoke
which is very essential to our picture.
Then we step back to our waiting cam-
era, open the shutter, give the word of
command to our assistant to throw the
flash into the hot part of the fire. "Bing!"'
ofl^ goes the flash ; we close our shutter
and the ])icture is made. It is well to
caution }our group to look at the fire
or each other and not at the camera for
this spoils the naturalness of the efifect.
[Photograph, with instructions, from Brown
and Dawson, Stamford, Conn., and copyright-
ed by them.]

The Natioual Museums of Peru have
had to be closed as a result of the hard
times which have followed the war.

44

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Natures Studies in and Around Washington, D. C.

BY R. W. SIIUFELDT, M. D.

OF ALL THE CITIES in this
country few there are that can of-
fer the amateurs and profession-
als in any of the departments of natural
science, botany, agriculture, and their
allied callings, more advantages in the
way of libraries, museums, and delight-
ful variety in the surrounding country
than can the city of Washington — our
Capital. Moreover, Washington holds
in its society an unusually large number
of people who are more than interested
in such pursuits, for the city is the home
of a great many distinguished men and

venient to consult everything that has
been published along the lines of biology
in its broadest sense. The many mu-
seums have superb public exhibits of
natural history material of every descrip-
tion, and collections for the use of stu-
dents, containing thousands upon thous-
ands of specimens from every division
and kingdom in nature.

Situated as the city is upon the Po-
tomac river, one naturally finds present
the usual river faunse as they occur in
this part of the world : a few interesting
mammals for study ; a long list of water

FIG. 1. A GROUP OF WASHINGTON FOLK WHO BELIEVE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE LIFE.

women of science, and of a considerable
body of those that take up such studies
in a non-professional way. To these
and others we may add a very large as-
semblage of those devoted to amateur
pursuits along similar lines, and they, in
turn, have their host of friends in that
charming class now usually designated
as the nature lovers. In short, we have
an army of such people, ranging all the
way from a strict closet naturalist to the
jolly soul who takes to the timber just
for the love of it, in that he or she may
be as close to nature as possille all the
time.

We have several large libraries in
Washington, rendering it easy and con-

and land birds ; a fair representation of
fresh-water fishes, and finally, quite a
number of batrachians and reptiles, as
well as insects, mollusks, and other in-
vertebrata. As for the flora, it is most
varied and beautiful, flowering species
lasting from the earliest days of spring,
until entirely checked by the hand of
winter, which is not always cold enough,
however, to kill it all, as one may see
dandelions here even in January.

The summer of 19x4 was a particular-
ly lovely one — all the way from the mid-
dle of April to the last -lays of October,
and even a good ^'-pvs into November.
My wife and I enioved a score or more
of fine tramps in various directions ; and

NATURE STUDIES IN AND AROUND WASHINGTON.

45

FTG. 2. A SCENE IN NORTHERN \IRGIN1A.

upon one memorable occasion a party
was made up which included Mr. C. \\ .
Gilmore. who has charge of the fossil
birds and reptiles in the U. S. National
^Museum : Mrs. Gilmore, their three
beautiful little daughters, Mrs. Coutant,
]\Irs. Gilmore's mother ; Mrs. Shufeldt.
and the subscriber. The latter is respon-
sible for perpetuating this squad of true
nature lovers, as shown in Figure i,
wherein Mr. Gilmore declines to apolo-
gize for smoking in the presence of la-
dies, while the latter told me afterwards
that they wished they had taken their
hats off, as these were not altogether up
to date.

In these tramps we by no means con-
fine ourselves to the District of Colum-
bia ; for, owing to the splendid system of
electric cars running out from the city in
all directions, it requires but short spaces
of time to take in much of southern
Maryland, northern A^irginia, and by an
extra jaunt, soon land at the shores of
Chesapeake Bay, which in all respects
offers nearly everything that one finds at
the seashore.

Some parts of \^irginia are as attrac-

tive as anything that can well be imagin-
ed. In Figures 2 and 3 we have wood and
farm scenes in old Virginia, just over
the river from Washington ; and did you
ever see such a wealth of daisies as we
have in the foreground of Figure 3, or
a farmhouse more snugly sheltered in
the encircling woodland?

When wife and I take to the country-
side, we are after things. We are not
only rigged out for the tramp, but all
sorts of collecting traps, a 5 x 8 camera,
and other necessaries go along with us.
If I chance to be studying box tortoises
at home — their life histories, variations,
and so on — then box tortoises are in or-
der, and five or six of them are duly
collected. These are subsequently to be
photographed in my study (Fig. 4), and
to be observed and examined in various
>vays as material for monographic work.
In some parts of \'irginia these reptiles
are remarkably abundant and exhibit
wide variations in their coloring. One
day we found where one had crawled
into an empty tin preserving-can and
(lied there. It was apparently long ago,
and only its skeleton was in evidence.

FIG. 3. A FARMHOUSE IX XOK I lil-.K.\ \ Iki.lMA

46

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

FTG. 4. AX Or.D BOX TORTOTSK.

This was nearly complete, and thus
saved me some trouble in another direc-
tion which I need not mention now.

FTG. 5. THF. GREAT HORNFD OWL.

As I am preparing" a work on the nat-
ural history of this region, we allow
nothing to escape us, and with my cam-
era, during the past few seasons, I have
made two or three hundred most beauti-
ful negatives, photographs from which
will be used as illustrations to the forth-
coming manual.

The ornithology of the country is
most interesting", and is now very thor-
oughly protected by the recent bird laws.
This has preserved even some of the
largest raptorial birds, and on the river
one occasionally sees the white-headed
eagle soaring majestically overhead,
while in the timbered sections I have
sometimes met with the great horned
owl — the young" and old of this species
being here shown in Figures 5 and 6,
captive specimens which I photographed
for my work.

Down in the marshes we have the
noisy little marsh wrens, which build
nests out of the cat-tail leaves in com-
munities, each having the form of a co-
coanut, with a hole at the side for an
entrance. They also build here and there
"mock-nests," apparently with the hope
that their enemies, in hunting^ for nests
containing their eggs, might, in coming
across these, become discouraged or per-
haps think that all the nests in sight
were deceptions, and so give up their
search. Unfortunately, this little scheme
rarely succeeds. Snakes get many of
their" eggs, especially those found in and

NATURE STUDIES IN AND AROUND WASHINGTON

47

around the marsh-lands, as the deadl}'
"copperhead," the young of which spe-
cies is seen in Figure 8, — a \'irginia
specimen which I photographed and sul>
sequently placed in the National Mu-
seum collections.

Of all my studies and photographic
work, none is more fascinating than the
insects and flowers of this region, and
everv year that goes hy adds forty or
fifty' new subjects to my collection. As
I write these lines I am yearning for the

FIG.

THE SPOTTED PELIDNOTA OR
GRAPEVINE BEETLE.

FIG. 6.

THE YOUNG OF THE GREAT

HORNF.n owr..

"bluets'" and the crow- or bird-foot vio-
lets to show themselves again, peeping
up amid the dead leaves of last year's
growth. A beautiful bunch of bluets
are shown in Fig. lo, which I took last
year in Maryland, just a little ways from
our home.

Insect life is very abundant here ; and
over thirty years ago the veteran ento-
mologist of the U. S. Department of Ag-
riculture, the late Charles \'alentine
Riley, told me that, by careful search,
there were still ftew species of the
smaller forms of insects to be described
for the District of Columbia and north-
ern Mrginia. Few contributed more to
this subject than Professor Riley, and
especially along the line of those species
of insects which are the enemies of the
agriculturist, or destroyed our shade-

Fir,. S. VOTING COPPERHFAn VIPER OR SNAKE.
Not to he trusted at this age, and very venomous when older.

48

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

FIG. 9. THE BROAD-NECKED TRIONUS.

trees, or were pests in other ways.

Out of my large collection of insect
photographs taken in this region, I select
two for reproduction here, — the one
shown in Fig. 7 being the "Spotted Pel-
idnota," which often does great damage
to the wild and cultivated grape-vines
during the summer months ; the other
subject (Fig. 9) is the well-known
"Broad-necked Prionus," the larva; of
wliich feed upon the roots of the grape-
vine, and which doubtless is a harmful
insect in other ways.

IVIany of the moths and butteflies of
the District are very beautiful, and a dis-
play-collection of these, together with
other insects, is now being made for one
of the exhibition-rooms at the U. S. Na-
tional ]^Iuseum. This is very convenient
for study, and of great assistance to
those interested in this particular and
important branch of zoology.

FIG. 10. A BEAUTIFUL BUNCH OF "BLUETS.'

THE INTEREST IN INSECTS

49

Bee Buccaneers.

BY JOHN H. LOVELL, WALDBORO, MAINE.

The diligence of bees is proverbial,
and they have long been held up as mod-
els of industry in both prose and poetry.
It is then with no small astonishment
tliat we learn that there are idle bees,
which have given up nest building and
storing supplies ; and live wholly, as re-
gards brood rearing, at the expense of
their neighbors. Like robbers, as they
are. they steal into the homes of the
rightful owners of the nests, when they
are away, and lay their eggs on the balls
of bee-bread. They are called guest-
bees, brood parasites, or inquilines ;
while their unconscious victims are
known as host-bees.

The guest-bees are usually allied in
structure with their hosts, and both are
probably derived from the same primi-
tive stock, thus the false bumblebees,
which live in the nests of bumblebees,
are commonly mistaken for bumblebees,
and both doubtless had a common ances-
try. The origin of this habit is not per-
haps wholly clear, but it is only one of
many manifestations in nature of a wide-
spread tendency among animals and
plants, not excepting the human race, to
live at the expense of others when there
is an opportunity. Common genera of
parasitic bees in the eastern states are
^v'omada, Coelioxys, Stelis. Melecta. and
Psithvrus, or the false bumblebees. (Fig.
I).

Of the lives and adventures of these
bold buccaneers of the air we know
little :

"His morals are mixed, but his will is
fixed ;

He prospers after his kind.
And follows an instinct, compass-sure.

The philosophers call blind.

And that is why, when he comes to die,
He'll have an easier sentence.

Than some one I know who thinks just
so.
And then leaves room for repentance."
The way in which a parasitic bee en-
ters the burrow of a nest bee is thus de-
scribed by Dr. Graenicher : A parasitic
bee (Triepeohts iiuniiiiiis comes flying

FIG. 1. COMMON PARASITIC BEES.

1. Nnmnda beUa : n. female; b. male.

2. Melecta miranda, female.

3. Melecta interrupta, female.

4. Triepeolus donatus: a, female; b, male.

5. Coelioxys rufitarsis: a, female; b, male.

6. Stelis foederalis, female.

over a clay-bank examining every hole
and crevice in search of the nest of a
host-bee. When it discovers the burrow
of Colletes eulophi it becomes greatly ex-
cited, crawling around with quivering
wings, looking into the tunnel but not
entering. It soon takes up a position on
a small plant, and waits patiently until
the owner arrives with its load of pollen
and honey and disappears in the nest.
After the departure of the host-bee the
parasite enters the nest where it remains
about a minute. It then spends nearly six
minutes in studying the territory around
the nest in order that it may easily locate
it again. For several successive days it
returns and at the right time deposits an

50

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

egg- on the bee-bread (a mixture of nec-
tar and pollen). At last the nest is defin-
itely closed by its owner {Collet cs culo-
phi) and both bees disappear to return
no more.

Another parasitic bee (Stclis uiacii-
lata) lays her eggs in the nests of Alci-

FIG. 2. DIAGRAMS OF SECTIONS OF CELLS.

A. Diagram of a section lengthwise through a
cell troni the nest of Alcidamea prodncta: c, egg of
host bee, Alcidamea producta; d, egg of parasitic bee,
Stelis sexmaculata.

B. Diagram of section lengthwise through lower
half of cell of Megachile latimanus: e, egg of host
bee, Megachile latimanus; f, egg of parasitic bee,
Coelioxys rufitarsis. Notice that the egg of
the parasitic bee is concealed on the side of the mass
of bee bread. (After Graeniclier).

damea producta. The nest of Alcidamea
producta is a tunnel in the pith of the
dry stem of the blackberry or sumac. At
the bottom there is stored a conical mass
•of bee-bread on the top of which Alci-
damea lays her egg; during the absence
of the host-bee the parasite Stelis enters
the tunnel and lays an egg on the side
near the base of the bee-bread. (Fig. 2).
The host-bee may build as many as four
such cells, one over the other, closing
each with a felt-like mass of chewed
strawberry leaves.

Let us now enter the nest and observe
the tragic end which awaits the rightful
heir. According to Dr. Graenicher both

B

FIG. 3. MANDIBLES OF LARVAE.

A. Mandible of larva of host bee, Alcidamea pro-
ducta. Notice that it is blunt and bifid, adapted
neither for attack nor defense.

B. Acutely pointed mandible of larva of parasitic
bee, Stelis sexmaculata, with which it pierces the body
of the host larva. (After Graenicher).

eggs hatch at nearly the same time. The
larva of the parasite is armed with long-
sharp mandibles; but those of the host
larva are blunt and bifid and not well
adapted either for defense or attack — so
the latter is doomed from the beginning.
When the two larvae meet, while feed-
ing on the bee-bread, the parasite seizes
the body of the host-larva between its
sharp mandibles. The latter may strug-
gle a little but soon succumbs ; after
sucking out the liquid contents of its
host the parasite resumes feeding on the
bee-bread. If the host bee lays two eggs
in the same cell, the larvae can not injure
each other; but if there are two larvae
of the parasite a combat is certain to re-
sult, and the victor is the larva obtaining-
the first hold on the body of the other.

The handsomest parasitic bees belong
to the genus Nomada, and Smith calls
them most beautiful of all the genera
found in Great Britain. They are often
called wasp-bees, "because of their gay
coloring." They are dark red in color,
often sufifused partially with black, and
maculated with bright or pale yellow (a
yellow streak is certainly a fitting color
for these bees). The males are much
jTiore yellow than the females. As the
females no longer .gather pollen they
have largely lost the hair brushes used
for this purpose. They lay their eggs
in the burrows of the ground bees (An-
drciia). They occur chiefly north of the
equator, and are more abundant in west-
ern than in eastern North America.

In New England there are two species
of false bumblebees, of the genus Psithy-
rus, which live in the nests of the bum-
blebees. In appearance they closely re-
semble bumblebees, and are no doubt de-
rived from the same ancestral stock.
They produce no workers, only males
and females, which would appeal to a
certain type of socialists as an ideal state
of afifairs. They were long supposed to
be merely commensals, living with the
bumblebees but doing no harm. Their
economy, however, has recently been
fully described by Sladen. The female
Psithyrus attacks and kills the bumblebee
queen and takes possession of the nest ;
but with cunning foresight she waits un-
til a sufficient number of eggs have been
laid to provide a force of bumblebee
workers large enough to provide for her-
self and her brood. Sometimes she waits
too long and enters a colony with a
strong company of workers, and is fu-

THE INTEREST IN INSECTS

51

tiniately as }ou may, and I am ready to
let fall the veil which hides me, and
trust myself and all my secrets to you."

FIG. 4. TWO COMMON FALSE BUMBLEBEES.

1. Psithyrus ashtoni: a, female; b, male.

2. Psithyrus laboriosus: a, female; b, male.

riously assailed, overcome and slain.
Females of the false bumblebees do not
fight with each other. So little is known
about American bumblebees that they
offer a most interesting field for study.
(Fig- 4)-

While according to human ethical
standards there are pirates of the air
among the bees, the group as a whole is
of inestimable value in the pollination of
flowers. In the absence of insect visits
a great number of flowers would remain
unfertile, for example, a large part of
our fruits, as apples, pears, plums,
sweet cherries, grapes, cucumbers and
squashes, in the absence of insects, are
largely or wholly unproductive. As pol-
linators the bees easily surpass all other
insects in importance. As they all live
on flower food in both the larval and
adult stages, they are compelled con-
stantly to visit flowers. In the spring
the air around the catkins of the willows
and the bloom of the plum trees is filled
with wild bees. But the collector should
examine every conspicuous flower, for
some bees fly only in spring, others
only in autumn. Bees with a short
term of flight, as a month or two, often
restrict their visits almost entirely to
to one kind of common flower, as the
willows, golden-rods and asters, which
yield an abundance of pollen and nectar.

There is no more fascinating study
than the relations of flowers and insects,
and in the words of Hermann Mueller
the flowers extend to you this invitation :

"Only venture to come to me, and in
true love make yourself acquainted with
me and all mv conditions of life, as in-

Which Bees Swarm Out?

Gentryville, Indiana.
To the Editor : —

I shall feel greatly obliged to you if
you will kindly answer the following
question : Do young or old bees leave
the hive in the swarm?

Halligan in his "Fundamentals of Ag-
riculture," states that the old bees
swarm, while T. Chalmers Potter in his
booklet, "Beekeeping for Sedentary
Folk," states that the young bees swarm.

Assuring you that your answer will be
greatly appreciated,
I am,
Very truly yours.

J. B. Harter.

You are both right and wrong. The
fact is, that both young bees and old bees
go out with the swarm. The very young
bees, of course, are left with the young
brood to take care of them. Practically
speaking, the average swarm is made up
of drones of all ages, bees of all ages, but
mainly field bees and young bees that are
old enough to go to the fields, or old
enough to go out and indulge in the play
spells out in front of the entrance of the
hive on bright sunny days. — The A. I.
Root Company.

An English naturalist reports two dif-
ferent male blackbirds which chanced,
early in the mating season, to catch
sight of their own reflections in a win-
dowpane and came back every day to
fight it. The one kept up the visionary
combat during and entire month, the
other throughout the spring. Neither
bird appeared to have the least capacity
to profit by experience.

During the recent siege of Antwerp,
the famous Zoological Gardens belong-
ing to the city received only a single
hostile shell, wdiich fell among the
turtles and did little damage. Before
the bombardment began, however, the
management thought it wisest to shoot
all the bears ; and later after the city
took fire, all the large carnivora were
likewise disposed of. as well as the
venomous serpents. Otherwise the
institution has suffered little except for
lack of money.

52

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Ants' Heads Do Walk About.

In our May number we quoted from
"The American Botanist" an article en-
titled, "Interesting- But Not True." We
suggest that in criticising others, one
should say nothing that may be criticised
by those others. The following letters
are self-explanatory :

Washington, D. C.
To the Editor:

I am enclosing a page from your May
number of The Guide to Nature with
a slight correction. It so happens that,
so far as I know, I was the first to re-
port the facts about an "ant's^head walk-
ing by itself without a body." ,

I take the following from my note-
book of July loth, 1887, the facts after-
wards being reported to the Entomo-
logical Society here: "Hollis, N. H.,
July 10.

"While sitting on the front steps I no-
ticed the headless bodies of some black
ants (Camponotus pennsylvaniciis)
which were still alive. On looking
around carefully I found several heads
lying detached. On examination each
head was found to be occupied by a
small, live, white worm. They were able
to move around by keeping the head on
its flat (posterior) surface and by
elongating themselves, pushing their
house backward — "

Several years later Mr. E. A.
Schwartz of the Agricultural Depart-
ment reported a full study of the sub-
ject and identified the adult of the worm
as a parasitic fly ( ?) which deposited its
eggs on the back of the ant's head.

"The American Botanist," from which

you quote should change its quotation

to, Be sure you are right, then go ahead.

Sincerely yours,

William H. Fox, ^I. D.

^ * *

\Vashington, D. C.
To the Editor :

I have yours of the 4th, with letter
from Dr. William H. Fox of this city
and clipping from the May number of
The Guide to Nature. Doctor Fox is
correct, with the single exception that
the man who wrote the second article
conveying the determination of the para-
site and so on was not Mr. E. A.
Schwarz. but Mr. Theodore Pergande of
this Bureau. You will find an account
of this curious phenomenon of an ant's
head apparently walking by itself in my

"Insect Book" published by Doubleday
Page &Co., on pages 147-148, under the
head of "The Hump-backed Flies (Fam-
ily Phoridae)." I quote:

"Life History of the Ant-Decapitating
Fly
{Apoccphalus pcrgandei Coquillett.)
"It would be rather a misnomer to call
this a typical life history since this form
seems peculiar in its habits and rather
aberrant among the Phoridae, but the
observations which have been made upon
it by Dr. W. H. Fox and Mr. Theo. Per-
gande have been more complete than any
which have been made upon other mem-
bers of the family, so it is here included.
A common black ant (Camponotus perui-
sylvanicus) is the host of this little
hump-backed fly. In the District of Co-
lumbia and in New Hampshire the fly
may be found in midsummer darting
about the moving ants on tree trunks
and elsewhere and finally succeeding in
laying its ^gg, sometimes after a strug-
gle, on the neck of the ant. The Qgg
hatches and the young larva bores direct-
ly into the head of the ant. As it en-
larges it eats out the whole head cavity,
the head breaks ofif from the body of the
ant and moves about independently, pro-
pelled by the body of the contained mag-
got which extrudes partly from the neck
hole. The larva of the fly transforms to
pupa with the last larval skin in the cut
oft' ant's head and the adult fly issues in
the course of from two to three weeks.
To see an ant's head walking off by itself
is a curious sight, yet it is common
enough where this fly abounds. Dr. Fox
named it, appropriately enough, 'the ant-
decapitating fly.' "

Sincerely yours,

L. O. Howard,
Chief of Bureau.

The latest of the long series of mono-
graphs on "The Natural History of
New England" brought out by the
Boston Society of Natural History is
by W. C. Kendall, associate of the
United States Bureau of Fisheries. It
comprises part T of a proposed mono-
graph on the salmon family, and is
given over exclusively to the trouts.
In addition to the usual minute de-
scriptions in the hundred quarto pages,
there is much historical information,
together with seven large and beauti-
ullv colored plates.

THE MINERAL COLLECTOR

•53

■■r ■■vyy^Y^rv^^^.-o^ri.i.iri.iii.Mi.n-rtjtj.iiiiMiroTrTiomcUXaxet^^

THE MINERAL COLLECTOR

« ■■« Yrrfrr, ^rtTywvvTVYTrv»-i-«vY-fi-.T 1 1 1 ni.i.Ti i-i-nm o oTjcixgcaaxoooocOJCgooooeoooecoaxc

Mica and Isinglass. crystallize in the monoclynic sys-

tem. The various species are charac-

BY R0BI2RT SPARKS WALKER, CH.VTTA- ^-ii •. 11 -ij-

tenzed by a basal cleavage yielding

NOOGA, TENN. tough scales, which vary from colorless

Mica is not isinglass. There is a group to jet black. Muscovite is our common

of minerals classified under the name mica, and is generally known by the

mica, such as muscovite, paragonite, simple name mica. Colorless mica is

lepidolite, biotite. etc. ; the illustration used in stove doors, for lamp chimneys,

LARGE PIECES OF MICA OF THE Ml'SCOVPrE VARIETY.

shows a piece of the muscovite variety, in the manufacture of insulating mate-

the kind most familiar to our read- rial, of wall paper, of dynamite and as a

ers. These mica minerals, consisting lubricant. In the year 1900, 70,587

of aluminum silicate, with varying pounds of sheet mica were mined in the

proportions of potassium, sodium, etc.. United States.

54

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

IMuscovite mica is a normal constituent
of granite, gneiss, and similar rocks.
Deposits from which sheet mica is ob-
tained, are found in a coarse granite
called pegmatite. Its preparation is sim-
ple. When freed from rocks, it is split
into blocks by the use of wedges, and
then cut into various sizes.

The picture shows a view of some of
the mica mined by the Ridgeway Mica
Company, Ridgeway, Virginia. North
Carolina furnishes nearly half the mica
now used.

The Ridgeway people take out about
15,000 pounds monthly. The largest
block removed weighed more than 3,000
pounds. The mine apparently contains
enough mica to keep the owners busy for
nearly a century.

Mica, especially sheet mica, is often re-
ferred to as isinglass. This is an erro-
neous application of the word, as mica
and isinglass are two entirely different
things.

Isinglass, the dried swimming bladder
of certain fishes, is prepared by tearing
the air bladder from the back of the fish,
washing it in clear water, and removing
the outer black skin. It is then spread
on a board to dry, and to prevent shrivel-
ing, is tacked to the board. The best
quality is made from sun-dried sounds.
After being thus dried the sound is
moistened with warm water and the in-
terior glossy skin removed by rubbing.
It is then pressed between two highly
polished iron rollers. If it is desired to
extract the gelatin, which sometimes
amounts to more than ninety per cent.,
the sound is bleached in a sulphuric acid
solution. This causes it to swell into a
mass, which, when dry, is bright and
colorless.

Pure isinglass should be free from
odor and taste. If not tasteless, it is not
pure. It is used for the same purposes
as gelatin, and in cement. It is the isin-
glass in court plaster that makes the
plaster adhesive.

Isinglass is prepared in many coun-
tries, but principally in Manila. Canada,
Brazil, Russia, West Indies and East In-
dies. The best is probably that from the
sturgeon, but the bladders of cod and
other fish furnish a good quality — From
the "Southern Fruit Grower." by per-
mission.

Copper Rocks and Boulders in Sound
Beach.

ArcAdiA has recently received from
the mines of the Calumet and Hecla Min-
ing Company at Calumet, Michigan, two
samples of native copper, one a rock
weighing considerably more than a quar-
ter of a ton, the other a boulder of forty-
eight pounds. The rock has been placed
in an appropriate position at the entrance
to the Welcome Reception Room and as
nearly under the word "Welcome" as is
convenient. This seems especially fitting,
since both specimens have been presented
to The Agassiz Association by Mr. R. L.
Agassiz, Vice President of the Calumet
and Hecla Mining Company, and grand-
son of Louis Agassiz, for whom the sci-
entific association is named. The Calu-
met and Hecla Mining Company has been
so intimately connected with the name of
Agassiz, and the name Agassiz is
of nature, that a peculiar significance in-
heres in this great mass of copper as an
emblem of the welcome that we extend
to all to share in the benefits of this
nature study institution.

The mineralogical section of ArcAdiA
has grown extensively in the past year.
The fireplace compose-:! of minerals from
all parts of the country, mostly contri-
buted by friends of The Agassiz Associa-
tion, has acted as a nucleus, around which
a large number of interesting specimens
has rapidly accumulated.

The ancient superstition that gun-
fire, Fourth of July, and blasting, bring
on rain, seems to be pretty well dis-
posed of by the weather records of the
artillery proving-ground at Shoebury-
ness, England. Here are tried out, al-
most daily, the largest guns made —
yet the locality has almost the smallest
rainfall in the United Kingdom.

A grandson of Charles Darwin, him-
self a scientific man of no small parts,
has perished in Flanders.

The Oregon Experiment Station re-
ports a flock of fifty hens with an aver-
age of 213 eggs apiece during one
calendar year ; with 220 for the average
of the actual laying year of each parti-
cular hen. The world's champion layer,
which last year produced 303 in 365
days has now brought her score to 505
and broken the two-year record. An-
other bird claims the astonishing total
of 819 eggs in four years. The average
farm hen" attains from fifty to seventy-
five.

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

Contributions to the Observatory.

Sound Beach : ]\Ir. E. B. Lockwood,
$i.oo; Mrs. Robert McGinnis, $10.00.
A Friend, $1.00; A Friend, $2.00. Total.
$14.00.

Greenwich : Mr. A. W. W. Marshall,
$2.00; Mr. E. C. Converse, $100.00; Mr.
Arthur S. 'Todd, $1.00; Mr. R. M. Wil-
cox, $1.00; Mr. P. W. Hatheway, $1.00;
Mr. A. F. Rippel, $1.00; ^Ir. R. L.
Chamberlain, $1.00; Air. William S.
Meany, $2.00; ]\Ir. Walter B. Todd,
$10.00; Mr. Francis Clark, $1.00; Mr.
Frederick C. Manvel, $5.00. Total
$125.00

Stamford: A Friend, $3.00; Mv. Ed-
ward A. Myrick, $1.00; ]\lr. O. E. Stone,
$1.00: Mr. T. H. Kirk, $1.00; Mr. Wil-
liam R. INIichaels, $1.00; Air. George R.
Close, $1.00; Air. B. F. Whitford, $i.oo;
Voska & Otto, $2.00 ; Air. Edmund Rvan,
$1.00: Air. C. O. Aliller, $5.00; Air. R. H.
G. Cunningham, $10.00; Air. George
Breman, $5.00; Mrs. Fitch A. Hoyt,
$5.00; Air. Fitch A. Hoyt, $25.00; Airs.
Belden B. Brown, $3.00; Dr. J. D.
Hertz, $2.00. Total,
Elsewhere : Aliss
$5.00; Air. Arthur A.
setts, $50.00; Air. H.
sylvania, $io.oo; Air. William Tyler
Olcott, Connecticut, $1.00; A Prominent
Astronomer, $25.00; Airs. Charles E. H.
Phillips, Connecticut, $5.00 ; Dr. Robert
T. A'lorris, New York, $5.00; Mr. H. E.
Deats, New Jersey, $5.00; Air. Chas. A.
Bruun. Alissouri, $10.00. Total, $116.
Grand Total, S322.00.

$67.00.
Hills, Oklahoma,
Carey, Alassachu-

L. Cassard, Penn-

E. C. Converse Gives $100.

After Reading Press Editorial He

Sends Check to Help Buy

Telescope for ArcAdiA.

Alay 10, 191 5.
Greenwich Press,

Greenwich, Conn.
Gentlemen : —

Enclosed find check for $100 to the

order of Dr. E. F. Bigelow, for use to-
ward the purchase of a telescope. I was
interested in your article on this subject,
and am desirous of helping Dr. Bigelow
accomplish his laudable purpose.
Very truly yours,

E. C. Converse.

In response to the editorial which ap-
peared in this newspaper last week, ask-
ing people to help Dr. E. F. Bigelow
establish an astronomical observatory at
ArcAdiA, in Sound Beach, E. C. Con-
verse sent to The Press to-day the above
letter, enclosing a check for One Hun-
dred Dollars as a donation.

This is only one of the many public-
spirited things that the steel 'magnate
has done to help along the growth and
welfare of Greenwich. The Press ex-
tends its thanks to Air. Converse, in the
name of the people of Greenwich. — "The
(jreenwich Press."

Greenwich: What Is in the Name?

Director Schlesinger of the observa-
tory of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, in a re-
cent conversation made this appropriate
suggestion :

"Establish an observatory in the town
of Greenwich? Why, of course you
should. It is the most fitting thing that
could be done. It is a wonder that sncli
an observatory was not long ago estab-
lished there, merely for the carrying out
of the associations suggested by the
name."

The world over, the word "Greenwich''
is a synonym for astronomy and astro-
nomical investigation. Everyone knows
that the longitude of a place on the earth
is the_ angle at the pole made by the
meridian passing through the observer's
place. The place from which most na-
tions have agreed to count their time is
Greenwich, England. Some of them have
their own time for their own pur-
poses, but for general purposes, as,
for instance, events occurring in the
sky, all refer to Greenwich time : that is,

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

by what the sun appears to do at Green-
wich. It seems fitting' that the word.
"Greenwich," of Connecticut, should
step forward in astronomical affairs. It
is hoped that the first step toward our
first popular observatory may lead to
something on a larger scale, and that the
word, "Greenwich," may become as fa-
mous as an observatory for the general
public to view the wonders of the heav-
ens as its great namesake is famous as
a technical investigator of those wonders.

When Things Are Darkest Push
Ahead.

In these times of war and other things,
these are indeed dark days. We have
been told that it is not financially a good
time to attempt new things. It may not
be a good time to accomplish new things
but there is never a time when it is not
best to attempt to do better work and to
render more efficient services to man-
kind. The Agassiz Association has
many problems in connection with the
continuation of its present work, but we
have faith to believe that through the aid
of many kind friends it will go forward,
and we believe also that it has a greater
work to do with a larger development.
The wrong time? Discouraged? Not a
bit. Why we are only a short way on the
Sound from the home of that famous
Abraham Davenport, who on that dark-
est of days ]\Iay iQth 1780 said work
should not be discontinued but go on. It
is worth while to read John Greenleaf
Whittier's poem telling of that man who
was not discouraged even when every-
thina: was dark.

From a brown homestead, where the

Sound
Drinks the small tribute of the Mianas,
Waved over by the woods of Rippowams,
And hallowed by pure lives and tranquil

deaths,
Stamford sent up to the councils of the State
Wisdom and grace in Abraham Davenport.

The low-hung sky
Was black with ominous clouds, save where

its rim
Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which

climbs
The crater's sides from tlie red hell below.
Birds ceased to sing, and all the barn-yard

fowls
Roosted ; the cattle at the pasture bars
Lowed, and looked homeward ; bats on

leathern wings
Flitted abroad ; the sounds of labor died :
Men prayed, and women wept ; all ears grew

sharp

To hear the doom-blast of the trumpet shatter
The black sky.

No faithless servant frightened from my task,
But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls ;
And therefore, with all reverence, I would

say,
"Let God do His work, we will see to ours.
Bring in the candles." And they brought

them in.

In spite of the dark days in
these strenuous financial times, we be-
lieve that our work is of sufficient im-
portance to issue a call to all workers,
"Bring in the candles." And I am sure
that the future historian of the early
days of this Institution will write as did
Whittier. "And they brought them in."

The Genuine Altruistic Spirit.

Mr. Charles A. Bruun, an attorney
of Kansas City, Missouri, writes :

"By all means, ArcAdiA should have
a telescope. Have you inaugurated a
campaign? It seems to me that $1,000
should be, and can be, raised by popu-
lar subscriptions of perhaps $10 each.
I may not often 'see through it,' but
you may put me dow^n for $10, v^hich
will be forwarded whenever your am-
bitions shall have been fulfilled, or
realized."

The Observatory at Sound Beach.

"Popular Astronomy" of Northfield,'
Minnesota, the principal publication of
the United States devoted to populariz-
ing astronomy, in its recent June-July
issue, gives an extended notice regarding
the efforts to establish an astronomical
observatory and adds the following edi-
torial approval :

" 'Popular Astronomy' is always ready
to approve and to encourage steps which
will lead to wider interest in astronomy
and we believe thoroughly in the useful-
ness of the observatory which may be
frequently open to the public at regular
intervals. Everyone ought to know
something of the story of the universe
and nothing gives more of a stimulus to
the study than an occasional look
through a good telescope at some of the
wonders of the skv."

We Need $700 More

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

57

Good Words for the Observatory.

I greatly rejoice that you intend put-
ting up a new observatory in a place so
Avell calculated for the study of heavenly
phenomena. — J. S. Ricard, University of
Santa Clara, Santa Clara. California.

I think your plan to establish an ob-
servatory a good one. No instruction
is given in astronomy in any of the
schools under my charge as far as I
know. I hope that some instruction will
be given in the High School. — Edwin C.
Andrews, Superintendent The Public
Schools, Greenwich, Connecticut.
^ ^ ^ jjc ^

I sincerely hope that you will succeed
in your endeavor to establish an observ-
atory. A man who has been so success-
ful in popularizing astronomy ought to
"have his facilities for such service in-
creased.— Herbert A. Howe, Director
The Chamberlin Observatory, University
of Denver, University Park, Colorado.

^ jjc ^ ^ :{;

I am very glad to express my cordial
approval, and hope that you may be suc-
cessful in raising the money needed. I
welcome every effort that is made to give
the "man in the street" a glimpse of the
wonders of the heavens. — Anne Sewill
Young, John Payson Williston Observa-
tory, Mount Holyoke College, South
Hadley, Massachusetts.

^; ^ ^ ^ ^

I sympathize heartily with your pur-
pose in wanting an astronomical observ-
atory. I know of nothing which appeals
to the imagination in a more helpful way
than a study of the stars, and through
the imagination to the sense of wonder
that does so much to refresh the minds of
people wdiose grooves of life are neces-
sarily narrow. — Arthur A. Carey, Fel-
lowship Plouse, Waltham, Massachusetts.

^ :^ ^ ^ ^

I am glad to learn that you are under-
taking the campaign for the estal:)lish-
ment of a public observatory at Sound
Beach. As you know, we have had con-
siderable experience in this matter at the
Allegheny Observatory, with highly
gratifying results. I can hardly imagine
any other way in popular education in
which larger results can be obtained for
a small outlay of money, than by giving
the public access to a good telescope un-
der the charge of a well-informed and

enthusiastic attendant. Your project de-
serves immediate success, and I should
be glad to assist in it in any way that I
can. — Frank Schlesinger, Director Alle-
gheny Observatory of the University of
Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania.
■'fi ^ ^ ^ ^

Your effort to get the observatory de-
serves the hearty approval of every one
interested in astronomy and the general
culture of people. I feel that it must suc-
ceed, and I wish that some person of
large means may be found to establish
it. Probably but few astronomers can
give material aid, because most of them
find the financial end the handicap in
their own work. — Tilton C. H. Bouton,
Hudson, New Hampshire.

^ ^J; ^ ^ ?Jc

The plan to establish an observatory
at ArcAdiA, Sound Beach, by Edward
F. Bigelow, is a project which should be
heartily supported by residents through-
out this entire section. ]\Iost of us are
interested in astronomy. It is generally
admitted that it has great value from
the utility point of view to navigators and
others, but it is astronomy freed from
any physical needs that ]\Ir. Bigelow has
in mind. The telescope that he proposes
to erect in Sound Beach will cost about
$800, and already nearly one-half that
amount has been subscribed. The ear-
nestness of Mr. Bigelow is to be com-
mended, and he is receiving the sup-
port of many noted astronomers in this
country. — "Greenwich News and Gra-
phic."

Your wish to establish an astronomical
observatory for popular use in the town
of Greenwich is admirable. Every town
needs such an observatory. It seems es-
pecially neglectful that so large, well-
populated, and very prosperous a section
of the country should not have such an
institution. A six-inch telescope would
be the most useful. A glass of that size
shows well the objects of general in-
terest and can be turned quickly from
one part of the sky to another. I sincere-
ly hope }'ou will be successful in estab-
lishing such an observatory "for the gen-
eral dift'usion of knowledge." In regard
to the possibility of securing a large ob-
servatory for research work, it is the be-
lief of most astronomers that more can
he accomplished by gifts to the existing
observatories than bv establishing new

58

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.

ones, unless some site is found offering-
better conditions, such as in a higher al-
titude or in a southern latitude. May
somebody build small, well equipped ob-
servatories all over the country, as Mr.
Carnegie has libraries. — Miss h. B. Al-
len, Observatory House, Wellesley,
Massachusetts.

The Pioneer Astronomers.

Mr. Lemont Barbour of Columbia
University purposes to establish a
Chapter of The Agassiz Association
to search for new stars, for comets,
and to do general pioneer work in as-
tronomy. He says, "My plan is to get
together a number of members of the
AA and assign them particular sec-
tions of the sky to observe as often
as possible. These sections will not
be very large, probably about the size
of the constellation Auriga. The plan
of work is along the lines sketched by
Mr. Leon Campbell in 'Popular As-
tronomy' for October, 1914. The only
requisites are a good star atlas (Schu-
rig's, price $1.00, is a good one and is
not expensive, as is Proctor's) and a
certain amount of perseverance. When
a Nova is discovered, the person sends
a note to me and a telegram to the
nearest observatory for confirmation.
This should be done immediately, and
should merely include a statement of
the Nova's location in relation to the
nearest bright stars and its approxi-
mate magnitude, calculated by com-
parison with near by stars of known
magnitude. For those possessing tel-
escopes (there are surely some people
in the AA who own telescopes) a sim-
ilar but more certain work, more cer-
tain, that is, because they have charts
showing the star that they are to ob-
serve and when to look for it, consists
in observing stars that were once
Novae, but are now rather dim. If the
work appeals sufficiently to the ob-
servers, those who wish to do so may
join Mr. Olcott's association of Vari-
able Star Observers. Particulars may
be had regarding this from me or from
Mr. Olcott, 62 Church street, Norwich,
Connecticut."

We purpose to make the new ob-
servatory at ArcAdiA the center or
clearing house for astronomical work
w^ith young people, with either small
telescopes or good field glasses. Meet-
ings will be held here from time to

time. Air. Barbour cordially invites
correspondence. He proposes that the
motto of the new astronomical Chap-
ter be "Per stellas ad lumen" (through
the stars to enlightenment). It is

probable that this plan may result in
two new corresponding Chapters, one
for those who have telescopes and the
other an opera glass or field glass
Chapter. Regarding this plan our
Professor Eric Doolittle w^rites as fol-
lows :

"This would be an excellent plan and
will prove an interesting and attractive
work to those who seriously enter upon
it. But I would not limit the efforts to
'new' stars, nor probably did Mr. Bar-
bour intend this. Let each observer take
a small area of the sky and become so-
familiar with it that he shall 'know^ it like
a book.' Then upon searching the region
at frequent intervals, he will at once
notice anything new or different, whether
it be a new star, a sudden variation in
brightness of an old one, a comet or any-
thing unusual.

"It would add greatly to the value
and interest of this work if each observer
could have at least a small telescope.
Even if it were but a pair of field glasses,
held firmly with heavy rubber bands to-
a cheap tripod, this would be a dozen
times more efficient than the unaided eye.
I remember that twenty-five years ago,,
my first professor. Professor Laenas G.
Weld, of Iowa City, used to urge the de-
sirability of thus apportioning the entire
sky among professional astronomers..
The idea was that each should take a.
small area and make a full map of it,
putting in all stars visible in his tele-
scope, their magnitudes, colors, the nebu-
las, clusters and everything else. Each
should then sweep over his assigned re-
gion until he knows it as well as he-
knows the arrangement of rooms and
furniture in his own house. A brief ex-
amination made each evening before he-
began his regular work in the observa-
tory would then be all that would be
necessary to discover if anything new
had appeared, or any change had taken
place, in his particular region.

"The remarkable new star in Cygnus
(discovered by Schmidt of Athens in
1876) rose from invisibility to a star of
the second magnitude zvithin tzvo hours.
The new star in Perseus (discovered in
1901 by the Reverend T. D. Anderson,.

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

59

an amateur astronomer) increased in
brightness within three days until it was
the brightest star in the northern heav-
ens, Sirius alone excepted. The behavior
of every new star that has appeared has
been most remarkable and, generally
speaking, entirely inexplicable.

"It is true that any single observer
might observe for a long time without
finding anything; in fact he might never
find anything new. Yet the work would
be its own reward, and there would al-
ways remain the hope of a striking dis-
covery to spur him on to continue in it."

What Allegheny and Pittsburgh Have
Done for Popular Astronomy.

I recently visited the astronomical
obser-vatory at Allegheny for the
second time within a few months. The
establishing of that observatory was
indeed an inspiration. It is strictly
astronomical, and strictly altruistic. It
shows what may be done by an intel-
lectual and generous community.

It was only a few years ago that ^Ir.
John A. Brashear. an enthusiastic
lover of astronomy and maker of lenses,
decided to circulate a subscription
paper among his friends and acquain-
tances and the other citizens of Alle-
gheny and Pittsburgh.

At that time there was a small obser-
vatory in Allegheny with a thirteen
inch telescope. This had been bought
in 1859 by popular subscriptions. That
this telescope had been appreciated for
a half century was evinced by the fact
that Mr. Brashear's plea for something
larger and better met with an immediate
and satisfactory response. The public
gave generously and the observatory
was erected at a cost of $300,000. A
new telescope with a thirty-inch objec-
tive was paid for by members of the
Thaw family. Friends of the late Di-
rector Keeler erected a thirty inch re-
flecting telescope as a memorial to him.
Mr. ]\Iellon paid for a spectrograph and
Mr. Porter for a solar spectrograph,
various other enterprising citizens sup-
plying other forms of apparatus, most
of them as memorials. But here enters
a surprising fact that shows the altru-
istic spirit in which it was all done. The
thirty inch telescope is not used for
popular observation. None of the citi-
zens have access to it. So far as local
people are concerned they receive no
more benefit directly from the greater

part of the building and equipment
than if the observatory were located in
California. The gifts are entirely dis-
connected from local use. They are
employed for the benefit of humanity
in general. People of the vicinity are
invited four evenings a week to look
through the old thirteen inch public
telescope and to hear a lecture on as-
tronomy, illustrated by lantern slides.
Nearly all that this observatory, the
third largest in the United States, is
accomplishing with its $300,000 equip-
ment for the people of the cities of
Alleheny and Pittsburgh could be done
in the Sound Beach, Connecticut, ob-
servatory, with an equipment costing
not more than $1,000. The six inch
telescope that it is proposed to erect
here would show practically everything
that can be shown in larger observa-
tories. The projection of astronomical
slides in the Welcome Reception Room
cannot be excelled by any observatory
in the United States.

The great Lick Observatory, on
Mount Hamilton, California, is not
available to the people of the locality
for astronomical purposes, but only to
give tourists an incentive for a pleasing
excursion from San Jose. There is no
hotel on Mount Hamilton and no vis-
itor is allowed to remain there over-
night. He may look at the big tele-
scope, but rarely through it. At Williams
Bay, Wisconsin, he may look at the larg-
est refracting telescope in the United
States but never through it. No large ob-
servatory is readily available to the gen-
eral public because on all fair evenings it
must be used for technical work. Time is
precious Such a telescope cannot be used
for even a single minute, unless its use
adds to our store of astronomical knowl-
edge. But what shall be done for the
public by this accumulation of astrono-
mical information? Just what is done in
other great establishments. In com-
merce the large factory or wdiolesale
house distributes through many similar
but smaller establishments. The United
States does not so much need more big
observatories as it needs numerous places
for distributing the accumulated product.
Such a distributing center it is purposed
to establish at Sound Beach.

When one hears that many hundreds of
thousands of dollars have been spent to
establish a single observatory, and that
the expenses are enormous, it looks as if

6o

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

an expenditure of only about $i,ooo
would not accomplish much. That im-
pression is not correct. The observatory
at Sound Beach will be more available to
the public than is any of the large obser-
vatories of the United States, because it
will be established in the interest of the
general public, while others have been
established to accumulate technical
knowledge.

It is popularly supposed that vastly
more can be seen through these enor-
mous telescopes than through one of
medium power. The fact is that a six
inch telescope, or at least one a little
larger, would show practically every-
thing that a visitor may see through the
largest telescope in the world. For view-
ing some of the popular objects, espe-
cially the moon, the smaller telescope
would be even more convenient, and in
one evening would accomplish more than
can be done by any of the large, unwieldy
instruments.

For the purposes for which this ob-
servatory is to be established, it would
not be advisable to spend much over
$10,000 even if all the money that could
be desired should be available. Some-
thing a little larger than the $1,000
equipment might be used to advantage,
but it is hoped that the small equip-
ment may lead in time to the addi-
tion of a larger. For popular use it is
better to have two medium sized tele-
scopes rather than an enormously large
one. Let us have this thousand dollar
equipment. The building will be small
and inexpensive, but the telescope will be
good enough to grace the finest observa-
tory in the land. We understand that
some of our wealthiest friends think the
$1,000 equipment will be too small to
deserve their aid. It will be large enough
for a beginning, and will be thoroughly
effective.

The above letter was submitted to
Director Schlesinger of the Allegheny
Observatory, and he wrote on the date of
May 29th as follows :

"The subscriptions to our new observa-
tory amounted to $300,000. One anony-
mous donor gave $62,500. Andrew Car-
negie and Mrs. \\^illiam Thaw, Jr., gave
$25,000 each. These are by far the
largest subscriptions, of which there
were several hundred, the smallest one
being for $5. Your appeal to me seems
to be a very strong one, and I shall be
much surprised if it does not succeed."

The Popularizing of Astronomy.

There is doubtless great work yet to
be done in the further establishment and
equipment of observatories. x\stronomy
would have come to little without these in
the past, and its continued progress de-
pends on the men and instruments thus
located. But observatories are not en-
gaged in the popularizing of astronomy ;
they are digging out the sober facts,
which of course we must have, and are
wrestling with the enormous problems
which the science imposes upon them.
They are serving- themselves, a few
others like themselves, a handful of stu-
dents interested in sharing their work,
and a few score of people who read the
astronomical journals, or the popular
science column of a few newspapers. It
remains that the great masses of the
people are uninterested in and unin-
formed about this supreme science.

Xor does this need to be the case.
Profovmd as astronomy is. and unfath-
omable as are the depths of the sky, ex-
perience has shown that the skillful pre-
sentation of this subject to popular
audiences never fails to interest, to ex-
pand the mind, to stimulate the imagin-
ation, to ennoble the character. That we
can know so little about one million
^Millions of gleaming worlds is no reason
for not knowing and enjoving at least
That little.

Hut what are the facts? Astronomy,
which used to be regarded as an essential
in a fairly liberal education, has now
con.ipletely dropped out of the high
school curriculum throughout the state
of New York — so the writer is officially
informed — and no doubt the same is true
in most or all of the other states of the
union; so of private schools for pupils
of similar age. The writer has recently
learned of one where 200 young ladies
and girls are students, only three of
whom are receiving instruction in as-
tronomy. In the colleges, it is true, some
astronomy is taught, though often in-
differently, technically and mathematic-
allv, rather than phenomenally, usually
in association with mathematics or some
other branch of science. Distinguished
professors of astronomy may be good
dehers but i^'oor teachers.

By far the larger number of high
school students do not go to college any-
way ; a large percentage do not even fin-
ish high school. These hosts of young
people go out into life knowing nothing

TO KNOAA^ THE STARRY HEAVENS

6i

of any world except this little speck of
dust on which they happen to he living",
and indeed little enough about that. They
are ignorant of what ought to be primary
in their knowledge of the earth, namely,
its place in the universe of worlds. They
cannot tell 30U the difference between a
star and a planet. They are amazed at
the statement that the moon is not found
to-night where it was last night, as an ex-
perienced teacher was to whom I spoke
of it. They have no clear idea of the phe-
nomena and causes of eclipses. They do
not know one star from another, nor one
constellation from another. When the
subject is astronomy, they either take no
part in conversation or allow themselves
to be betrayed into the most egregious
mis-statements. And, when they walk
abroad at night, and moon and counties.?
orbs are shedding radiance over the
earth, they either do not notice at all, or
else are as lost as if they were amid the
lal^yrinth of Venetian canals. As for any
thrill of healthy emotion, or uplift of
soul, by reason of acquaintance with the
stars, thev are utter strangers to it.

The observatories are already splen-
didly equipped. What we now want is to
unlock the treasures of the observatories,
to let the light stream out of them that
has streamed into them ; to translate the
great facts and figures which they have
accumulated into the familiar language
of the people ; to make easy to the aver-
age mind what has been hard even to the
trained mind ; to inspire a thousand at a
time with the splendor, romance and
magnificence of the universe, which have
again and again heaved the bosom of the
lonely astronomer as he has kept his
vigil at night. This can be done ; on a
very small scale it is being done. Its pos-
sibility and utilitv have been abundantly
demonstrated. The next man or woman,
believer in education and in general en-
lightenment, and lover of his less fortu-
nate fellowmen, should make his gift, not
to an already well equipped institution,
but rather to the people — -"Popular As-
tronomy."

A similar need exists in all other de-
partments of natural science. That is
the reason The Agassiz Association
should be strongly supported.

We Need $700 More

An Observatory — "Per Naturam ad
Deum."

I am pleased to see that you are going
to have a telescope by which you may be
able to diffuse astronomical knowledge
and arouse interest in the queen of sci-
ences. Some years ago I had it dem-
onstrated to me that only one person in
thirty could explain the phases of the
moon, and I doubt if we would find more
than one person in one hundred that can
point out a single star in the heavens
and call it by name. This should not
be : it is ingratitude to God who has bralt
a wonderful universe and given man
vision and intellect to see it and compre-
hend it . People generally believe it re-
quires so much time and study in order
to know anything- about this great .sub-
ject that they pass it up. It never oc-
curs to them that it is as much man's
dutv to study the works of God as it is
to study his words.

I have had an observatory of some
kind or another here for thirty years and
every now and then some one comes to
the observatory, and tells me about what
he saw in a former visit years ago and
how he remembers what he saw. This
shows that the views and impressions
are lasting. There is nothing like as-
tronomy to give one a proper conception
of the Creator, for as his conception of
creation grows his conception of the
Creator must grow in proportion. — John
A. Cook, The Cook Observatory and
United States Weather Station, Alacon,
Missouri.

"Ox Up Lunam with the Shanghai."

Andover, Massachusetts.
To the Editor :

The account in the April number of
Thk Guide to Nature of the chicken
house astronomical observatory recalls to
mind the fact that once upon a time the
fourth largest telescope in America
adorned a henhouse in the back yard of
a little house off what is now Massachu-
setts Avenue, Cambridge.

It was in 1842 or 1843 that J. D. Whit-
ney, the geologist, his brother \\^illiam,
who afterwards was editor of the Cen-
tury Dictionary and the author of the
famous "W^hitney's German Grammar,"
the great Latinist, George M. Lane, and
two astronomers, B. A. Gould and Jo-
seph Winlock, all then young men, took
a house together, which thev named
"Clover Den."

62

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The memory of these brilhant young-
fellows and their housekeeping- has not
yet faded out of Cambridge. What in-
terests us here, however, is that Winlock
was already at work on the "Nautical
Almanac," which later became his great
life work, while Gould was engaged in
determining longitudes for the Coast
Survey. Between them, they actually
managed to corral, for a short while a
great telescope, the property either of
their Uncle Samuel or of the Harvard
Observatory, which they mounted in the
unused henhouse, and by natural asso-
ciation of ideas christened "the Shang-
hai."

The biographer of one of the Whit-
neys confessed himself sorely puzzled by
a sentence in an old letter from one
brother to the other, "Now is the time to
ox up Lunam with the Shanghai."

But with "Shanghai" as the key, one
quickly recalls ihatLnna is Latin for the
moon, and that "ox" in college slang
might easily mean "work" or "study."
Edwin Tenney Brewster.

This letter is indeed most interesting,
containing as it does this personal remi-
niscence of the two eminent astronomers,
Gould and Winlock. The latter is at
once suggested to all double star astron-
omers by his discovery of the very mi-
nute attendant to Regulus and also by
liis discoveries of very many other pairs
which are known by his name, while the
most accurate meridian work of the for-
mer at the observatory of Cordoba
marks an epoch in the history of the as-
tronomy of the southern heavens. Dr.
Gould also founded the astronomical
journal of perhaps the highest standard
of any astronomical periodical of the
world, and after its death there has been
added to its title, "Founded by B. A.
Gould." Many stories of his uniform
consideration for younger astronomers
are known to all and he may truly be
said to have done fully as much as any
one man ever did to advance American
astronomy. I was indeed most inter-
ested in this slight contribution to a his-
torv of these eminent men. — Professor
Eric Doolittle.

We Need $700 More

An Unusually Bright Halo.

Mr. Edward Pennock, of Philadelphia,
has kindly sent us extended notes de-
scribing rings around the sun together
with a column article from a Phila-
delphia newspaper. There was really
nothing extraordinary about this halo
except its unusual brightness. That the
halo not only stirred up interest in the
sun, but was in some cases even a cause
for alarm, is shown by the following
cpotation from the paper :

"About lo o'clock, persons who
glanced up at the sky for a hint of the
weather saw a broad band encircling the
sun, the outer rim a deep purple and
the inner a gorgeous red. In the north-
western quadrant of its centre, a point
in the circumference of the lirst circle,
was a second band of whitish hue, great-
er in size but much less distinct than the
other. In addition there appeared in
the southeast quadrant of the primary
band a segment of about 90 degrees, still
less distinct, although the red and violet
of its edges were discernible. The first
had a 22 degree radius and the second
one of 44 degrees.

"For two hours and more this strange
sight met the gaze of millions, for it was
visible in the greater part of Eastern
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Dela-
ware.

"By noon all Philadelphia and virtu-
ally the rest of the territory concerned
went out of doors and stood on tiptoe
watching the strange sight. Knots of
persons would point their fingers at the
halo and assure themselves that it was
a 'war ring' or that it signified the end
of the world.

" 'Old timers' remembered that a simi-
lar apparition had appeared just before
the Civil War ; others versed in biblical
literature compared it with the rainbow
that cheered the hearts of Noah and his
crew on the Ark, or quoted from Revel-
ations on the end of the world.

"In the Italian section of the city and
in Italian settlements in rural communi-
ties where the rings were observed the
terror in some cases nearly assumed the
proportions of a panic. It was held by
them to be a bad omen for Italy's en-
trance into the war."

This article and other inquiries were
referred to our Professor Doolittle and
he replies as follows :

"The brilliant haloes described bv Mr.

TO KXOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

63

P^eniiock naturally created a great deal
of interest here in Philadelphia, and even
a good deal of excitement among unin-
formed persons who regarded them as
'signs in the heavens' of some evil or
good to come. I suppose that practically
everyone in and around the city saw
them : we received perhaps sixty tele-
])hone calls regarding them between the
liours of 10:30 and 12:, when they were
most conspicuous.

"Of course we carefully observed
them. Aly assistant here saw not only
the three bright ones, but also at least
four more — the outward, so-called par-
helic circles, but sun dogs seemed not
this time in evidence.

"Now this is a well-known and not
at all an iiiuisual phenomenon, though it
is very unusual to see the circles so
bright. I could explain it fully, but I
think this not necessary as the explana-
tion will be found in any meteorology ;
for example, Loomis, pp. 214 to 225, is
very clear and good and illustrated by
many figures. Air. Bliss (our weather
man) tells us that these average about
two hundred eight a year. (This means
sun and moon haloes both). When mak-
ing the noon observations of the sun, we
very frequently see them if the sky is
hazy but otherwise clear, but, as I said,
the usual halo is far fainter than that
seen the other day and so attracts no
particular attention. I have coated a pane
of glass with alum crystals and so can
now show my students a set of three fine
"haloes whenever I wish to do so."

The Tints of Spring.

The tints of spring are rainbow tints,

All roseate and gay ;
Aladdin's lamp to bear us all

To fairyland away.

The mists of green, the gauzy scarfs
Thrown o'er the branches bare.

Are all in keeping with the warmth
And softness of the air.

The trees a-shimmer and a-flower,
Are robed like reigning queen ;

They're regal, ere they settle down
To summer's constant green.

Then come into the open, come,
Renew your own youth too ;

The show is fleeting, all too soon
The pageant will be through.

— Emma Peirce.

The Starry Heavens in July.

BY PROF. KKIC DOOLITTLE OF THE UNI-
VERSITY oF PENNSYLVANIA.

OF all the seven planets, there is not
one whose in the heavens now
brings it within the limits of
our evening star map ; this is the only
month of the year in which this unusual
condition is presented. The observer
who wishes to see at one time as many as
possible of the bright worlds which circle
about the sun, must now go out in the
morning, an hour or less before sunrise.
Then he will see the great Jupiter shin-
ing in the southwest. Mars high in the
heavens in the southeast, and Venus and
Alercury close to the ground in the east,
both so nearly lost in the sun's rays, that
they can be viewed for a few minutes,
only, in the early dawn. The planet-less
condition of the evening heavens will last,
however, for but this single month. On
July 31st, Jupiter will rise but 17 minutes
later than 9 o'clock, and for the rest of
the year this beautiful world will shine
out brightly in our southern skies.
' The July Stars.

There is no part of the heavens which
is more beautiful or more filled with ob-
jects of interest than the southern and
southeastern sky of this month. First, is
the brilliant Scorpio, with its red An-
tares ; to the right of this there will at
once be seen the two stars of the Bal-
ances and the bright, bluish Spica, while,
so high above that they are now almost in
the zenith, is that bright and interesting
train of five striking groups which is led
by Bootes and ended by the Northern
Cross.

All of these groups the observer will
have but little difficulty in tracing out.
but the stars of the great area extending
almost from Arcturus to Sagittarius and
from Hercules to Scorpio are far less
conspicuous. These form the Serpent and
the Serpent-holder. The former is a
long, winding constellation whose head is
the interesting groups of some 15 or 20
stars at A, Figure i, and whose swinging
body extends first downward and then
upward along the exact center of the
Alilky Way. until the tip of the tail is
reached. The Serpent-holder is repre-
sented as an old man whose head is at E
and whose feet are at F, and who holds
the writhing Serpent in his two hands at
the pairs of stars, B and C.

There is a special pleasure in tracing
out and becoming familiar with these

64

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

faint groups, and often their outlines are
more perfect and there are more objects
of interest within their boundaries than
is the case with the few, very brihiant,
constellations, with which nearly every-
one is familiar. But to study these more
hidden beauties of the heavens the ob-
server must be sure to select a dark night,
when the moon is absent, and to go away
from the city or other artificial lights;
it is only then that the wonderful beauty
and infinite complexity of the heavens
will appear to him.

The whole Summer Branch of the
Milky Way is now well up from the

of their enormous distance from us, that
they appear merely as filmy patches of
light in a small telescope.

The Comets Now in the Heavens.

The first comet of the present year has
been approaching the earth and sun so-
rapidly that it will be just visible to the
eye throughout the present month. Un-
fortunately, however, its motion carries
it so verv far below the celestial equator
that during this, its time of greatest
brightness, it is wholly invisible to north-
ern observers. At the beginning of July
it is, in fact, very close to the South Pole

NORTH

FIGURE 1. The Constellations at 9 P. M., July 1. (If facing South hold the map upright. If
-actng east hold East below. Tf facing west hold West below. If facing north hold the map inverted.

ground and this will repay many hours
of exploration with a small telescope. Its
wide southern portion is remarkably
filled with star clouds and streams, alter-
nating with vacant regions from which
the suns seem to have been swept away
to be heaped together elsewhere. This
whole region, and especially the lower
part of Ophiuchus is remarkable for the
great number of round, compact star
clusters which it contains ; but these are
nearly all so faint, probably on account

of the heavens. From here it will move
rapidly northward, traversing the whole
length of the constellation Eridanus, and
finally crossing the celestial equator and
entering the borders of Taurus in
next January. It will be in reasonably
good position for northern observation
next November, but by that time it will
have diminished to the 9th magnitude,
and will continue to grow steadily
fainter.

This comet is one of those, which,.

THE STARRY HEAVENS IN Tl'LY.

65

being originally little nebulous clouds,
far out in space, came to feel the gravi-
tational pull of our sun and to fall toward
that body. Since both the cloud and our
sun are rushing through space, the
chance of an actual collision occurring
is almost infinitely small ; the comet will,
in fact, miss the sun but swing around

then whenever we have a shower of
shooting stars it is because our earth
ploughs through a great stream of me-
teoric particles which were formerly
gathered more closely together into the
cloud form which we call a comet.

The further behavior of this new body
as it approaches the sun will be watched

ConeT AT AlPR ELTON
IS-l JULY 1. ip.r^.

v/

^^^^ITER ^^^==^^^^

A^

1 \ ^\

/ I

\ \\

1

\

L

\

JVLY 1
JVLY 5

V I ~ T 4/ E.A.-RTK SEPT. 1

^\>--_X-«'''^ ■E/\RTH JULY 31
\^ //r ,A^ EARTK c3ULY 1

CoMtT KT Pe.t^ihel.ioh
1310 5BPT. I 5 r:k.

FIGURE

The path of the faint periodic comet, 1915 b, about the sun.

that body, and if undisturbed by the pull
of any of the planets, will recede into
space, never to be seen by us again.

The present comet will attain its near-
est approach to the sun on July i8. The
most interesting observation connected
with it thus far is the discovery that
during Alay its mass disrupted, probably
under the tidal and electrical forces of
the sun toward which it is falling, and
that four masses broke away from the
main head and are now receding from
this at the rate of about 2,000 miles a
day. It is believed that it is from comets
which are thus broken up and whose
substance is distributed for a great dis-
tance along their paths, that no shooting
star-streams are formed. If this is so.

with great interest. It is indeed unfor-
tunate that just at this critical time it will
not be visible from our northern observa-
tories.

Another most interesting comet w^as
re-discovered in April. This body upon
its first approach to the sun was dis-
turbed in its motion by Jupiter and so
forced to follow the closed path shown
in Figure 2. It passes completely around
this orbit in 5 years 10 months ; its last
return was in 1909, and it has appeared
altogether six times since its first discov-
ery. As the path of this body is so ac-
curately known, its apparent position
among the stars can be computed for any
time with great accuracy. It was search-
ed for this year by means of a delicate

66

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

photographic plate and when it finally
had approached near enough to impress
its image upon this plate it was found to
he in practically the exact position which
was predicted. This comet will remain
in our northern heavens throughout the
month, moving along the path M N Fig-

FIG. 3. "THE COMET SEEKER."
A form of small telescope with which the observer
sweeps over the sky, hour atter hour, and night after
night, in the hope of discovering a new comet.

ure I, but it will remain a very faint ob-
ject. It will pass nearest the sun on
September i.

A third, very faint, periodic comet was
discovered in May, in the constellation
Pisces, so that altogether there are three
comets now visible in the sky.

The Planets in July.

Mercury, which came to conjunction
on June 26, will reach its greatest dis-
tance west of the sun on July 18 and may
then be seen in the early morning sky for
one and one half hours before sunrise.

Venus also rises one and one half hours
before sunrise on July i, but this time is
diminished to 40 minutes by July 31.
This planet is rapidly becoming lost in
the sun's rays and will be practically in-
visible after the middle of the month.

Mars is in Taurus, between the Plei-
ades and the Hyades. It rises 3 hours

before the sun on July i and this time is
increased to 3 hrs. 35 min. By July 31.
This planet is drawing steadily nearer
the earth and now shines in the morning
sky with the brightness of a first magni-
tude star.

Jupiter is conspicuous in the southeast
after midnight. It rises at 11 hrs. 20 min.
P.M. on July i, and at 9 hrs. on July 31,

Saturn entered the morning sky on
June 28 and throughout the month re-
mains too near the sun to be observed.

On July 5 at 4 P.M. our earth reaches
its greatest distance from the sun of the
present year. At this time we will be
3,112,100 miles farther away from the
sun than we were at the time of our near-
est approach on the 2nd of last January.

It is related of Sir Isaac Newton that
he was once attracted by a fair lady,
and paid court to her ; in the course of
an evening's visit he fell to musing.
Reaching out his hand he took the
young lady's and raised it gently to-
ward his lips ; he carefully picked out
the little finger on which to bestow
the evidence of his affection. About
this time the lady also became lost in
pleasant thoughts. Sir Isaac squeezed
her finger a bit, and stirred the hot
ashes of his pipe with it. The rest
of the story is short ; he remained a
bachelor. — Howe's "A Study of the
Skv."

The condor of the Andes Mountains,
the largest of all flying birds, takes seven
years to grow up. The birds spend an
entire year in the nest before learning
to fly. After that, they remain for two
years more under their parents' care.
Not until they enter their seventh year,
do they take on completely their adult
plumage.

BY-WAYS.

Lightly tripping. Summer comes.

Clad in verdant coat ;
The weary world the open seeks,

In motor, and in hoat.

But through the highways ; and the fact

Is known to you and me.
That nature's byways are the best.

With stores of wealth to see.

While others hasten, we will stroll.

And find, in every nook.
Enough of interest and charm

To fill a Wonder-Book.

— Emma Peirce.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

^7

c«<c«<gc<«cagc«<c«ggggcg«gcc^«c«<«cc<cc««c«cc<g««cc^

-p^g <^^=im^^J^

• ••♦••••

•••*' i

AQASSIZ ASSOCIATION

k<i<.<i<<^<ss^<^^

Established 1S75

lncorporatP<l, Massachusetts, ISK.

Incorporated, Connecticut, 1910

What The Agassiz Association Offers.

IX GENERAL.

From the Charter of Incorporation :

"The purposes for which said corpora-
tion is formed are the following, to wit :
the promotion of scientific education ; the
advancement of science ; the collection in
museums of natural and scientific speci-
mens ; the employment of observers and
teachers in the different departments of
science, and the general dift'usion of
knowledge."

The Agassiz Association is a Clearing
House for information on any phase of
nature or of natural science. It places at
your convenience the total of all human
knowledge pertaining to the natural
world. This it is able to do by having a
Council of experts in every department
of natural science. If anybody knows it,
}'ou may know it by merely inquiring.

The AA publishes observations, an-
swers questions, identifies specimens and
creates and increases a knowledge and
love of nature. This work is not limited
to its Chapters and Members. The
Guide to Nature, the official organ of
the Association, is devoted to common-
place nature with uncommon interest.

LOCALEY.

ArcAdiA offers to Stamford, Sound
Beach and Greenwich, and to visiting
parties from other places, the facilities
of a general natural history Institution :

The beautiful Agassiz Grove.

A well-equipped Reception Room.

Nymphalia. This is a nature study
park, so named because it is the home of
Nymphs of nature study : Love, Study,
Interest, Enthusiasm, Beauty. Begin
with Love and through the series we find
Beauty. "We love things not because
they are beautiful, but they are beautiful
because we love them."

The Forest of Arden — more than one
hundred acres of unexcelled picturesque
wild forest and thickets, explained and
explored under personal guidance.

Demonstrations in an up-to-date api-
ary.

Instructions in a biological laboratory.

Exhibitions with compound and pro-
jection microscope not equalled any-
where else in the United States.

Soon to be in readiness, it is hoped,
an astronomical observatory with a six-
inch telescope. This telescope will prob-
ably be the only one dedicated wholly to
the free use of the public for the study
of the heavens.

What Our Expenses Have Been.

In the year ending March 31, 191 5,
our expenditures were a total of
$6,046.97. Deducting Sundays and holi-
days this is an average of $19.95 P^'' ^^7-

The President of The Agassiz Asso-
ciation receives no salary for work as
President nor as editor of The Guide to
Nature. For some of the mechanical
and business work on the magazine he
has received this past year $708.44 or
$13.62 per week. For the previous seven
years he received not a cent of pay even
for this kind of work. Three members
of the family who assist (some giving
their entire time) have received no sal-
ary. The Bigelow family does not re-
ceive even free house rent. Birchen
Bower and its part of ArcAdiA freely
used by the public is not the property of
The Agassiz Association. The family
pays the AA a rental for personal use
of the garden and the pet house. It will
be seen that so far as the Bigelows are
concerned, they give their time to the
Cause to which the public is giving fi-
nancial support.

These services have been unpaid be-
cause there has not been sufificient in-
come with which to pay for them. Ad-
ditional workers will be secured when
the income is sufificient. The equipment
could use to advantage many times the
present number of workers. There is no
limit to the general work ; the local work
too, is pressing for an increased number
of assistants.

68

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Our Income.

1. Membership Fees. You are eligible
for membership if you approve of the
work as here outHned. Full particulars
upon application.

2. Subscriptions and Advertisements.
The Guide to Natue is growing. It
now has a circulation of three thousand.
Help it grow. You may thus extend and
aid our work.

3. Cash Contributions. These have
come from all parts of the world and
have been an important factor in sus-
taining the work.

4. Rentals of Parts of ArcAdiA.
From the Bigelow family for garden and
pet house. From Mrs. Blakely for the
site for her Botany Bungalow. She owns
her house, pays rental for land, her mem-
bership dues, and gives her services free-
ly to the botanical students of the A A.

Inspection and Cooperation.

The cashbooks for any year may be in-
spected by any Member or Contributor.
Every detail of the work will be made
clear to any one that wants to know. We
need more money and have full confi-
dence that with increased knowledge by
our Members and friends and by the
public in general as to the exact situa-
tion, it will be freely given.

Here is a work of merit that in which
the interests of humanity should be pro-
perly financed for full efficiency. Nowhere
else in all the world has so much been
accomplished in forty years with so little
money ; nowhere has there been greater
faithfulness, or more devoted service, or
a greater ideal for the uplift, the educa-
tion, the improvement of humanity.
Edward F. Bigelow^ President,
The Agassiz Association, Inc.,
ArcAdiA, Sound Beach, Conn.

The Agassiz Association and Its
Arcadia Are for You.

To create and increase a knowledge
and love of nature. You are not too rich,
nor too poor; not too wise nor too ig-
norant ; not too young nor too old, to
share in their benefits.

VISITING DAYS.

To Members (and accompanying
Friends). All Days. Special personal
attention, if an appointment is made by
telephone or otherwise.

To Non-Members (not accompanying
Members). Wednesdays and Saturdays,
.3 :oo to 5 :oo P. M., and at other times

by Special Invitation and Appointment.

The Agassiz Association's Home (Ar-
cAdiA) is for Study and Research, and
for the Giving of Information upon any
phase of nature to any person that de-
sires to know. It is also intended to cre-
ate a desire to know.

It is a Clearing House for an inter-
change of observations by its Council
and Members.

It is not a Museum, not a Botanical
Garden, not a Zoo.

Yet at dififerent times it has a few
special interests (under special study)
along some or all of these lines. Our
purpose is not so much to exhibit nor to
entertain, as to create a desire to do
what Agassiz so insisted upon — that is,
to "study nature," and to aid in that
studv.

YEARLY CASH REPORT.

Approved at the Annual Meeting on May 28th
1915

SUMMARY— CASH RECEIVED
From The Guide to Nature - - - $4,648.56
From Members' Dues, Contributions,

etc - ---- 1,398.41

Total $6,046.97
SUMMARY— CASH PAID
For The Guide to Nature - - - $4,972.20
For General Expenses and Improve-
ments --- - 1,074.77

Total $6,046.97

The above is a correct summary of cash re-
ceived and paid from April i, 1914, to March 31,
1915, inclusive.

(Signed) Edward F. Bigelow,
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 23rd
day of April, 1915.

(Signed) Harry C. Frost
(Sound Beach, Conn.) Notary Public.

This is to certify that I have examined the de-
tails of which the foregoing is a summary and
find all to be correct.

(Signed) Clinton R. Fisher
(Stamford, Conn.) Auditor for the Public.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this nth
day of May, 1915-

(Signed) Clarence E. Thompson
(Stamford, Conn.) Notary Public

I have gone over the detailed cash account of
the A A and Guide to Nature for the year
ending Mar:h 31, 1915, and find them correct, as
stited, and am satisfied that the expenditures
have been made wisely

(Signed) Hiram E. Deals,
(Flemington, N. J.) Auditor for Trustees.

May 28, 1915

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

69

For Real Study.

Signs have been put in the northern
part of ArcAdiA which read "Nympii-
ALiA, a part of ArcAdiA, for nature
study. If you wish to enter, call at the
office for permission. The Agassiz As-
sociation."

These notices are not to exclude any
visitors who wish to study nature but are
to exclude those who are not seriovisly in-
terested in knowledge rather than injury
or pernicious idleness. A cordial invita-
tion is given to everybody to study na-
ture in any part of ArcAdiA, but young
folks or others should understand that
while it is kept wild, every inch is under

tone illustrations and lantern slides of
the eminent scientist from wdiom the
Association takes its name, but this is
the first large framed portrait and
therefore is a most welcome Sfift.

Reports come from trappers in north-
ern Maine that a feral race of the do-
mestic cat is appearing in the region.
The creatures are apparently the de-
scendants of pets deserted by summer
visitors which have managed to survive
the winter. Now they are several gen-
erations removed from civilization and
have completely reverted to the wild con-
dition.

THE SULPHUR "MUSHROOM" (FUNGUS)

careful protection. A guide will be fur-
nished at the office for any one who
wishes to reallv studv nature.

Framed Portrait of Agassiz.

^Irs. William Siegrist Sound Beach,
Connecticut, has presented to the Agas-
siz Association a large and beautifully
framed portrait of Louis Agassiz to be
placed in the Welcome Reception Room.
This is the first portrait of Louis Agassiz,
strange to say, that has been placed in
ArcAdiA. There have been in use for
some time small photographs, half-

A Beautiful Fungus.

Salem, Ohio.
To the Editor : —

Enclosed you will find a photograph of
one of our most beautifully colored fungi
— the sulphur mushroom. This one was
of fairly large size.

The sulphur mushroom, Polyporns sul-
phurens, is indeed a beautiful object; its
delicate lemon yellow body with an
orange border makes it a handsome fun-
gus, although this applies only to the
fresh state, for it soon crumbles into an
unsightly, soft and ill-smelling powder.
H. W. Weisgerber.

yo

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Celebrating "Bird Day' in New
Orleans.

BY STANLEY CLISCY ARTHUR, NEW
ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

The state of Louisiana observed
"Bird Day" this year on May 4th, the
anniversary of the birth of John James
Audubon, who was a native of that
state. Appropriate exercises were held
in all of the public schools of the state
and the pupils were told of the great
naturalist's life work, and special plans

Louisiana forest scene l)y the use of
actual trees, shrubs, palmetto leaves
and hanging Spanish moss. The
mounted birds were installed by the
ornithologist of the Commission, Stan-
ley Clisby Arthur.

The city displayed the livliest inter-
est in the exhibit. Through the use of
a counting machine it was learned that
over fifty thousand people visited the
display betwen 6 a.m. and 6 p.m Mon-
day, May 3rd., and were about the four-

TIIE BIRD DAY EXHIBIT IN NEW ORLEANS.

were made for the preservation of the
birds.

In New Orleans the feature of the
bird day observance was a comprehen-
sive display of the different birds of
the state by the Conservation Commis-
sion of Louisiana. Over two hundred
and fifty mounted specimens of the bird
life of the state were mounted in real-
istic attitudes by expert taxidermists.
The largest department store in New^
Orleans donated to the display a
large center show window, measuring
eighteen by thirty-three feet, and the
whole was converted into a typical

sided window six deep that evening. As
all of the birds and the half-dozen
mammals showm were designated by
cards having the common names, the
fact that they were either resident,
winter visitors, or migratory, the whole
display was made educational. Game
birds were designated as such, and the
few "outlaw^ed" birds were so labeled,
and special attention was called to the
value of the song and insectiverous
"citizens of the air."

On May 4th, many thousands of
public school children attended the ex-
hibit in class bodies, and their teachers

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATOION

71

•explained the various reasons for bird
and other wild life conservation. The
Conservation Commission on this day
•distributed copies of the Bird-day Bul-
letin to the children together with Au-
■dobon Society leaflets. The newspapers
of the city gave great publicity to the
display and the department store in-
serted half-page advertisements in the
press calling attention to the exhibit.
The success of this display has been so
marked that President M. L. Alexan-
■der of the Conservation Commission is
arranging for a display of the same
Tcind four times a year and will also send
one on a tour of the state. The interest
this exhibit has aroused will result, it
has been predicted, in a better obsev-
ance of the laws of the state in refer-
ence to wild life.

The Mysteries of Flowers.

Mr. Herbert W. Faulkner of Wash-
ington, Connecticut, has revived this fa-
mous lecture.

The name, William Hamilton Gibson,
will recall to nature students throughout
our country the splendid work of that
distinguished writer, artist and natural-
ist, whose lectures on the wild flowers
possessed such rare merit and charm.
For these lectures Mr. Gibson invented
and made many different sets of gigantic
moving charts — all colored by hands and
true to nature. These charts showed
hees and butterflies in the act of visiting
the flowers, and by a mechanism that
worked like a charm the models gradu-
ally changed and displayed the subtle
operations of the plant and insect worlds.
In this ingenious way, to the keen de-
light and edification of his hearers, he
demonstrated nature's wonderful scheme
for the perpetuation of plant life.

These charts have lain idle since the
•untimely death of Mr. Gibson, while a
new generation of nature lovers has
grown up who would be charmed by the
remarkable revelations of these unique
models.

The name, William Hamilton Gibson,
IS well-known to nature lovers. Mr.
Faulkner has for several years occupied
Mr. Gibson's studio at Washington.
Connecticut, and has had the opportu-
nity to make a careful study of his speci-
mens, writings, drawings and lecture
notes.

A circular giving full particulars of

these remarkable lectures and ]\Ir. Faulk-
ner's treatment of them will be mailed
to any one upon application to Herbert
W. Faulkner, Ph. B., D. E., Washington,
Connecticut. Every nature lover will be
pleased to know that these lectures will
be available to the present generation. No
writer nor lecturer ever succeeded better
in inspiring a real love and a real desire
to know nature than did Mr. Gibson.
The younger generation knows but little
of him except through the charm of his
books, "Sharp Eyes," "My Studio Neigh-
bors," "Eye Spy," and others. These
lectures will revive, as far as possible,
the wonderful charts and models.

Goat Eats Tobacco and Bag.

Summerland, British Columbia,
Canada.
To the Editor :

In The Guide to Nature for April, I
read two interesting "lessons" on the
goat. I should like to add a third. A
goat owned by my friend, Professor
J — , decided to make me a morning call.
Skipping across the yard she stopped to
gaze, also to graze, on the strawberry
bed. In a short time that strawberry bed
was a minus quantity. Seeing a white
object lying near a tree she investigated
that. It was a cotton flour sack contain-
ing ten pounds of twist tobacco. She ate
nearly all the tobacco and part of the
sack; on a second visit she finished the
tobacco and left only a few shreds of the
sack. Sincerely vours,

I\Irs. Eva C. Van Hise.

Mr. D. M. Barringer, in the Pro-
ceedings of the Philadelphia Academy
for September argues that the so-
called "Meteor Crater" in Arizona, was
actually formed by the impact of a
meteor, probably a portion of the head
of a small comet.

A contribution to natural history
comes to hand in a post-card photograph
of a "two-mile auto bridge over Little
Egg Harbor Bay," the roadway of which
is for a long distance strewn with broken
clam-shells. The post-card naturalist
says : "The white tl;ings you see are
clam-shells. The sea-gulls get clams from
the flats and flv no high and drop them
to break the shells so they can eat the
clams. The bridge-tender has to sweep
them ofif everv day, they cut the tires so."
—The Outlook.

72

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

EDITORIAL

Good Wishes for an Accomplished
Editor.

Norman Talcott has resigned the edi-
torship of "The Greenwich Press" whic)i
he estabhshed some five years ago. In
his work he has been ably assisted by
Mrs. Talcott, who, like himself, is a
skilled writer.

Mr. Talcott is above the average as
an editorial writer. He has pronounced
convictions, and states those convictions
so clearly and effectively as to convince
every reader of his thorough sincerity
even if he does not always convert the
reader to his belief. He has a pecu-
liarly artistic temperament and the
manner in which he has struggled
against enormous obstacles in his effort
to accomplish his ideals should inspire
anyone who is struggling to achieve
some permanent good. There is no con-
fusion in his thought. From his point
of view he sees his ideals and the needs
of the community with remarkable clear-
ness. There may be those who do not
think that he always has the correct point
of view, but any editor or any other per-
son who struggles to accomplish things
is liable to that little criticism. Mr. Tal-
cott's resignation brings real pain to his
fellow writers of Greenwich and to his
many readers. These have stood by him
with a loyalty that could never have been
inspired by one not possessed of his
strength and his artistic skill in present-
ing ideas. The Guide to Nature ex-
tends to him the most cordial wishes in
whatever line of work he may in the fu-
ture undertake.

Promulgating the Busy and Beautiful.

The Stamford Board of Trade has
issued a remarkably beautiful "Year
Book" to tell of our busy and beauti-
ful city, its locati(^n, scenery, history,
government, industries, resources,
statistics and growth. The work is
highly creditable to those who have
had it in charge. It is well done. It
is the kind of book that has been need-
ed for a long- time. From the natu-

ralist's point of view we are delighted
with it. Its descriptions and pictures
of our outdoor interests are charming
and alluring: moonlight at Shippan
Point, an artistic gem by Brown &
Dawson ; an enticing view of the Long
Ridge road and various others near
Stamford ; rural life in haying time ;
picturesque scenery on the Wire Mill
road, and numbers of other beautifuL
views. Together they make this a de-
lightful handbook. Some of Brown &.
Dawson's work is far above the or-
dinary standard of similar photo-
graphs. We feel proud when we note
how this "busy and beautiful" city is
growing and how^ well it is "doing
things."

From the viewpoint of nature there-
is probably no city in all the world
that can equal Stamford. Here are-
farms under intensive culture, seashore,,
wild country, picturesque ravines,,
marvelous landscapes, and unlimited
natural resources. Many of the sub-
urban roads are in splendid condition
and others are being gradually
brought to the highest standard. In
our opinion this part of Fairfield
County is the best place in all the
world. We congratulate the Stamford
Board of Trade upon its success in so
effectively unfolding the activities and
the beauties of this beautiful and ac-
tive town.

One promising experiment in cattle
breeding-, now being carried on at the
University of Wisconsin Experiment
Station and also on a private estate in the
north of England, is the attempt to
toughen the Jersey strain by crossing it
with the hardv Angus or Aberdeen-An-
gus stock. The result, thus far, is an
animal, hornless like the Angus, or with
mere short loose scurs, somewhat more
beefy than the Jersey, but an alniost
equally good milker. The striking thing
about the new breed is its toughness, the
voung stock actually thriving better
through the winter in open sheds than in
the warm stables of the dairy breeds.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

XI

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XII

THE GUIDE TO NATURE LITERARY NOTES

How TO Use New Thought in Home Life.

By Elizabeth Towne. Holyoke, Mass. : The

Elizabeth Towne Company.

Mrs. Towne has here answered almost
every conceivable question relating to the
home life, to the problems of husbands, wives
and children. She shows how -to apply New
Thought in the home to promote happy and
efficient living, to make the home a successful
and happy cooperative colony versus an indi-
vidualistic hades

Illustrations of a Thousand Shells. Part
H. By Y. Hirase, Karasumaru, Kyoto, Japan.
Part I of this interesting series has already
been reviewed in this magazine. Those of our
readers who were interested in that will be
glad to know that the second part has been is-
sued. The book is beautifully bound in silk and
is made to open in an unique way as a contin-
uous strip of paper, llie illustrations are
peculiar to Japanese art, and are beautiful. The
price of the book is $1.50 postpaid.

War and World Government. By Frank
Crane, D. D. New York : John Lane Co.
Rarely has any one man exterted so wide
an influence upon the thought of the people
as has Dr. Frank Crane. His ideas are con-
structive, progressive, yet sane. He has some-
thing to say, and he says it in the simplest
possible way. His editorial utterances on the
subject of war have been published in many
leading newspapers of the United States and
Canada, and are here gathered in a volume.
The keynote to all is an appeal for inter-
national influence which, the talented writer
claims, is the only way in which to abolish
war's horrors.

The Whole Year Round. By Dallas Lone
Sharpe. Boston : Houghton ]\Iiffl"m Company.
This book is designed especially for chil-
dren, and by experience the author knows
whereof he writes, for he says that when he
was a child he roamed the fields as he still
does with all the child's love of freedom and
all his joy in the companionship of wild
things. For these things he is asking the chil-
dren of the present day to tramp the fields.
He himself is still a child at heart and he still
loves the ways of wild folk. He rightly says
that ordinary things are ordinary only because
we have not watched them nor thought about
them. The method of going should be "bare-
foot when we can, in rubber boots if we must;
sometimes with a fish-pole, sometimes with a
hoe ; sometimes with a camera — but never
with a gun ; and if we see nothing more than
the sky and the earth, we shall not have had
our tramp in vain — not if the skv is full of
clouds or storm or stars; and not if the earth
is full of wideness and freshness and free-
dom ; and not if our hearts are full of — it
may be, of those strange deep feelings that
the hearts of children know."

Atlas Designed to Illustrate Burritt's Ge-
ography OF THE Heavens. By Hiram Mat-
tison, A. M. A new edition, revised and
corrected. New York : American Book
Company.

This department is intended for notices of
new books. It is an unusual experience for
the reviewer to be called on to speak of
a work originally published several years
before he was born. He well remembers
this as a book of his earliest boyhood. He
was then delighted with the outlines of the
mythological animals and other fancies that
live in the sky. The heavens in this book
and the book itself perpetually renew their
youth and charm. This atlas gave joy to
fathers and grandfathers and to boys and
girls of more than a half century ago, and
yet here it is to-day, revised, corrected and
ready to tell of the ancient shepherds' queer
astronomical fancies. Every amateur astrono-
mer should have the book ; others who get it
will become amateur astronomers.

The Lure of the Land. By Harvey W.

Wiley, M. D. New York : The Century

Company.

Dr. Wiley is known everywhere for his dis-
cussion of the pure food laws. He has
written an ideal book in which he considers
both the advantages and the disadvantages of
leaving the city for the country. He says :

"From my point of view I would set forth
for the average man of average nieans, who
wishes to indulge the natural desire for coun-
try life, the dangers and difficulties, as well as
the advantages and successes, of making his
home on the farm.

"It is evident that those who live in the
country must earn a living, but in doing this
there is no need that all of the beauties of
rural life should be sacrificed until it be-
comes a burden unbearable. It is not difficult
to understand how the youth brought up on a
farm turns his longing eyes towards the town.
The conditions of farm life, as a rule, are
not such as to attract or to hold the farmer's
son or daughter. Life does not consist alone
in watching the beautiful sunrise, in stroll-
ing through a shady forest, or wandering by
a babbling brook. To the farmer's boy life
means early rising, hard and continuous la-
bor, plain and often poorly cooked food, hard
beds, and an absence of all the opportunities
which the youth so strongly desires. It is just
as natural for the farmer's bov to look
towards the town as it is for the town boy_ to
look towards the country, but these conflicting
desires arise from dififerent sources."

The last sentence raises a question. I
wonder how many town boys do look long-
ingly toward the country. I wish someone
could tell us that, and just how we may aid
those boys. In what are they interested and
how may that interest be developed into real
knowledge and love of the country?

IS^I^I^IS€I^#

"^^ni^^^s^;

To Know The Starry Heavens

(SEE PAGE 94)

FOR THE ASTRONOMICAL
OBSERVATORY

We Need Only $500 More
THE BUILDING IS COMPLETED

Let the Telescope be in Position
by September 15

Vol. Vill
No. 3

August 1915

EDWARD F. BIGELOW

MANAGING EDITOR

Subscriptions, Sl.OO a Year. Single Copies, 10 Cents

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Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA; Sound Beach, Connecticut,

Subscription, $1.00 a year Single copy, 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12, 1909. at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3. 1897.

Vol

VIII

AUGUST.

Number 3

The Pussywillow's Neglected Beauty.

If the pussy willow could speak, it
would stand up in every springtime
marsh and say, "You love and admire
me not for my intrinsic beauty, but for
what I represent in the transition of the
seasons. If I should come in midsummer
YOU would not notice me. In June I

come in greater beauty than almost any
other plant. In June I come from the
autumnal point of view with as startling
an interest as in the last of winter I
come with suggestions of spring. If in
the early spring I spoke with a portent
of the charms of spring, then why do
you not, nature lovers, for the same

THE PUSSY WILLOW PREP.XRIXG FOR THE "RLXKLR V."
tSee next page.)

Copyright 1915 by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

THE REVELRY OF THE FULLNESS OF LIFE OF THE PUSSY WILLOW IN JUNE AND JULY.

reason admire me in June when I give
you a premonition of the fuhiess of Octo-
ber joys? You have forgotten that I
shared in the spring because you will not
remember me now. Perhaps I have too
many rivals but you will, in September
or October, go into ecstacies over the
fruit of the milkweed, and even later for

the jovs of fruiting goldenrod, hawk-
weed and innumerable members of my
faithful kin."

Thus may the pussy willow complain
because no other plant receives admira-
tion more transient and as wrong as it is
transient. The pussy willow in June is

THE PEANUT

/y

the most dainty and delicate of fruiting
plants. But what a parody of human
nature it is ! How frequently it occurs
in life, in good fortune, in happy part-
nerships, how frequently do we forget
those that gave the introduction that has
completely changed the course of our
life, or how often do we forget the kind-
ness that changed our path and led us to-
ward subsequent prosperity.

Let us not forget the pussy willow that
stands at the gate of June and welcomes
us to the joys of summer.

The Peanut.

BY DR. FR.\XK CRAXE.

(Copyright, 1914, by Frank Crane. Pub-
lished by courtesy of '"The Globe,"

New York City.)

I would lay a few wreaths at the
feet of the peanut.

It is one of the admirable arrange-
ments of whoever runs mundane mat-
ters that the very best goods of life
are for every man, and that the proud
and privileged when they nibble their
expensive delicacies are toying with
the avenging furies, from a pain in
their tum-tums to hardening of the
arteries.

There is air, for instance, oodles of
it, free ; and if there be aught better I
have never found it. Also water. Al-
so sunshine.

More expensive, but still cheap
enough for dollar-a-day folk, is corn
bread, the thanwhichest of all tooth-
some things.

Right dowm below the high-cost-of
living list, down where the multitude
mults, even below down where the
Wurzburger flows, are the little
friends of the hoi polloi, the peanuts.

Item. They are good. A better nut
has not been nutted. If they cost
twenty-five cents apiece they would
be served as hors d'a-uvres at the
Grand Hotel de Luxe, and make glad
the small white teeth of the daughters
of Millionbucks.

If they cost $100 a nut their shells
would be strung around the necks of
the grillionaires' ladies who unveil
their beauty upon us the first night
of the opera.

Alas ! They are five cents a bag. So
they are nothing but just plain good.

Item! They are nourishing. Fad-
dists and medicine men have denounc-
ed all other kinds of food, white bread,

sugar, coffee and milk, but none has-
dared to lift his voice against the pea-
nut.

A sack of peanuts is an excellent
lunch. I so lunched yesterday. 1
bought a nickel's worth of Dante Al-
ighift'eri, who keeps them hot at our
corner. I ate them for three blocks..
It is a grand thing to lunch walking;,
you get your air, exercise, and nutri-
tion all at once.

They are still better eaten between
meals. They are the ideal tid-bit for
those who watch the baseball game.
They are the right hand of the circus
man. On trains they have no fellow,
when there is no dining car and na
stop for dinner.

They are the true symbol of democ-
racy.

They are friends of lovers. Who
can say how subtle are the opportun-
ities of the paper of peanuts consumed
by "me and Mame" up in the third
balcony, when our hands touch as we
fish the gay goobers from the sack,,
and munch while we watch Lord Ed-
ward being foiled upon the stage?

"The Star Spangled Banner" may
be the national tune, the golden rod
or something else the national flower,
and the turkey and the eagle the na-
tional birds, but the national nut is un-
questionably the peanut.

Sweet is the voice of the peanut man
as he sings : "Five cents, a nickel, half
a dime. All ready and all hot. Right
this way, ladies and gents, for your
fresh roasted peanuts !"

A patch of timber or a wood-lot
without squirrels always conveys an
impression of lonesome solitude and
something gone — like a country grave-
yard. There is no other animal of
equal size that can add so much of lite
and cheerfulness to a hardwood forest
or a meadow as a hardwood forest
squirrel. Why is it that American
men and boys kill them so eagerlv?
Surely the flesh of their little bodies
is not needed as food. It has a taste
so queer and rank that to many per-
sons it is decide^lly unpalatable.
Americans are the only white men on
earth who eat squirrels. An English-
man would as readily eat a rat! — \\^il-
iiam T- Hornaday, Sc. D., in "The
American Natural Hi?tcrv."

76

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Wild Tomato.

BY CHARLES H. GAHLE, Fl'NCHAL,
MADEIKA.

"The little wild tomato ( Lycopcrsicitiii
Tiilgare ccrasiforme) which is found in
Madeira is generally considered by bot-
anists to belong to the original stock,
native in South America, from which
our cultivated varieties have been de-

rived. It grows wild in many parts of
the islands, often under desert condi-
tions, and in appearance the plant is
quite similar to the garden varieties.
One plant was found where it could not
have had a drop of water for at least
three months. It probably had started to
grow during the last few rains of spring
but had completed its growth during

THE WILD TOMATO.
From '"The Journal of Heredity'' by permission.

MEN AS WELL AS WOMEN ARE CURIOUS

71

the heat and drought of summer.
When it was found, the vine was appar-
ently dead and lying flat on the ground ;
the leaves had dried up and dropped ofif ;
but more than 300 fruits, all plump and
firm, were clinging to the vine. The
fruits are so very acid that they can be
used for little else besides soups, and the
natives do not use them a great deal for
even that. Their keeping quality, how-
ever, might prove a desirable character-
istic in crossing with some of the highly
developed varieties with the object of ob-
taining a good shipping tomato of pleas-
ing flavor. Photograph, actual size."

The illustration and permission to pub-
lish this article were obtained through
the courtesy of "The Journal of Here-
dity" of the American Genetic Associa-
tion, Washington, D. C.

Men as Well as Women are Curious.

Dorothy Dix, the w^ell-known writer
for "The New York Journal," says
that the old-time statement that
women have more curiosity than men
is without foundation. \Ve are in-
clined to agree with her.

"Ever since that apple incident in
the Garden of Eden," says Miss Dix,
"the feminine sex has been called the
curious sex, and men have derided and
guyed us for peeking and prying into
other people's affairs, and nosing
around into things that were none of
our business.

"And we've accepted it all as gospel
truth, and let men convince us that we
had more curiosity than they had,
whereas the truth is that women have
no curiosity at all compared to men.

"Take, for example, such a common,
everyday occurrence as the hoisting of
a safe by means of pulleys and ropes
up to a third or fourth story window.
,In every city in the world that's done
every day. There's nothing new or
startling about it. Probably there isn't
a city man living who hasn't seen it
done dozens of times, yet every time
the act is performed such a big crowd
will gather around it that it will stop
traffic in the street."

Miss Dix also cites the familiar op-
eration by which a man puts a new
tube into an automobile tire. That al-
ways draws a crowd. Look also at
the hundreds of men crowding before
bulletin boards. Women can restrain
their curiosity and wait to read about

the game in the newspapers. Miss Dix
also asserts that the husband is more
desirous than the wife to learn what
has happened duYing his absence, not
because he is jealous or suspicious or
begrudging of the money that the fam-
ily has spent, but because it is "his in-
ordinate curiosity that clamors to be
gratified."

Then Miss Dix tells us that men
have always been the world's great dis-
coverers, and that woman has no more
curiosity to see what is at the North
Pole than she has to see what is in
the back yard. Nor does she care
what is in the heart of darkest Africa.
Most women have so little curiosity
that they never strive to extend nor to
go outside of their own little circle
of interests and acquaintances. Then
she sums it all up.

"It's man's curiosity that has made
him dejve into things and wrest her
secrets from nature. Man calls it orig-
inal research, but it is only curiosity."

She admires this quality and calls it
a sign of intelligence.

/\ny one who has had much experi-
ence in teaching nature study will bear
witness that Miss Dix is absolutely
correct. The writer has had many
years of e^vperience with all kinds of
audiences and in schools of various
grades. Invariably he has found that,
when talking to girls, nature must be
portrayed as beautiful, sentimental,
whereas with boys one must go di-
rectly to the subject in hand and show
what is in it, how it is formed, how
the thing is done, what is on the in-
side of it- The boy wants to know.
The girls cares but little for detailed
structure of plants or animals. It is
noticeable in the laboratory that in
explaining, the machinery of organisms
to women they exclaim over the beauty
and care' exemplified, and little heed
the mechanics or the structural details.
On the other hand the man says noth-
ing about 'beauty or sentiment, but
w^ants to know about the action.
"What is it doing and how is it doing
it?" There are, as in other general
rules, remarkable exceptions. I once
knew a: lady, the daughter of John
Muir of California, who had turned her
bedroom ,into a machine shop, filled
with parts of locomotives. She is in-
tensely curious about all kinds of ma-
chinerv. I have known manv women

78

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

who have acquired skill and fame in
original t:cientihc research. On the
other hand, there are some men who
see not the mechanics but rather the
poetry and the artistic aspects of na-
ture. The boy and the man want to
see the wheels go round, the girl likes
the watch for its usefulness and
beauty.

Of Cats' Coats.

R. I. Pocock, the superintendent of
the London Zoological Society's Gar-
dens, points out that there are reall>
two different sorts of cats, though they
both come in all colors. One is the
common striped tabby, with narrow
wavy markings running crosswise of
the body. These stripes are sometimes
slightly thickened, or they may break
up into spots. But the pattern is al-
ways the same and recognizable at a
glance.

The other sort is cpiite different and
much more uncommon. Instead of the
many narrow stripes lying in the di-
rection of the ribs, there are a few
wide irregular blotches, at least three
of which run lengthwise of the body,
across the ribs. These give the pecu-
liar "horseshoe," "spiral," or "target ■
pattern. Besides this, there is a well-
marked band on each side -f the back-
bone, and a curious diamond-shaped
area on the back of the neck, where
the five narrow head stripes are left
out. All this is quite distinct, and
quite unlike the pattern of the common
striped tabby.

Where this pattern came from, no-
body knows. The common tabby is
descended from the ancient Egyptian
cat, which the Pharaohs used to ven-
erate when alive and embalm when
dead. This also had the tabby pattern.
So, too, has the European wild cat.
But no known sort of cat, tiger, lynx,
or anything of the kind has the other,
"blotched" pattern.

Mr. Pocock suggests also that an-
ciently, in Europe, long before the ad-
vent of civilized man or the beginnings
of history, there were various sorts of
wild cats besides the single one that
has survived to the present day. We
know these only by their bones. Their
coats may have been anything. One or
more of them may have been a
blotched tabby, whose coat pattern
still survives.

Greatness and Early Marriage.

Casper L. Redfield of Chicago is of
the opinion that all the eminent persons
of history are from the late-marrying,
slow-breeding stocks which have three
generations or less to the century;
while the great majority of mankind,
who marry early and have four gener-
ations to the century produce only
mediocrities.

To test his theory, Mr. Redfield de-
posited two hundred dollars with the
treasurer of the American Genetic As-
sociation, which the Association might
keep if any of its members, (several of
whom have expressed opinion contrary
to his own) could meet the following
challenge :

(i) Half the sum for a single case
among the two or three thousand
persons known to history for their in-
tellectual powers, where the eminent
individual was born within a century
of the average birth date of his sixteen
great-great-gfrandparents ; or in other
words, was the product of breeding
four generations to the century. Three
examples, counting male ancestors
only, would also win the wager.

(2) The other half for a single case
where a man of the highest grade, such
as Aristotle, Franklin, or Darwin, — of
whom there are some two or three
hundred known to history — whose male
forbears were even in the three-gene-
rations-to-the-century class. For it is
a part of Mr. Redfield's theory that the
highest types of ability can be produced
only at the rate of two-and-a-fraction
generations to the century in place of
the four of common mortals.

The offer printed in the Journal of
the Association stood for nearly a year,
and the time limit has just expired.
Various persons, among them several
expert genealogists, took up the gage.
But nobody was able to score, and the
Association has returned the funds.

As the case now stands, therefore, the
persons who make civilization are the
offspring of late marriages ; while, to
quote Mr. Redfield, the thirty-three
states which permit legal unions be-
tween boys from fifteen to nineteen and
girls from thirteen to seventeen, are en-
couraging the rapid generations which
"lead to the production of mental and
moral defectives."

INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS

79

Insectivorous Plants.

Through the courtes}- of the "[Mis-
souri Botanical Garden Bulletin," we
present herewith a cut of a group of
plants that eat insects. We all know that
some insects eat plants, but it is not gen-
erally known that many plants have de-
vices for catching, killing and literally
eating insects. It has been ascertained
by experiment that the majority of such
plants use the captured animals as food.

Some of these contain chambers into
which small animals may enter but from
which they cannot escape. Such plants
exhibit no movement of anv kind. An-

other class uses actual movement in
catching their prey, which is subsequent-
ly digested and absorbed. For two or
three years specimens of the \'enus's
fly-trap were kept growing in ArcAdiA
under close observation. In some in-
stances flies that were caught had evi-
dently been recently entrapped for they
were active in their efi:'orts to escape, but
no one had the good luck to see the
plant actually catch the fly. We should
be glad if our naturalists will make ob-
servations and report on any form of in-
sectivorous plants that may grow in their
vicinity.

A CROUP OF INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS.
Drosera. Sarrarevia.

Pinguicula.

Dionaea.

8o

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

nOG TEAM BRINGING HAY TO THE BELGIAN COMIVUSSARY IN ANTWERP.
Cut by courtesy of The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Dogs Are Astonishingly Strong.

Here is a remarkable illustration of a
heavy load drawn by a pair of dogs. To
look at this load of hay, especially at
the cart, one would say, "It is a pretty
respectable burden for a pair of horses."
That does not mean that it would be
difficult for a pair of horses, neither
would it suggest that it is too small for
a pair. It does mean, however, that it
is too much for a pair of dogs.

The Compass in the Watch.

A few days ago I was standing by an
American gentleman, when I ex-
pressed a wish to know wdiich point
was north. He at once pulled out his
watch, looked at it, and pointed to the
north. I asked him whether he had a
compass attached to his watch. "All
watches," he replied, "are compasses."
Then he explained to me how this was.
Point the hour hand to the sun, and
the south is exactly half way between

the hour and the figure 12 on the
watch. For instance, suppose that it
is 4 o'clock. Point the hand indicating
4 to the sun and two on the w^atch is
exactly south. Suppose that it is 8
o'clock, point the hand indicating 8 to
the sun, and the figure 10 on the watch
is due south. My American friend was
cjuite surprised that I did not know
this Thinking that verv possibly I
was ignorant of a thing that every one
else knew, and happening to meet Mr.
Stanley, I asked that eminent traveler
wdiether he was aware of this simple
mode of discovering the points of a
compass. He said that he had never
heard of it.

I presume therefore, that many are
in the same state of ignorance. Amalfi
is proud of having been the home of
the inventor of the compass. I do not
know what town boasts of my
American friend as a citizen. — The
London Truth.

PLANT MOTIONS AND GROWTH

8i

Plant Motions and Growth.

Professor Jagadis Chunder Bose of
the University of Calcutta, who has
been spending the winter travelling
and lecturing- in "The States," is prob-
ably the world's first authority on the
movements of the common higher
plants. He is originally a teacher of
physics, and being accustomed in thai
precise science to delicate apparatus
and accurate measurement, he has lat-
terly turned that experience to the
minute motions of the plant world.
Among other delicate tools, he has in-
vented one that will record the growth
of a tendril-tip during each half minute,
and by distances less than the thick-
ness of tissue paper, show the change
of rate with alterations of temperature
or w^ater supply. Still another will ex-
hibit the turning of a green leaf toward
the flame of a match held near it for
only ten seconds.

By such means as these, Professor
Bose has been able to prove that the
green plants are essentially like cold-
blooded animals. Their tissues are at
the same time both nerve and muscle ;
and they respond like an animal to
heat and cold, electric shocks, scratch-
es and pin pricks. They are even af-

fected by drugs like a very sluggish
animal, and have a true rigor mortis
when they die.

The Largest Spider Web in the World.

P.V ROUKRT [I. AIOL'LTON.

The largest spider web in the world
was spun, not Ly a spider, but by hu-
man hands. It stands on the lawn of a
Chicago man's country home, and is of
such tremendous size as to startle the
passerby when he first sees it.

The creator of this interesting odd-
ity conceived the idea of attempting to
see how closely an actual spider's web
could be reproduced with rope. Select-
ing two immense trees on the lawn of
his home, he spun between them this
spider's web, forty by sixty feet, which
is so strong that a boy or man may
easily climb to the center or top of it.

The web faces the main thorough-
fare, which passes the house, and is
one of the most fascinating country
ground decorations ever seen. The
spinner could not attain the minute-
ness of the actual spider's work, but
came so near to it that the illusion is
almost perfect- The uniqueness of the
undertaking catches and fascinates
everv eve. — Scientific American.

THE SPIDER WEB OF ROPES.
Cut by courtesy of "Scientific American.

S2

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

A New Fossil Fig and Its Significance.

BY EDWIN W. HUMPHREYS, NEW
ROCHEEEE, N. Y.

Some time ago, the writer drew the at-
tention of the readers of The Guide to
KaturE to some interesting fossil figs
from the Tertiary deposits of Wyom-

Tliis new fig was found more than a
year ago by Dr. S. J. Schofield of the
Canadian Geological Survey in the Ple-
istocene deposits of the Kootenay Val-
ley of British Columbia, Canada. The
specimen along with others was finally
sent to Dr. HolHck at tlie Xew York

^ ^

^ 2

ing and Montana. Recently a still
more interesting fig has been described
and illustrated by Dr. Arthur Hollick
in the March number of the Journal of
the New York Botanical Garden. Fig-
ure I is a photograph of the entire spe-
cimen, natural size.

Botanical Garden for determination.

Careful study and comparison with
the fruits of plants now living demon-
strated that the specimen is a defoli-
ated, fruiting branch of a fig tree,
closely allied to the general type of cer-

A NEW FOSSIL FIG

83

tain figs now living in ^lexico and the
West Indies.

A glance at Figure 2, which is en-
larged to twice the natural size, will
show the characteristic incurved apex
of the figs. The shape, striations, and
method of attachment also indicate the
relation of the fruits of the figs.

passing from the great past to the pres-
ent. It is the period during which more
than six or eight million square miles of
the earth's surface which had previous-
ly been enjoying a mild climate was
covered with immense glaciers. Esti-
mates as to how long ago this period
closed vary in round numbers from

The interglacial fig — as it ma}- be
called, the scientific name being Ficits iii-
terglacialis Hollick — is not so old as the
ones, described from the Tertiary. As
lias been stated it grew during the Ple-
istocene period which is the last step in

about ten to fifty tlibusand years.

Aside from its being a new species the
interglacial fig is invested with addition-
al interest due to its climatic significance.
A well defined specimen of the genus
Fiats would. Dr. Hollick states, be re-

84

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

garded as evidence of tropical or sub-
tropical climatic conditions. Hence, it is
to be inferred that while the specimen
under discussion was growing tropical
or sub-tropical conditions prevailed.

This inference is strengthened by the
luxuriance of the contemporaneous vege-
tation as shown b}- the large size of the
fossil leaves and by the presence of cer-
tain remains which suggest Yucca or
some kind of a palm.

Finally, the fossil plants from the Ple-
istocene of east Canada, in the Don
River Valley, indicate a cooler climate
for that part of Canada during their pe-
riod of growth. Whether the Kootenay
Valley and the Don River Valley Pleis-
tocene floras were contemporaneous
or not is not at present known. Al-
though Dr. Hollick does not disre-
gard a different conclusion, the fact
that they may have been so taken in
connection with other suggestive facts
leads him to conclude his paper as fol-
lows, "We may have, therefore, in this
recently discovered Pleistocene flora in
British Columbia, the heretofore missing
link of evidence tending to show that
contemporaneous regional climatic dif-
ferences between the west and the east
on our continent have prevailed more or
less continuously ever since Cretaceous
time."

Cuts by courtesy of tlie New York
Botanical Garden.

Recent English records show that
in certain especially dusty and smoky
cities, the dirt that falls from the air
may occasionally reach the enormous
amount of sixty tons on a square mile
during a single month.

God in Nature.

BY H. GORDON HAWKINS, WESTFIELD, MASS.

Oh, the wondrous beauty of them all,
The flowered dell, the mountain wall,
The viny bower where hides the silver spring.
The lacy wood where numerous wood birds

sing.
The fallow field, the unploughed hill.
The slow brook running past the mill,
The leafy coven, where red deer leap in sight,
the wooded slope bathed in the morning light.
All these, God's gifts, are to our weary gaze
Far better than an idle sone of nraise.
We learn His lessons from the whispering trees
From warbling birds and playful breeze.
From silent rock and rushing storm
And from the sunbeams, dancing warm,
And even in the dying flowers.
We learn the lesson of the hours.

Knowing Too Much to Be Helpful.

In this work as a magazine writer I
learned a lesson from my father which
has exerted a controlling influence upon
me in my editorial life. ]\Ir. Fletcher
Harper asked me to write an article for
the "^vlagazine" on ocean steamship
travel. I told him that I could not do so
because I had no other knowledge of the
subject than such as I had gained from
my one voyage across the ocean. "Then
ask your father to write it," said he. This
I did.

"Why do you not write the article
yourself?" asked my father.

"Because I know nothing of the sub-
ject," was my reply.

"Then," said he, "you are just the one
to write it."

"How is that?" I asked.

"Because," said he, "the object of the
author of a popular magazine article is
to give knowledge of a subject
to people who are wholly ignor-
ant of it. To do that he must
know both the subject and the con-
dition of ignorance. If he is familiar
with the condition of ignorance, he can
make himself acquainted with the sub-
ject ; but if he is thoroughly familiar
with the subject it is almost impossible
for him to acquaint himself with the con-
dition of ignorance."

Whether I wrote the article or not I
forget, but this principle, laid down by
my father, became my guide when later
I took up editorial work. I have found
it almost uniformly true that an expert
cannot write on the subject with which
he is familiar what readers who are not
familiar with the subject can understand.
The experienced but non-technical
writer must provide the article, and it
must then be submitted to the expert to
make sure that he has fallen into no se-
rious errors. — Dr. Lyman Abbott in
"The Outlook.'^

There is a corollary from this Q. E. D.
A technical organization or institution
can never successfully popularize natu-
ral science. It requires a separate or-
ganization that may draw from technical
sources accurate data to be popularized.

Matter has more intricacies, delicacies
and potencies than the mind of man has
been able to discover. Not that matter
is greater than mind but it has been
touched to finer issues by a finer, higher
mind. — Bishop H. W. Warren.

THE NATURE PHOTOGRAPHERS

8i

•^vi

The Most Beautiful Woman in
America.

The Aiisco Company, Binghamton,
New York, has spent more than $5,000
in trying to find, from the photograph-
ers' point of ^'iew, the loveliest woman

W

City. Mr. Conklin writes as follows :

"The young woman was here af
school and the photograph was made-
in the ordinary course at the time of
her graduation. I probably made six
or eight negatives at that time. This
^ was nearly two years ago,
and while I always considered
it an especially attractive pic-
ture, permission to use it was
withheld until last fall.

"Aliss Johnstone is now
with the 'Watch Your Step*"
nusical comedy company, and
I understand that competent
uidges have decided that her
icatures approach as near the-
i'leal as is possible, and that
among- numerous other flat-
tering attentions, one of the
South American Repubhcs
has reproduced her head on
some of their coinage.''

FIRST PRIZE WIXXIXG PORTRAIT
COMPANY'S $5,000 LO\'LIEST
WOMEN CONTEST.

AN SCO

The United States Bureau
of Standards calls attention to^
the fact that almost no Amer-
ican units are precisely equal'
to those called by the same
name in Great Britain. Yard
and pound are nearly alike;:
but our gallon is only five-
sixths of the imperial gallon,
and our bushel is thirty-two
thirty-thirds of the imperial'
half a micromilemeter, or
bushel. Even the two stand-
ard meters dififer by more than

$500, first prize won by Philip Conklin. Troy, New York; subject, , r i '

Miss Justine Johnstone. New York City. This portrait, togrether with the abOUt OUC five-thoUSandth OI
entire collection of prize winners, is now on e.xhibition at tho .Ansco linlf
Company's booth at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, ndll
California, is"

Published by courtesy of the .\nsco Company. Binghampton, New
York.

a micromilemeter, or
an inch.

in America, and incidentally the pho-
tographer sufficiently skillful to por-
tray that woman. The first prize of
$500 was awarded to Philip Conklin
of Troy, New York, who photographed
Miss Justine Johnstone of New York

Examination of the- stomach contents
of bats indicates that their food is more-
than nine-tenths moths, the rest being
beetles and other insects. Attempts to-
utilize these animals to keep down mos-
quitoes have therefore failed.

86

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

San Antonio, Texas.

To the Editor:

I send to your fine magazine, The
Guide to Nature, an interesting view
of two of our Texas cactus leaves, a

tissue. I prepared the photograph at
the farm pasture of a good friend and
great nature enthusiast, Mr. Lee Hoyt,
of the Leona valley.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. R. Menger.

TWO CACTUS LFAVES FROM TEXAS— ONE F

OTHER TO SHOW^

large fresh one from a growing plant,
and another showing the framework or
skeleton with its beautiful network and
ramifications intact. They were gathered
by me during a late outing at our lovely
Leona hills, close to San Antonio, where
miles of wild cactus jungles exist in un-
cultivated pastures and open prairies.

During late and remote floods near
the Leona creek numbers of these leaves
were carried away and lodged in the
trees and shrubbery — some as high as
thirty and more feet above the ground.
In one place, where earth, all sorts of
debris, cactus remnants and sand had ac-
cumulated, there were several leaves,
whole side branches showing such leaves
and root stems denuded of their succu-
lent parenchyma, leaving only the fi-
brous network, similar to that shown in
the photograph. This specimen, from
years of exposure to the elements, and
its incomplete covering of sand and soft
earth, lost all its integumental covering
except at a few spots near the base that
show outlines of the original external

RF.SH FROM A (SROWING PLANT AM) THE
THE FRAMEWORK.

Look Up!

Look up, at the stately trees,
Look up, at the winsome flowers

Which nature's lavish hand

Has woven through the bowers.

Look up at the hills around,

All verdure-clad, serene ;
Look up at the mountains bold

O'er nearer hilltops seen.

Look up at the clear blue sky,

Look up at the stars at night,
At clouds that are sailing by.

The moon with its silvery light.

Look up as you go along,

'Twill broaden all your way;
Look up till the habit grows,

And adds a zest to vour dav.

-Emma Peirce.

Clarence King, the first head of the
United States Geological Survey, writ-
ing in 1880, opined that the mineral
otitput of the country might sometime
in the distant future reach a value of
a billion dollars a year. Already it is
two and a half billions.

TJIl". XATURl^: PHOTOnRAP'TTr^RS

87

A Multiplicity of Young.

Cincinnati, Ohio.
To the Editor :

I send two puzzle pictures for the
readers of The Guidk to Nature. This
mother 'possum was caught on August
ist, 1914, because, as usual, she feigned
death or "played 'possum." Examina-
tion showed 'that nine young ones were
twined about her tail. Her captor car-
ried her for at least half a mile as shown
in one of the pictures. The entire family
is now confined in a public park in Chilli-
cothe, Ohio. The capture occurred on
the farm of ]\Ir. George Core, Frankfort.
Ohio. In view of the vanishing wild
life in this country, this seems to be well
worth publishing. I doubt if many such
finds are made now. I know Mr. Core

THE MOTHER POSSUM AND ^UUNCt

personally, and can vouch for the num-
ber of young. On looking up the sub-
ject I find that the 'possum may have
as many as sixteen young. There may
be two or three litters a vear.
Yours sincerely.

G. A. HixxEx.

Tests in Soil Fertility.

The new theory of soil fertility, that
fertility is due to bacteria in the soil
and sterility to infusoria that prey
upon the bacteria, is soon to have a
thorough try-out. An association has
been formed in Enoknd of nursery-
men and market gardeners, who have
subscribed ten thousand dollars for
the plant of an experiment station and
promised another fortv-five hundred a
year for running expenses.

The special line of study will be the
partial sterilizing of soils to just the
degree which destroys the infusoria
but spares the somewhat more re-
sistant bacteria. Laboratory experi-
ments have already shown that lime,
steam at 100 degrees instead of the
customary 130, chloroform, carbolic
acid, carbon bisulphid. and toluene can
all be given in such accurate graduated
amounts as to kill the animal life in
the soil without affecting the vege-
table. The soil then remains fertile
i"^^^il dust or earth from tools or shoes
infects it once more.

The problem now is to reduce the
laboratorv to a commercial basis.

METHOD BY WHICH THE CAPTOR CARRIED
AX OPOSSUM FAMILY FOR NEARLY
UALF A MILE.

MEADOW-RUE.
As foam on crested wave is seen,
So meadow-rue on sea of green.

— Emma Pcirce.

^

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

A Photograph of a Lynx Cat.

Idr. S. C. Baker of Wallingford. Ver-
Tnont, sends us an interesting and lifelike
photograph of a lynx cat. Its length

A LYNX CAT.

was five feet from tip to tip, its weight
fifty-one pounds. It was shot by Mr. A.
E. Rodgers of Wallingford.

The Abandoned Art of Micro-
photography.

What is microphotography ? Do not
confuse it as it is often confused, with
photomicrography.

Photomicrography is a large pho-
tograph of a microscopic object. It is
usually made through a microscope by
the aid of microscope objectives alone
or with the addition of the eyepiece.

Photomacography is a term less fre-
quently used but is employed by some
opticians to designate enlarged photo-
graphs of moderately small objects.
The work is done with short focus
camera lenses and usually with a long
camera.

These are but tw^o forms of magni-
fying photography, although the dis-
tincdon between the two is not always
absolutely sharp and fast.

Microphotography is exactly the re-
verse and consists of carrying to an ex-
treme minimizing photography. Near-
ly all ordinary photography w^ith a camera
stands about the same relation in mini-
mizing that photomacrography has to

magnifying. For example, a child with
a small camera takes a picture of his
schoolmate who is four feet tall. The
photograph is perhaps an inch in
height. This is a micro photograph ;
the object is reduced in size. Your
friend may also be microphoto
graphed so that you may examine his
l)icture under the microscope. Such
photographs are invisible to the naked
eye. While these microphotographs
are extremely interesting and a few of
them are to be found in nearly all
microscopical cabinets yet the making
of microphotographs is practically an
abandoned art. There is one micropho-
tographer in Germany and another in
Manchester, England, but so far as an
extensive correspondence has revealed
there are few workers in this country.

Mr. Edward Pennock of Philadel-
phia writes as follows :

"Francis T. Harmon, 3920 Ellis Ave-
nue, Chicago, Illinois, has been doing
some good work in this line of late ; he
has sold some microphotographs of
'The Declaration of Independence'
made from an old copy (engraving)
which I obtained for him at an old-
book shop here, and which I believe is
the same as the one copied by Langen-
heim in Philadelphia along about i860
or thereabouts."

When these photographs were pop-
ular as interesting things with which
to entertain the microscopist's unsci-
entific friends, such objects as the fol-
lowing were common : "A Ticket to
Heaven" (a. card of admission to a
Sunday School bearing much good ad-
vice) ; "The Lord's Prayer" ; Land-
seer's "The Stag at Bay" ; Gray's
"Elegy" ; the Presidents of the United
States ; Niagara Falls, and similar sub-
jects. These, and others like them,
had no natural science value. They are
preserved in our cabinets of slides as
curiosities.

Photomicrographs are vastly dififer-
ent. These are usually instructive and
valuable, permanently recording the
microscopic structure of objects other-
wise invisible, and probably incapable
of being made visible to the majority
of human beings. Scientific magazines
and similar publications and their
readers would sufifer great loss if pho-
tomicrography should cease to exist,
of which there is not the slightest
dansfer.

THE NATURE PHOTOGRAPHERS

89

Lines to the Violet.

BY H. GORDON HAWKINS, W KSTFIELD, MASS.

O gentle, shj-. retiring flower
Of green banked dell and mossy wood.
Little knowest thou thj' power
That within us works for good.
For when petulant and weary,
We see thy gently nodding head.
Gone is the thought that life is dreary,
And all our evil dreams have fled.
And ever in thy clear blue eye,
Where with our thoughts we sense thy worth,
We see the trace of Him on high
Who holds the destinies of earth
And rules in love.

Some Fishing Experiences.

Philadelphia, Pa.
To the Editor :

Grassy Sound is a summer fishing-
place with about one hundred cottagers
who spend only the summer month >
there. It is on Hereford Inlet, an arm
of the Atlantic Ocean, near Anglesea, at
the end of the Jersey coast near Cape
May.

The following notes of my fishing ex-
periences at this place may be of interest
to some of vour readers.

A TEN POUND EEL.

AN EIGHTEEN POUND SHEEPSHEAD.

Last year I caught a seventy-five
pound channel bass ; this year an eighty
pound one, that fought for his life for
half a mile, while the boat drifted with
the tide.

An eel, the largest ever caught in the
Sound, weighed ten pounds and meas-
ured nearly five feet in length. I got
it into the boat with my bare hands, in
spite of its size and slipperiness.

Sheepshead are rare and hard to
catch. One may fish for weeks and not
get one. It is a slow biter and generally
hangs around old piles, wrecks of boats
and overhanging banks where there are
mussels, fiddler crabs or soft clams. It
is a handsome fish with black and yellow
stripes, and big teeth like those of a
sheep with which it crushes the hard
shells of its favorite food.

Sharks come in the Soimd in schools,
and either follow a school of small fish
in or come in after small fish. When
swimming it always shows its dorsal fin.
^^'hen it is hookell, the struggle becomes
furious, but the shark is speedily ex-
hausted.

There is nothing artificial al)out the
i:)hotograph of the snake. It shows the

90

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

A S.XAL:, .-.L ...M.Wi ITSKLr.

reptile exactly as I saw it, sunning- itself
in an old tree. I approached near enough
to get this good sized picture. It seemed
to he a ground snake. No water was
near.

Yours respectfully,

Harry BeelEr.

Tests of the ahility of various birds to
pick out their food against diiTerent
backgrounds show that such birds as
make a quick rush for their prey take
non-protectively colored objects nine
times more frequently than they take
those which resemble the surroundings.
Such birds, however, as approach slowly
and look before seizing, seem hardly at
all to be influenced by concealing pat-
terns.

Novel Position for Cereus.

W'estport, Isle of Pines, W. I.

1 send a photograph which I hope
will be of interest to you. It is of a
night-blooming cactus taken on Alay 5th,
between 5 and 5.30 a. m., with a Zeiss
I'rotar on a Standard Orthonon plate.
It was taken wide open (6.3) and 10
seconds' exposure. The early morning
was very foggy.

The blossom is beautiful, being white
tinged by buff and with a yellow center.
This special plant had eight blossoms at
the same time and twenty-six buds. It
is native here, although it is not com-
mon. As a rule it grows in the jungles.
This particular specimen was flourishing-
on a post palm together w^ith orchids and
ferns. The mass is about as big around
as a barrel.

We have had this wonderful thing for
more than two years, having brought it
post and all from the coast, but a heavy
rain broke the whole mass from its sup-
])ort after the photograph had been
taken.

Yours truly,

A. C. Read.

ABOUT AS BIG AROUND AS A BARREL

ORNITHOLOGY

91

ORNITHOLOGY

Former President Roosevelt Visits
Louisiana's Vast Bird Island
Reservation

The visit of Col. Theodore Roosevelt
to the many bird island reservations,
many of which he set aside for this pur-
pose while president, and game pre-
serves of Louisiana during the first part
of June has aroused considerable inter-
est in conservation measures practiced
there for bird protection.

As the guest of John ]\L Parker, a

break, ]\\\\^ 8th, and the course was laid
so as to circle the long stretches of Chan-
deleur, Errol, Free Alason, North Har-
bor, Battledore, Hog, Grand Cochere
and Breton islands.

These islands all lie east of the many-
mouthed delta of the ^Mississippi river
and are given over almost wholly to the
terns, gulls, skimmers, pelicans, men-o"-
warsmen and shore birds that breed in
the south. Vast colonies of these birds
flock to these islands to lay their eggs

COLONEL ROOSF.VELT IXSPECTIN'G THE XESTIXG COP OXV OF ROY \L C VSPI \X \ND
CABOT TERNS, LAUGHLN'G GULLS AND BLACK SKIMMERS OX BRETOX' Isi.AXD. "

noted Louisiana sportsman, and the
Conservation Commission of Louisiana,
Col. Roosevelt was given the opportun-
ity of setting foot on the sandy shores of
the many low-lying islands that guard
the delta coast of the Pelican State from
the high rolling waves of the, at times,
turbulent Gulf of Mexico. The trip,
which consumed a solid week, began
when the Conservation Commission's
yacht "Daisy" left Pass Christian at day-

either on the sand or in the rough nests
they construct. A arious sized colonies
ranging from ten to twenty thousand in-
dividuals were inspected but it was not
vmtil he went ashore on Breton Island
that Col. Roosevelt realized the extent
of the protection and the multitude of
birds given sanctuary to-day in Louisi-
ana.

At Breton Island the Roosevelt party
was joined by AI. L. Alexander, presi-

92

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

COLONEL RUOSEVELT, PRESIDENT M. L.
ALEXANDER CIN THE CENTER) AND AU-
DUBON WARDEN EXAMINING
A ROYAL TERN EGG.

dent of the Conservation Commission of
Louisiana, and Stanley Clisby Arthur,
the commission's ornithologist. The
head of the commission found a ready
listener in the former president when he
went into the details of conservation
work now practiced in Louisiana.

Breton Island proved a revelation to
Col. Roosevelt. A two-mile stretch of
sandy beach was covered with the eggs
of the Royal, Caspian and Cabot terns
and black skimmers. Back from the
beach the mangroves and salt grass were
filled with the nests of about fifteen
thousand laughing gulls. At the ap-
proach of the party, sections of the vast
colony, estimated to be over a hundred
thousand, took the air in a beautiful
fluttering flight of snowy wings, settling
back on their eggs, however, as the par-
tv moved forward.

For an hour the former president sat
on the beach and with his binoculars
studied the nesting habits of the various
species, the peculiarities of flight, and
saw for the first time the reprehensible
habit of the laughing gull in pouncing
on the unguarded egg of the terns,
breaking it open with its stout bill and
feasting on the contents. Many other
habits were noted and discussed with
Herbert K. Job, head of the Department
of Applied Ornithology of the National
Association of Audubon Societies,
who accompanied the former president
to make the pictures for his magazine
articles, and Air. Arthur, who in his
work for the Louisiana commission, has
made a special study of breeding cus-
toms practiced by the southern breeding
birds.

A R0\AL TERN COLONY ON BRETON ISLAND

A VIEW SHOWING HOW TERN EGGS ARE DE-
POSITED ON TWO MILE STRETCH OF
SAND ON BRETON ISLAND.

The patrolling system of protecting
these breeding islands from human mo-
lestation during the summer months was
explained to the distinguished natural-
ist by President Alexander and the com-
mission's work in this regard was high-
ly commended by Col. Roosevelt, who
also showed lively interest in the other
natural resources of the state under the
jurisdiction of the commission.

It is expected that Col. Roosevelt will
make a second visit to Louisiana during
the coming winter to investigate the
great game and water-fowl refuges.
Marsh Island, The State Game Pre-
serve, the Ward-Mcllhenny and Rocke-
feller Foundation, when the ducks and
2'eese are there.

ORNITHOLOGY

93

Swiffs and Weather.
West Devonport, Tasmania, Australia.
To the Editor :

Perhaps the following" note may be of
interest, and may induce some of the
readers of the The Guide to Nature to
study and record the movements of the
American members of that extraordinary
group of birds — the swifts. In a paper
read before the Royal Society of Tasma-
nia I endeavored some time ago to trace
a connection between the appearances of
the spine-tailed swift {Chactura canda-
cuta) both in this state and in Mctoria
(Australia) and disturbed weather con-
ditions, showing" that in all cases which
had come under my notice the appear-
ance of this swift meant atmospheric
change. This was again strikingly
demonstrated on the twentv-seventh of
February of this year, when in the morn-
ing I saw fifty or sixty of these fine birds
coursing insects over the paddocks. The
day was sultry but fine. Soon afterward
I met a friend who spends most of his
life out-of-doors and, like myself, takes
pleasure in noting natural objects. I
told him that I had just seen a large
party of swifts for the first time this
summer, the twenty-seventh of February
being near the end of summer wath us in
these southern latitudes, when he re-
marked, "Then rain is not far away."
That very evening a light rain began to
fall, and practically the whole of the fol-
lowing day was wet. Not only so. but
for several days afterward we had high
winds and showers, culminating on the
seventh and eighth of ]\Iarch in a tre-
mendous northwesterly gale, w'hich did
a great deal of damage. All this distur-
bance came after months of fine settled
weather. On the ninth of March the
swifts were migrating from southeast to
northwest, passing in twos and threes
every few minutes, from two to four
o'clock, during the afternoon. As this
species is often with us until April and I
have seen it as late as the twenty-seventh
of that month, I took this early departure
to mean rough and cold autumn weather.
a supposition which has since been abun-
dantly verified. Some notes of mine on
the subiect were sent to the Tasmanian
Field Club, which has its headquarters
in Hobart, at the end of the state oppo-
site to that in which I reside, and were
read by the secretary at a recent meeting.
Considerable discussion ensued, most of
the members agreeing, however, that the

sudden appearance of the spine-tailed
swift, especially if flying low, after a
long spell of fine weather, indicates a
break-up of anticyclonic conditions. I
was pleased to receive this confirmation
of my series of observations which cover
a good many years.

H. Stuart Dove.

John Burroughs's Diet.

This veteran naturalist, who has re-
cently passed his seventy-eighth birth-
day, tells us that he is now in better
health and is better able to do his work
than he has been for years. In an inter-
esting article in "The Ladies' Home
Journal" he says :

"Old age is not such a bugaboo after
all. He is, in many ways, better to live
with than Youth, because he leaves you
more at your ease ; you are in the calmer
waters ; the fret and fever of life have
greatly abated. Old Age brings the phil-
osophical mind ; he brings a deeper, wid-
er outlook upon life ; he brings more tol-
erance and charity and good will."

As a part of his experience we learn
the astonishing fact that he has dis-
carded from his dietary eggs and raw
apples. He also says, and this is less
surprising, that he avoids pastry, new
bread, coiiee, tea, iced drinks and all al-
coholic beverages, but the most amazing
thing is that he uses neither eggs nor
raw apples. It has been generally sup-
posed that these are the prime factors
in the diet of one that lives near to na-
ture. But !Mr. Burroughs believes that
eggs are poison to some people. He was
induced to discard them through the in-
fluence of Professor Chittenden's book,
and by the fact that no eggs were given
to the Yale students upon whom Chitten-
den has been experimenting with various
svstems of diet. In a personal letter to
tiie editor of TiiE Guide to Nature, he
says :

"I do not eat our grapes, or plums, or
pears and rarely a raw apple. I eat a
few ripe peaches and ripe strawberries
once a day. Oranges and grapefruit do
me more harm than good. With cooked
fruit I fare better. I can eat baked ap-
ples three times a day. The one raw
fruit that is medicine to me is the tree
melon or papaya of the Hawaiian
Islands."

We shall be glad to learn from others,
especially of our elderly readers, as to
whether their experiences coincide with
this of the Dean of Naturalists.

94

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Contributions to the Observatory.
Air. J. R. de la Torre Bueno,

White Plains, N. Y $ i.oo

Mr. Frederick A. Hubbard, Green-
wich I.oo

Mr. Irving Bacheller, Riverside,

Conn lo.oo

Mrs. John Elbert White, Green-
wich I.oo

A Friend ( Increase — total $4.00) ., . 2.00
Mr. Fred C. Binney, Sound Beach. 5.00
Mr. J. D. Sawyer, New York City 2.00
Mr. S. M. Boschnogel, Sauders-

burg", Penn i.oo

Mr. J. K. Lawrence, Stamford. . . . 2.00

Mr. E. N. Fast, Stamford i.oo

Mr. Geo. W. Lockwood, Stamford i.oo
Mr. B. Frank Finney, Greenwich. . i.oo
Miss Frances H. Errett, Newtown,

Ohio 25.00

Brady & Chadeayne, Stamford. . . . 5.00
Mr. George Lauder, Jr., Greenwich 25.00
Mr. Charles H. Knapp, Sound

Beach io.od

Air. Chas. O. Trowbridge, Fram-

ingham Center, Mass i.oo

Air. Arthur L. DeGrofif, Newark.

N. T 25.00

Airs. 'R. G. Hinton, Hartford,

Conn I.oo

Air. Walter F. Alortimer, Sound

Beach 2.00

Air. AI. G. Allyn, Riverside. Conn, i.oo
Air. S. C. Hunter, New Rochelle,

N. Y 50.00

Air. Samuel Phillips. Stamford... i.oo
Airs. Grace Lee Smidt, Sound

Beach 10.00

Aliss Sarah Root Adams, Portland,
Alaine 20

Total $184.20

Previously acknowledged 322.00

Grand Total $506.20

The Starry Heavens in August.

BY PROF. KRIC DOOLITTLK OF THE UNI-
VFRSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

DOUBTLESS the most interesting
astronomical occurrence of the
present month is the entrance of
the beautiful planet Jupiter into our eve-
ning sky. If during the last few weeks
the reader has happened to glance at a
late hour of the evening toward the
eastern heavens, he cannot have failed to
notice this most brilliant object there,
well up from the ground, and shining
with sixteen times the brightness of a
first magnitude star. But not until the
first of the present month does this most
wonderful and interesting world — by
far the largest of all the worlds which
circle around our sun — enter the bor-
ders of our evening sky map. For the
remainder of the present year it will re-
main the most conspicuous object in the
evening heavens.

This month is also signalized by the
passage of the moon over the bright
star Antares and by the occurrence of
an eclipse of the sun, but unfortunately
neither of these interesting phenomena
will be visible to observers within the
borders of the United States.

THE AUGUST STARS.
There have been many interesting
changes in the face of the evening heav-
ens since last month. The great Leo,
the very last of the winter groups, has
disappeared ; the preceding stars of the
very large group, Virgo, are beginning
to set, and there no longer remains the
least trace of the long, straggling con-
stellation known as the Water Snake.
Hercules and Corona no longer occupy
the highest point of the heavens, but
they, as well as the brilliant Scorpio,
Opiiiuchus and Bootes, have moved far
toward the west. The long train of
bright groups along the Alilky Way are
now all near the meridian, while Aquari-
us, the beautiful Andromeda and the

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

95

Great Square of Pegasus have all ap-
peared in the east.

A very beautiful region for explora-
tion and study is that which lies within
the borders of the constellation Cygnus,
or the Northern Cross, now high in the
evening sky. The star at A is perhaps
the most beautiful double star in the
heavens with a small aperture, the larg-

which, from the immense amount of
mathematical research which has been
devoted to it, is well known to every as-
tronomer. This pair is called "Sixty-
one Cygni" and has the distinction of
being nearer to us than any other known
star north of the Celestial Equator. The
light from this pair of suns requires bnt
eight vears to reach us, so that Sixtv-

SOUXM

Figure 1 Tlic Constellations on August 1 at 9 P. M.
(If facing south, hold the map upright; if facing East hold east below;
if facing west, hold West below; if facing north, hold the map inverted.)

er star being of a golden color and the
smaller one blue. The star at C is a very
similar but more difficult double, while
that at D is a double presenting an only
slightly less beautiful contrast in color,
but in which the colors are far more un-
usual, the larger star being white and
the smaller one of a lilac tint. If there
are any worlds in this strange system,
the dwellers upon them thus see a white
sun and a lilac sun rise every day ; in
fact, it might always be day on so
strangely situated a world, because, per-
haps, one of their suns is always to be
seen in their sky.

At the position E there is an incon-
spicuoiis sixth magnitude pair of suns

one Cygni is at almost exactly the same
distance aw^ay as the bright Dog star
Sirius.

The variable star at B, which the
reader may have noticed when it was a
bright, naked-eye object, is now of near-
ly the eleventh magnitude and is daily
growing fainter. This strange sun thus
oscillates from brightness to faintness
continually, the period being 406 days ;
though for some cause, as unknown to
us as the cause of^the variability itself,
this period has recently been growing
longer.

Around the star at F there is a won-
derful stream of stars, while between
this and the star at H is the curious va-

96

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

cant region of the Milky Way known as
the Northern Coal Sack. But star
streams and clouds and other wonderful
objects literally fill this beautiful region
of the Milky Way. The bright star at
H is itself a most interesting sun. Not
only do we now see it as the brightest
star of the constellation, but it is ap-

moon, while to those within the narrow
strip MNO, the intensely black disc of
the moon will appear to move complete-
ly on to the bright disc of the sun.
Even here, however, the sun's light will
at no time be completely cut off ; it will
shine out as a brilliant ring encircling
the ball of the moon. It is for this

Figure 2. Regions of the earth from which the eclipse of August 10 is visible.

proaching our earth at the rate of thirty-
six miles a second, and in the course of
very many centuries it will have drawn so
near us that it will far outshine every
other star of the heavens. What kinds
of beings they will be who will then be
watching the heavens from our little
earth we can only conjecture, if indeed
our world at that remote epoch will be
in such a condition that any life at all
wall be possible upon it.

THE ANNULAR ECLIPSE OF THE

SUN.

On the afternoon of August lo the
moon will pass between the earth and
the sun, but unfortunately the shadow
of our satellite will not at that time fall
upon any part of the United States.
Were there an observer at the point A,
Figure 2, he would be the first person
on the earth to see the moon's black
disc touch the edge of the sun ; while
it is from the point B that the last trace
of the eclipse will be visible.

All observers within the region RST
V will see the sun partly hidden by the

reason that eclipses of this kind are
called Annular, or Ring, eclipses.

The present eclipse will begin on Aug-
ust lo at 2 hours 56 minutes 6 seconds,
P. M. (Eastern standard time) and will
end at 8 hours 48 minutes P. M., thus
lasting in its entirety almost six hours.

THE PLANETS IN AUGUST.

Mercury enters the evening sky on
August 14, but does not reach its great-
est distance east of the sun until Septem-
ber 27. On August 31 it sets about one
hour after sunset and may therefore be
then detected low in the twilight; but it
can be seen to much better advantage
four weeks later.

Venus is practically invisible through-
out all of August, as it is lost in the rays
of the sun. On August i it rises but
forty minutes, and on August 31 but
ten minutes before sunrise.

Mars will be seen rising far in the
northeast, four hours before sunrise ; it
thus attains a quite high altitude by the
time of dawn. It is now of almost ex-
actly the same brightness as a first mag-
nitude star ; because of this, and because

TO KNOW THF STARRY HEAVENS

97

of its red color, it is very conspicuous
and cannot be mistaken.

Jupiter may be seen rising almost ex-
actly at the east point of the horizon
at 9 P. M. on August i and at a
few minutes before 7 P. M. on August

Figure 3. A recent drawint; of the planet Jupiter made
with a large telescope. The flattening of the planet at
the poles is very evident in this drawing.

31. Though this world, on the whole,
moves eastward among the stars, com-
pleting the circuit of the heavens in
about twelve years, it is at the present
time moving slowly westward or "re-
trograding." This retrograde motion
will continue until Novemljer 15, when
it will be found at a distance equal to
seventeen times the apparent diameter
of the full moon west of its present po-
sition. After this date it will again run
rapidly eastward among the stars.

No planet affords a more interesting
subject for study with a small telescope
than does this one. Its delicately color-
ed bands and its markings, which are
continually changing both on accoimt of
the great disturbances on this vaporous
world and on account of its rapid ro-
tation, and its four bright and ever-mov-
ing moons form so fascinating an object
that one can scarcely tire of watching
it. Numerous occultations, transits or
eclipses of the moons will be seen to oc-
cur during the nights of August 6, 8,
15. 22 and 31.

Saturn is steadily withdrawing from
the sun's rays into the morning sky. On
August I it rises, but two hours before
sunrise, but this time is increased to no
less than four and three-fourths hours
by the end of the month. It will not be
until November, however, that we will
see this beautiful planet shining in our
evening sky.

A Sonnet.

Mysterious nijjht! when our first parent knew
Thee from report divine, and heard thy

name,
Did he not tremble for his lovely frame.
This glorious canopy of light and blue?
Yet "neath a curtain of translucent dew.
Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame,
Hesperus with the Host of Heaven came.
And lo! creation widen'd in man's' view.
Who could have thought such darkness lay

conceal'd
Within thy beams, O Sun ! or who could find,
Whilst fly and leaf and insect stood re-

veal'd ;
That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us
blind?
Why do we then shun deatli, with anxious
strife?
If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life?
— Joseph Blanco White.

Dr. Edward F. Bigelow, over at
Sound Beach, is trying to buy a tele-
scope for ArcAdiA, so we can all look
up into the sky and see what is going on
so far away. While there is a good deal
of room up in the sky for one small spy-
glass to look at we hope the Doctor gets
his observatory. It is nice to know a lot
if you can acquire knowledge by merely
looking at it instead of reading and
studying, Avhich is hard on the occiput.
— "Cos Cob Nature Notes." — New York
World. .

A late report from the Lowell Obser-
vatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, states that
the only water on Mars is that furnished
by the melting snow of the polar ice
caps. The equatorial region, therefore, is
excessively dry. The latest measure-
ment of the amount of oxygen present
in the Martian atmosphere show^s it to
be about one-half that of the earth's.

A German naturalist notes that some
of the common shore crabs lifted by
the shell between thumb and finger and
waved in the air, become rigid and are
probably hypnotized.

A recent study by Crocker and
Groves of the duration of life in seeds
appears to show that death is due to
a slow coagulation of the proteins.
The rate at wdiich this takes place is
the more rapid the higher the temper-
ature and the greater the amount of
moisture in the seed. One hundred
and fifty years seems to be the limit
of longevity for the most resistant
seeds under the most favorable con-
ditions.

98

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

:^^i

*••••••♦•••*

AQASSIZ ASSOCIATION

KCCC<CCCCSKC<K<C<KC^^^

Established 1875

IncorpDrntHil. MnMM,icliiisHttH. IMfj

Connecticut, 1910

Our Meriden, Connecticut, Chapter.

The annual reports from this Chapter
come to us in excellent shape, not in
glittering generalities, but in a specific
account from each member as to what
was actually studied. For example, we
cjuote a little from a few of these ex-
tended, individual reports.

Mildred Whiting tells how she went
into the woods searching for cocoons
and finally found one on a white birch
tree. "This cocoon was made out of
leaves and fastened to the twig of the
tree. I cut the twig and procured the
cocoon. Then I took a box, cut out
the top of the cover, inserted some net-
ting, put the cocoon in the box, and put
this cover on. I also gathered about
six of these common brown caterpillars
and put them in the same kind of a
box as I did the cocoon. I fed them
grass and leaves, mostly rose leaves.
Within three days, they had all spun
a cocoon for themselves. They all
seemed to prefer the corner of the box,
so that there were two or three in one
corner."

Caroline J. Hitchcock: "The subject
I chose for my work last year was
plants. During a visit to the British
Isles I collected and pressed speci-
mens. This fall I mounted these and
I now have to give to the society about
fifty specimens and of these eleven are
ferns. The ferns have their botanical
name with them but the others have
not."

Eva Rettenmeyer tells how she be-
came interested in astronomy and con-
tinued that study: "As far back as 1
can remember I have felt a friendly
interest in the stars. Although there
were brighter and more attractive
groups in the heavens, the seven stars
of the Big Dipper received most of my
attention. The reason was simple
enough — I knew the group by name.
Because of this I made a firm resolu-

tion to learn the names of as many
stars as possible. But how? Occasion-
ally one had been pointed out to me,
but when I looked for it again, it was
lost among the many.

"W^ith a great deal of doubt in my
mind, I turned to books for help. At
first I found them, as I had expected,
too technical, until at length one ap-
peared which professed itself a guide
for the amateur. This I read and re-
read during the day and then impa-
tiently awaited night and my old
friend, Ursa Major.

"With the aid of the 'Pointers' I
found the Pole Star and the other stars
making Ursa Minor. By tracing im-
aginary lines from these two constella-
tions I located Cassiopeia and then
Capella and Vega and, soon after, the
most beautiful star of all, Arcturus.
And so I continued the study, each
night finding some further from the
North Pole until I could recognize
most of the southern constellations.

"By this time, newer constellations
began to appear in the east. It was
ever so interesting to watch the stars
rise, one by one, first late at night and
then earlier and earlier until they were
visible soon after sunset.

"Meanwhile some of my first star
acquaintances left the evening skies.
Now thev are returning and others are
setting. It is a continual going and com-
ing which keeps our interest balanced
between the east and west.

"As I have shown, my first step in
astronomy was to learn the names of
the brightest stars and of the constel-
lations to which they belonged. This
I could not do without noticing and
reading about various phenomena. I
noticed the dififerent degrees of bright-
ness and this led to the reading of para-
graphs on magnitudes, size, and dis-
tance. I marked the differences in

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

99

•colour and the different tone of the
.same star when rising or setting. Of
these, also, the book held explanations.
J. saw double stars and read about
them, and in one glorious moment,
through a telescope, I saw the trapezium
-of Orion. In that same moment I real-
ized, from the quickness with which
■the telescope got out of lield, how
rapidly the earth is revolving. The dif-
ferent positions of Ursa Major had pre-
-^■iously proved it to me.

"These are but a few of the interest-
ing points in the study of astronomy.
Jt contains everything from the most
-poetic traditions to the greatest of scien-
tific investigations.

"So far I have tried to gain a little
general knowledge of astronomy in dif-
ferent phases Perhaps in another
:season I shall be content to concentrate
upon the study of some particular
phase of it ; at least, I hope to."

Adelaide Piechocki gives a list of
minerals that she has studied, also con-
tinuing an interest in moths and but-
terflies. The list of minerals contains
many of especial interest with descrip-
tion of what has been learned.

Gertrude Henrietta Rudolph has
studied and mounted eighteen kinds
of plants and found the work delight-
ful. She is continuing it this summer.
She also reports having given consid-
erable time to birds and insects on her
Avalks searching for plants.

E. Norma Doolittle has studied trees
and astronomy. She says that she
secured a planisphere and some books
and in a short time was able to recog-
nize principal stars as well as constel-
lations. During her study she was
fortunate in having a view through a
large telescope. She saw Saturn, the
stars of the Pleiades, and has become
much interested in Mercury.

Ellena Risley McLean says she ar-
ranged a collection of thirty-five differ-
ent tree seeds in uniform bottles and
labeled. "I have five blocks of wood
cut to show the grain. The evergreens
look well in the Rikers' mounts and I
have branches of the white pine, arbor
v'itae, and Norway spruce, with cones
from each, thus arranged. I also have
a photograph of each tree which I shall
fasten in an envelope to the back of the
mount."

Louis C. Dossin collected the cocoons
of moths in the winter and gives c^uite
a long list telling various experiences
with each particular kind. In the spring
he caught moths under the electric
lights but found that the most perfect
imagoes were those that came out of
cocoons collected during the winter
months.

AW G. Shute gave extended attention
to geology and writes interestingly as
follows : "A few years ago Professors
Rice and Gregory explained the geolo-
gical changes to wdiich Connecticut
and therefore Meriden were subjected.
During the past summer I attempted
to cover Aleriden and the vicinity in
order to explain the nature of our hills
and mountains in the light of the work
prepared by the gentlemen mentioned.

"I visited first Roaring Brook in
Southington wdiere I took a picture of
the Paleozoic schists at right angles to
the overhanging sandstones. I later
found outcrops of gneiss east of ]\Iid-
dletown thereby easily proving that
Meriden was formerly under water,
with high mountains on either side.
The four separate strata of sandstone
were easily followed wnth their inter-
vening lava sheets, namely the ante-
rior, main and the posterior. The last
was not found in ^leriden. The first
was interesting for it bore the marks of
a lava deposit into water. One fright-
ful explosion of steam and stone was
found in the 'crater' near Berlin. Fur-
thermore, the sandstones by their de-
cidedly red color denote that they were
deposited in fresh water. This shows
that Meriden was at least twice under
water. The age of the strata is easily
determined by the many imprints of
the dinosaur, a semibipedal reptile,
which lived during the Triassic or
early Jurassic era.

"The last changes were explained by
the ice sheet's sweep across the state. I
took many photographs illustrating the
different formations caused by the gla-
ciers and attempted to explain the
nature of all our hills. The whole
attempt of my work was to picture as
clearly as possible the different stages
through which ^Meriden had passed."

Anna Koffinke tells of "x\moebae I
Have A\^atched" as follows : "Aly mind
was strangely divided in my choice of
a special subject between astronomy,

lOO

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

the largest, most infinite of all sciences,
and the study of amoebae, the lowest
forms of animal life, too tiny to be seen
by the naked eye, though thousands be
in a drop of water.

"Microscopes have an interest second

(SlAOlli*)

only to a telescope, and each glance
brings a new surprise. And so, with
a different specimen occasionally, but
almost invariably the amoeba shown
on Plate I, I spent a few afternoons
watching their movements and record-

AnotiA)

ing them each minute or each half-
minute.

"The amoeba shown on Plate 1
changed rapidly and was very active
whenever I observed it ; it appears,
however, that amoebae have their per-
iods of activity and of rest, according
to a pamphlet written by Dr. Gibbs and
other gentlemen who made a special
study of one specimen. I have never
seen it take any food excepting algae.
But as the second plate shows, I had an
opportunity to watch the discharge of
a food vacuole.

"Plate III shows the Amoeba diffliiens
which is continually thrusting out little
projections of its protoplasm, and again
contracting.

"By far the most interesting and pret-
tiest of the amoebae which I could find
changed even more rapidly than the
others. This was the Amoeba radiosa,
beautiful for its symmetry, for the
glass-like appearance of its projections,
sharp and pointed like the rays of a
star.

"A queer and constantly varying spe-
cimen is that on Plate V. I have not
been able to find its name Further than
these, the slipper-animalcule and a
large, interesting Entomostracus, with
an extraordinary amount of activity,
and my observations were suddenly in-
terrupted But the study of amoebae
proved so interesting as far as I went,
that I shall some day try to make a spe-
cial study of them."

This Chapter has always kept a high
standard of work. It has a special
place of work known as The Agassiz
Room. Two delegates were sent by
the Chapter to visit ArcAdiA. We do
not know what they reported back to
the Chapter but we do know that they
gave some very interesting reports of

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

lor

the Chapter. One commendable fea-
ture was the fact that every member
has to do something and the rule is
even if you have not done anything get
up and say so, which makes every one
do something:.

Trees Gnawed by Beavers.

The accompanying photograph, show-
in"" the work of beavers, excels in many

"I am mighty glad to see you, old fel-
low." The thought of sourness or of
cordiality comes before the words. To
the writer this is an important pedagogi-
cal point. Shall we begin with a thing
or with a worrl if we intend to teach the
child to think? I am sure that Agassiz
had this in mind when he said, "Study
nature, not books."

This question was sent to Professor

A REMARKABLY LARGE TREE ATTACKED BY BEAXERS.

respects all other photographs of beavers
that have reached this office, as the trees
there shown are the largest that we have
known to be attacked by beavers. The
one in the background is more than four
feet in diameter, the other more than
five. They are on Trout Creek, about
half a mile from Okanagan Lake in Brit-
ish Columbia, Canada. The photograph
was sent bv F. H. \^an Ilise.

Words and Things.

The first line on the first page of a
recent number of ''Moderator-Topics'"
reads as follows : "We think in words."
That surely causes one to think. Do we
really think in words, or are the words
secondary as an expression of an aroused
thought ? I bite an apple. It is sour.
I have a thought before I speak the word
"sour." I meet a friend and cordially
grasp his hand. The thought in itself is
complete before I express it in the words.

Hugo Munsterberg, the famous profes-
sor of psychology at Cambridge, !AIassa-
chusetts. He writes in reply as follows :

"You are certainly right in saying that
you can think of the actions of a cat, a
squirrel, a child, without any words, but
the pedagogical magazine which claims
that we think in words is certainly right
too. The apparent conflict lies in the
fact that the word thinking is used there
in two entirely dififerent meanings. You
use thinking in the sense of having in
consciousness, including remembering"
and selecting parts of the memory pic-
ture, even linking new memory pictures
and imaginative ideas. The other party
uses thinking in the sense of producing
thoughts by going from premises to con-
clusions. In your sense of the word the
animals certainly thinT: too : in the other
sense of the word, the animals hardly
think.

"Rut it seems to me more imiiortant

I02

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

that both functions deserve training. The
study of nature itself is therefore an ex-
cellent condition for mental development
and is to be recommended as the basis
of all scientific interests. Yet when we
come to the development of principles
based on thought, the thinking in words
becomes essential.''

The Station for Experimental Evo-
lution at Cold Spring Harbor, Long
Island, reports one hundred successive
generations of the common vv^ater flea
(Daphiiia pules) without the appear-
ance of any males. Another culture, of
a different species, has nov\^ reached
seventy-six parthenogenetic genera-
tions.

A Spider's Motherly Devotion.

BY W. I. BEECROFT, ADAMS, MASS.

Different creatures have different
methods of caring for their young, pro-

Appreciative Words from a Stamford
Editor.

The Agassiz Association of Sound
Beach appears to be mounting the
ladder of pecuniary success so rapidly
of late as to make it a potential candi-
date for the ranks of plutocracy. In
the annual financial report just made
public, the candid confession is made
by President Edward F. Bigelow that
during the last year he has been paid
the sum of $708.44 for mechanical and
business work on The Guide to Na-
ture, the olffcial organ of the associa-
tion, which has provided him with a
weekly compensation of $13.62. In his
capacity as president of the associa-
tion and editor of its magazine, how-
ever, he received nothing. The $13.62
looks prodigious, owing to the monetary
void that preceded the latest year, as
during the previous seven years Mr.

HOW THE SPIDER CARRIES THE YOUNG.

vided they give them any care. The
running spider's habit of carrying the
young on the back is a peculiar instance
of devotion in a creature so low in the
scale of life. In the accompanying il-
lustration the mother spider is thus
transporting more than two hundred
little ones.

Bigelow's work, mechanical, editorial
or any other sort, has gone wholly un-
rewarded, and he has even paid rent to
the association for personal use of the
garden and pethouse. Furthermore,
three members of the president's fam-
ily assist in the work of the association
without compensation. It would appear,

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

103

then, that $13.62 a week buys a deal of
labor and devotion in the interests of
an educational enterprise.

The steadily widening" orbit of the asso-
ciation's influence and work and the con-
stantly increasing number of its friends
and patrons are the best evidence of a
growing- appreciation of the excellence
of its purpose. The association is forty
years old this summer, but during the
last two years it has been entering on
what is described as a "new era of en-
larged scope as a public institution."
Its object is highly meritorious, as few
education excursions are more produc-
tive of profit and pleasure than deep
researches into the mysteries of nature.
In its president the association has a
tireless and self-sacrificing official to
whom great credit is due for progress
already made and a prospective that is
particularly promising of greater pro-
gress to come. — "The Daily Advocate,"
Stamford Conn., Friday, June 18, 1915.

Good Work and Good Methods.

Frankford, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
To the Editor :

As President of Chapter 1054 I send
the following report.

Order of Exercises.

1. ]\Ieeting called to order by Presi-
dent.

2. Reading of minutes of last meeting
by Recording Secretary.

3. Old or unfinished business of the
Chapter.

4. New business of the Chapter.

5. Collection of dues.

6. Discussion of nature subjects.

7. Fun.

8. Adjournment.

The meetings are held every two weeks
at the houses of the members in alpha-
betical order. At each meeting the mem-
bers report on some object of nature
that they have seen. The treasurer re-
ports once a month. The dues are two
cents every meeting. The number of
members is limited to ten.

We have taken several outings. On
the first of these we found several arrow-
heads and saw many birds. This month
we are specially searching for birds. We
have arranged to look through the large
telescope in the observatory at Haver-
ford College.

Joseph Borxeman.

Come Now ; Let Us Reason Together.

It is an astonishing fact that The
Agassiz Association has hundreds of
members, yes, even thousands if we
take into consideration all those that
have been enrolled as individual mem-
bers or as members of Chapters since
the organization was first started, that
have not yet become subscribers to
The Guide to N.ature.

It is also equally astonishing that
The Guide; to Nature has. hundreds of
subscribers that are not members. We
may have some on our list that can-
not afford to pay a dollar and a half
a year, but we are sure that many of
our active friends should become
members.

Probably some of our readers will be
amazed at the statement that we have
so many members that are not sub-
scribers, and a large number of sub-
scribers that are not members. But
they have no more reason for astonish-
ment than have the w^orkers here in
the Home Office. Let us remedy this
amazing situation. Every one who re-
ceives this magazine at a dollar a year
is getting what costs far more, and
that difference is made up by our loyal
members and appreciative contribu-
tors. Let every one who can possibly
do so take more cooperative interest in
the work than merely by a subscrip-
tion.

The Naturalist Field Club of the
University of Pennsylvania, after some
years of inactivity, has been reorgan-
ized and has taken on renewed life.
The club is now managed entirely by
the undergraduates, although gradu-
ate students and members of the teach-
ing force are eligible to membership.
The zoological laboratory of the Uni-
versity provides a meeting place and
a photographic dark room.

C. H. Turner prints in the Biological
Bulletin (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) a
long account of his elaborate experiments
on the hearing of the large silk-moths,
polyphemus, cecropia, promethea, etc.,
together with various other smaller
moths. He finds that they all hear, and
are affected by a wide range of pitch,
from below the lowest note of a piano
to above the highest.

I04

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

A Wide-Awake Chaper.

Monsarrat School, Louisville, Kentucky.
To the Editor :

Since our former letter to you, the
Monsarrat Chapter of the AA has had
several enjoyable trips. One excursion
was to our beautiful Cherokee Park. We
started immediately after school and
spent the afternoon in searching for
plants and hearing wonderful explana-
tions about them.

Many spring flowers were in bloom,
such as the wild yellow poppy, the white
and the purple violet and the wild hya-
cinth. The hyacinth was more eagerly
sought for than any other plant ; the chil-
dren scrambled over rocks, climbed hills
and did almost anything to reach one.
But the roots extend so deep into the
ground that it is difficult to get them out
unbroken and complete, yet nearly all of
our plants had the roots, and most of the
children transplanted them in their gar-
dens or window boxes. A common plant
which interested us was Dutchman's-
breeches, another name for squirrel corn.
We also got many specimens of jack-in-
the-pulpit.

All our trips have been beneficial and
we hope that others in the future will be
as successful.

We held our final regular meeting of
the A A on Thursday, June loth. This
was the last one for many of us as mem-
bers of the Monsarrat School, since we
go to High School next September.

We were pleased to see our letter and
pictures in the May number of The
Guide; to Nature. When you said that
we have caught the real A A spirit of
standing for high ideals and accomplish-
ing things really worth while, you
strengthened our desire to keep that
standard, not only in nature study but in
everything else.

A'^ery sincerely yours,

Letitia Lawrence,
Corresponding Secretary.

The Report of the Larchmont Manor
Chapter.

Larchmont, N. Y
To The Agassiz Association :

Since the members of my schoolroom
formed the Larchmont Manor Chapter
of The Agassiz Association last June, we
have all taken a special interest in the
study of nature.

In the autumn we studied the trees and
their bark, especially the nut bearing

trees. We also made a special study of
the silkworm, the bee and the life his-
tory of some moths and butterflies. This
spring we raised an exceedingly beauti-
ful Polyphemus moth in our room.

In the spring we studied the buds of
trees and shrubs. We also learned much
about spring flowers and made a collec-
tion.

At the meetings of the AA during the
year, we have studied many song birds.

All the pupils of the ]\Ianor School
were delighted with the interesting lec-
ture that Dr. Bigelow gave us in Janu-
ary on "Roadsides, Fields and Forests."
I sincerely hope that we may hear from
him again, as he afforded us so much
pleasure.

Hoping to go to ArcAdiA, the inter-
esting home of the AA, not only next
year, but at many other times, I am
Sincerely yours,

Aeys Boross,
Corresponding Secretary.

A Collecting Pipette.

Mr. Arthur M. Banta, a member of
the staff of the Long Island Station
for Experimental Evolution recom-
mends for collecting small, active
water creatures a peculiar form of

pipette. The instrument is made from
one of the "calcium chloride tubes"
sold by dealers in chemical supplies,
and is worked by means of a common
rubber bulb two inches or so in dia-
meter.

These tubes come in various sizes.
A convenient sort will be seven or
eight inches long and have a bulb an
inch and a half across, with a tube
about half this dimension. The wide
open end of the tube will, of course,
have to be heated and drawn down to
the required size for the pipette
mouth.

Because of the large capacity of this
type of pipette, there is little danger
of drawing a specimen into the rubber
bulb, its shortness makes it easier to
carry in the pocket than the ordinary
long form, it is far more nimble than a
net, and less likely to injure delicate
specimens or itself come to grief.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

105

"The Forest of Arden " at Sound Beach.

One hundred acres of forest land, as
wild, primitive and picturesque as it was
in the days of the Indians, have had their
natural history attractions added to those
of ArcAdiA. Mr. Cyrus C. Miller of
Miller & Bretzfelder, Counselors at Law,
No. 55 Liberty Street, New York, has
placed his extensive forest, so far as its
nature interests are concerned, at the dis-
posal of the Agassiz Association. He
will hereafter allow this wild and beauti-
ful tract to be known as "The Forest of
Arden." He writes as follows under
date of May 17:

"I have no objection to your calling-
it 'The Forest of Arden' if you wish, but
I presume such names, to be lasting,
must be adopted by the community. I
have refrained for a long time from post-
ing signs on the property forbidding
trespassing, as I like to have the people
of the neighborhood exercise the privi-
lege of rambling over the property and
enjoy the woods and fields, but I found
it necessary to warn people generally to
keep away, as they knocked down and
took away the fences and gates and even
cut down the trees. It is to be regretted
that they could not enjoy the woods and
fields without destroying fences, shrub-
bery and trees. If the people of the
neig'hborhood would take it upon them-
selves to prevent such vandalism I should
be very glad to have them do so and to
enjoy the natural delights of the place."

■Mr. Aliller desires to keep this tract
of land in its present primitive state.
In a later letter he writes: "I have with-
stood the temptations of fellows who
wished to buy the trees to cut down, and
it was a matter of regret to me when
the chestnuts were blighted so they had
to be destroyed. I do not like to see
even a single tree injured. There are
not many pieces of woods left now-a-
days near the big cities so that we can
destroy one lightly."

It would be difficult to find a more
easily accessible or picturesque forest
than this. It is within six minutes' walk
of ArcAdiA. ]\Iany visitors and stu-
dents have been taken there to examine
the trees, the plants, the insects, the birds
and among other things the various
phases of aquatic microscopy. Every
one interested in nature study will com-
mend the selection and the appropriate-
ness of the name "The Forest of Arden,"

an idyllic place of enjoyment in nearness
to nature. It will form an acceptable ad-
junct to our present equipment for na-
ture study. Of course everybody knows
that the Forest of Arden was made fa-
mous by Shakespeare's play, "As You
Like It." What could be more fitting
than a name from such a play? What
one gets out of nature depends entirely
upon how it is liked. "We love things
not because they are beautiful but they
are beautiful because we love them."
Shakespeare fittingly portrayed the valu-
able knowledge we may obtain from
"The Forest of Arden'^ when he refers
to the common myth that a toad, though
erroneously regarded in those days as
ugly and venomous, "Wears yet a
precious jewel in his head." The myth
of the toad applies well to all phases of
nature. Often a swamp may seem very
commonplace or even ugly and forbid-
ding, and yet if one searches faithfully
into the near recesses of things there will
be found many "jewels" or good things.
Shakespeare sums up the value of "The
Forest of Arden" in these classic words :

"And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running

brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing."

It will be remembered by the read-
ers of "As You Like It" that Orlando
was of poetic, sentimental tendency, and
that Adam, an old fellow, who lived near
to nature, thus describes himself :

"Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood ;
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility :
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly."

That was a pretty good combination
for exploring "The Forest of Arden"
and the result was that Orlando saw
the poetical commonplace trees and ex-
pressed his love by hanging poems there-
upon. They were only ordinary trees, just
such trees as may be found in this Sound
Beach "Forest of Arden," but looked at
with the heart o£ love they became per-
meated with beautiful thoughts. Thus
the elderly people of kindly heart will
enter "The Forest of Arden" fittingly
accompanied by the poetic, yotithful en-
thusiasm of tl\^ young people.

io6

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Gathering the Soap Plant.

BY BESSIE L. PUTNAM, CONNEAUT LAKE,
PENNSYLVANIA.

A new industry has sprung up in
some parts of the West, and the gath-
ering of a species of Yucca at from five
to eight dohars per ton may add to
the farmer's income, and at the same
time free his fields from a troublesome
weed. The plant belongs to the lily
family. Its leaves yield a fibre useful
for several purposes. The fruit, simi-
lar in shape to a banana, was highly
relished by the Indians. The establish-
ment of the new factory to convert
the plant into a soap, said to be free
from alkali, and especially useful as a
toilet soap and for washing woolen
goods, is but another illustration of the
fact that new uses are continually be-
ing found for what were once consid-
ered waste products.

This however is not the only soap
plant which nature has given us. In
California is another bulbous plant, the
outer husks of which are used to fill
cushions or mattresses, and the inner
portion to make a fine lather for laun-
dry purposes. Peru, Spain, Egypt and
other countries have each its represen-
tative soap plant, some of these be-
longing to widely different families.

Do Lobsters Suffer?

Humane people have for a long time-
protested against the cruelty of fisher-
men, because of their custom of boiling
lobsters and crabs slowly, instead of
plunging them into water boiling hot,
and thus ending the agonies of the;
creatures quickly. It seems, however,
that the fisherman's w^ay was the most
humane way, after all.

The New Jersey Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Animals asked!
Mr. Joseph Sinel, late of the New
Jersey Marine Biological Laboratory,,
to test the matter by a series of experi-
ments. The result showed, according"
to Mr. Sinel, that lobsters, placed in
cold water, gradually brought to su
boiling point, exhibited no signs of dis-
comfort. When the water reached!
seventy degrees, they became coma-
tose, and they died at about eighty de-
grees. On the contrary, lobsters-
placed in boiling water made violent
efforts to escape and did not die for
about two minutes.

Mr, Sinel compares the death of x
lobster by gradual boiling, to that of eh
person succumbing to a "heat wave" ;
it suffers a gradual loss of conscious-
ness and a painless end- — The Youth's^
Companion.

A SECTION OF A BED OF POPPIES.
Grown at Joseph F. Whittaker's, 143 Washington Avenue, Stamford, Connecticut; from seed sent by

friend in California.

PUBLISHERS' NOTICES

107

'Tis not in mortals to COMMAND success, but we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll DESERVE IT.

— Addison: Cato.

Remarkable Effects in Illumination.

The illumination at the Panama-Pa-
cific Exposition in San Francisco, over
which so many visitors have gone into
ecstacies, depends to a great extent upon
powerful searchlights and retiectors
made by the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co
of Rochester. Xen' York.

ace of Horticulture, said to be the largest
structure of glass in the world. It is
illuminated with twelve thirty-six-inch
searchlights which direct the light upon
the great globe of glass while revolving
disks cause an ever-changing procession
of colors to follow each other across the
dome.

THE EXHIBIT OF THE BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL COMPANY AT THE PANAMA EXPOSITION.

The great Tower of Jewels, the domi-
nant feature of the illuminating system,
furnishes the most striking efifect of the
searchlights. The 125,000 cut glass

prisms, with which the structure is hung,
reflect all the colors of the rainbow un-
der the searchlights' rays.

Another feature for which a large or-
der was placed with the Bausch & Lomb
Company is the illumination of the Pal-

The order placed with the Bausch &
Lomb Optical Company called for 450
twelve-inch spherical mirrors, 200
eighteen, and 25 thirty-inch parabolic,
and 48 mirrors of the twentv-six-inch
(three-foot) size — a total of ^2}^ mir-
rors. Parabolic mirrors are not like an
ordinary mirror. In shape they resem-
ble the pointed end of an ^^%. They
must be accurately ground and polished,

io8

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

no small task when the mirror is of
large size, such as the sixty-inch, five
feet across the opening-. The total value
of the mirrors supplied to the Exposition
is nearly $50,000.

In addition to the mirrors, the com-
pany supplied 325 cylindrical diverging
glass fronts for use in the doors of the
searchlight. Proiected through these
special fronts, the beam of light in each
becomes divergent and thus more spec-
tacular in its illuminating- effect.

At the entrance of the yacht harbor
is a great battery of searchhghts called
the "Scintillator," which in effect repro-
duces the aurora borealis as seen in
the far north — a procession of colored
lights extending across tlie skv almost
from horizon to horizon and spreading
for miles in every direction. This bat-
tery has a combined total of 2,600,000,-
000-candle power.

The exhibit of the Bausch & Lomb
Company in the Palace of Liberal Arts
is of interest to professional men of all
classes and to the public generally for
the variety of scientific instruments on
display. This includes microscopes, en-
gineering instruments, balonticons ('or
projecting lanterns), photographic
lenses, photomicrographic apparatus,
equatorial telescopes, stereo prism bin-
oculars and laboratory equipment. The
walls are hung with a collection of pho-
tographs shown as examples of the work
done with Bausch & Lomb-Zeiss photo-
graphic lenses.

In the center of the exhibit is a ball
nearly fifteen feet in circumference, dec-
orated with thousands of lenses of dif-
ferent colors which are used in eye-
glasses and spectacles. The ball is made
to revolve by an electric motor in the
base. Around the middle of the ball is
a strip carrying the inscription. "Bausch
& Lomb Optical Company, Rochester.
N. Y.," set in silvered lenses, not one of
which is more than one-quarter inch in
diameter.

Recent estimates show that dust .from
the western deserts is being blown into
the Mississippi Valley faster than the
river and its tributaries are carrying
rock-waste to the sea; with the result
that the great central valley of the con-
tinent, instead of being still farther ex-
cavated, is actually filling up.

An Ideal Pencil.

\Ye have tried many kinds of pencils
with many experiences and many unsat-
factory experiences. These trials remind
me of what I was told when I inquired
about the hotels in a small village : "Try
either one and you will be sorry that you
did not try the other." This may often
and truthfully be said of the pencils in a
miscellaneous assortment. But the ^li-
kado, made by the Eagle Pencil Com-
pany, is a neat pencil, agreeable to hold
and look at and pleasing to use.

The Joke with a Double Laugh.

A cigar salesman in the lobby of a ho-
tel, intending to be generous toward his
fellow guests and also to do a little ad-
vertising, passed cigars. Among the
guests were an American comedian and
an Englishman. The salesman enthusi-
astically said: "I am selling these cigars
and anyone who smokes three thousand
of them gets a grand piano." The
smokers puffed away in silence for a
minute or so. Then the comedian, curl-
ing upward a beautiful ring of smoke,
inquired : "Did I understand you to say
that if anybody smokes three thousand
of these cigars he will get a grand
piano?" "Yes, and a pretty good piano
it is." Another period of silence and tvv^o
or three more puffs by the comedian.

Then said the actor: "I think there
must be a mistake somewhere. If any
one smokes three thousand of these cigars
it is not a piano that he will need but a
harp." Hearty laughter from everybody
excei:)t the Englishman, who smoked on
in silence.

About an hour afterwards he burst
out in uproarous laughter as only an
Englishman can laugh. Then to the
comedian he said "I hope you will ex-
cuse me for not laughing at your first-
rate joke. I did not at once see the
point but now I understand it. A friend
has just told me that you are a funny
man on the stage and — of course I was
stupid not to see the joke. You could
not take a piano around with you from
place to place. The harp would be nnich
l^etter for transportation."

Then everybody else laughed, but it is
doubted whether the Englishman has yet
discovered the cause of that laugh.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS. XI

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XII

THE GUIDE TO NATURE LITERARY NOTES

York State Rural Problems. II. By L. H.

Bailey. Albany : J. B. Lyon Company.

Every lover of the out of doors will hail
with delight this collection of Professor
Bailey's addresses to various companies of
students, farmers, and others. He speaks
clearly and effectively on many aspects of the
farm and of life in the countrv.

Money Talks. By Eleanor Baldvirin. Holy-
oke. Mass. : The Elizabeth Towne Company.
This is the New Thought on money, what
money really is, what the function of money
really is, what money must have through
which to perform that function, and how these
three may be applied to solve the problems
of our present conditions. "Money will mas-
ter mankind until mankind masters money,"
says the author.

Spencer Fullerton Baird : A Biographv. By
William Healey Dall, A. M., D. Sc. Phila-
delphia : J. B. Lippincott Company.
Natural history in America is most of all

indebted to two remarkable men, Professor

Louis Agassiz and Professor Spencer F.

Baird.

Their activities in a public sense in this
country began about the same time, Agassiz,
the enthusiastic inspiring teacher, and Baird,
the efficient, hard-working and lovable organ-
izer, complemented each other.

Professor Baird was a born naturalist and
organizer of methods and men. His biography
is not a history of explorations nor a record
of technical investigations ; but an account of
the life and relation to them of a singularly
eminent, able, efficient and modest devotee
of the natural sciences.

Apart from the scientific side of the activi-
ties it endeavors to make the reader ac-
quainted with the characteristics of a pure and
lovable leader of men to whose modesty and
self-sacrifice the country owes a debt which
is still appreciated only by a select few.

Handbook of Medical Entomology. By Wm.
A. Riley, Ph. D., and O. A. Johannsen. Ph.
D. Ithaca, New York : The Comstock Pub-
lishing Company.

This work treats of poisonous and parasitic
insects and their allies, and especially of those
which transmit and disseminate disease. It is
fully illustrated and contains keys for deter-
mining the principal species noxious to man.
.An extended bibliography, alphabetically ar-
ranged adds greatly to the value of the work.
The "Handbook of INIedical Entomology"
will prove invaluable for medical men, stu-
dents of entomology and to all interested in
public health questions.

The Well-Considered Garden. By Mrs.

Franci^s King. New York: Charles' Scrib-

ner's Sons.

This volume by the president of The
Women's National Agricultural and Horti-
cultural Association contains the results of a
large gardening experience set forth with that
"knowledge, insight, and splendid enthusiasm"
which, as Miss Jekyll writes in the preface she
contributes, "combine to make her one of
those most fitted to direct energy, to suggest
and instruct." Harmony in color and design
may be said to be Mrs. King's central theme,
but there are few aspects of gardening prob-
lems which she does not touch informinglv.

A Field Book of Stars. Bv William Tvler
Olcott. New York City: G. P. Putna'm's
Sons.

To facilitate the fascinating recreation of
star gazing, the author has desigrned this field
book. All matters of a technical or theoreti-
cal nature have been omitted. Only what the
reader can observe with the naked eye or
with an opera glass have been included in it.
Simplicity and brevity have been aimed at,
the main idea being that whatever is bulky
or verbose is a hindrance rather than a help
when one is engaged in the observation of tlie
heavens.

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IT IS EDITED

BY HARRY G. HIGBEE

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Vol. VIII
No. 4

September 1915

EDV/ARD F. BIGELOW

MANAGING EDITOR

Subscription, $L00 a Year. Single Copies, 10 Cents

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Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA; Sound Beach, Connecticut,

Subscription, $1.00 a year Single copy, 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12, 1909, at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897.

Vol

VIII

SEPTEMBER.

Number 4

A Naturalist Who Considers Many Subjects

By EDWARD F. BIGELOW, ARCADIA: Sound Beach, Connecticut

OUR readers know him as a natural-
ist, the medical profession and
many patients as a skillful sur-
geon, hundreds of students as "Profes-
sor," and all Stamford as a suburbanite
— a real "back to nature" resident on a
nut farm. But we now have the surpris-
ing pleasure of knowing him ?.s Robert
T. \ [orris, the Philosopher.

I say advisedly "'su.rprising." since
even he must be surprised, because it all
came about in so sudden and yet so nat-
ural a way. Like Europe in the present
war, he exploded because he was loaded,
but with what effect perhaps even this
firer of philosophical broadsides did not
even himself anticipate. That came as
the Deacon's one boss shay went — all
at once and nothing first. He has billed
three books with many good things by
saying much in few words.

His three large volumes of philosophy
have been published by Doubleday, Page
& Company under the general title of
"To-morrow's Topics." They are "A
Surgeon's Philosophy," "Microbes and
Men"' and "Doctors Versus Folks."'

It seems hardly possible that these are
by he author of Dr. Morris's medical
boo.<s, and they are far, far aw^ay from

the charming retrospect of his boyhood
at "Hopkins's Pond." They are totally
unlike him as previously known and to-
tally unlike the books of any one else.
They begin a new era in literature. In
these days we seek new things and here
we find them. The public is getting tired
of the short story which represents
"your thinking done by some one else."

According" to the old regime we asso-
ciated the idea of science with Tyndall,
the idea of humor with Dickens, the idea
of beauty with Stevenson. xAn author
whose leitmotif is new science, and who
presents it in an atmosphere of humor
and of beauty, is unquestionably opening
as original a line of cleavage in literature
as Thompson Seton found with his addi-
tion of the human element to the sub-
ject of wild life.

The publishers tell us that they be-
lieve the time is ripe for a return to the
short essay wdiich stimulates controversy
and activity of thought. These books
are the right kind published at the right
time to turn the mind of the reading
public toward a new field.

The hack reviewer will not like them.
They are for the critic who is looking
for something new in literature and com-

Copyright 1915 by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn.

no

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

THE FARMHOUSE AT MERRIBROOKE HAS BEEN HALLOWED BY "TO-MORROW'S TOPICS."
The elevated sleepng porch is shown at the left of the illustration. Here Dr. Morris is lulled to sleep
by the melody of the Mianus River in its rapids at the foot of the garden only about two rods away. He
is awakened by the music of the birds in the edge of the forest.

plains because he has difificulty in finding
it. Agree with all that he says? No.
And the author evidently does not intend
that you shall. This is the charming
part. Complete acquiescence will not
arouse thought as these chapters arouse
it. Some reader will spring from his
chair and walk the floor exclaiming,
"That man makes me think as I never
thought before," and some mystics, some
morbid musicians and painters, will be
disposed to swing the battle ax and let
loose the dogs of war. But the books will
be read more ten years form now
than they will be this year. They are
not passing books like popular novels
but something that will go into perma-
nent literature. The point of view is not
merely for the present but literally of
"to-morrow's topics." The thinker in
advance of his day will especially enjoy
them.

But how did he do it all? Why so
astonishing, literally so extraordinary an
explosion of a series of mines loaded
with so many incongruous subjects?
These never came from a Madison Ave-
nue office, nor an easy chair, nor from

the haunts of busy men. They come
from wild nature. The author's philos-
ophy makes us think not of medication
but of meditation. Only in its incisive-
ness is it surgical, but true to the sur-
geon it is curative of manv of humanitv's
ills.

Like Thoreau at Walden he has lived
alone with nature and much of his phil-
osophy is similarly or even more radi-
cally iconoclastic.

The topics lead naturally from one to
another as do those in a lively conversa-
tion. The author seems to have talked
with himself as he was busy among his
beloved trees and shrubs. The books
are concrete pent up soliloquies. The
pressure on the author's mind, the men-
tal tide so surged and swirled that two
vacations were spent in dictating to a
stenographer at the nut farm, and these
books are the result. In them we are
not concerned with trees and shrubs al-
though they show us where in what at-
titiKles he did the thinking. Hence the
accompanying photographs, taken since
the arrival of the books.

Even a naturalist must admit tliat tlie

A NATURALIST WHO CONSIDERS MANY SUBJECTS iir

ho^iks hallow ]\Ierribrooke more tlian all
his extensive experiments with nnt bear-
ing" trees. Mind is superior to matter.
What he has thought and how he has
made others think is of inconceivably
wider influence than how he a;)})lic 1 the
bandages to buddings and (ither cvitiings.

His philosophy of the wild tive-petal-
led rose in comparison with the ordinary
polypetalous "blaze of glory" influenced
the editor to telephone to Philosoplii-r
^lorris and ask him if he has many really
good wild roses. "Yes, I have," he
laughed. "What made you think so? 1
have a beautiful clump in the woods nf>r
far from the farmhouse door."

"All right. Expect me with a 'Mmera
in about an hour."

These views show the thinker and his
thinkery. The following brief quota-
tions show the spirit of his books.

"Some of the most beloved people dc
not know my feeling towards them.
\\'ere I to let them know about it,
there would be reciprocation and ex-
changes of affection. That would take
time, —diverting our thoughts toward

what is so attractive. Some of the men.
whom I esteem most highly do not
know it. There are people who iise af-
fection and esteem for trade purposes,.
but it seems better to use them as a.
miser holds his gold, wdiere one caa
gloat over afl^ection and esteem in pri-
vate."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

"I gave a spray of white azalea to a
friend on an early July day. 'How won-
derful !' he said. 'What delicate fra-
grance, what daintiness in shades of
white, — if one can have shades of
white! Is it Japanese? Now wdiat do
you think of that? No wonder people
ask what is the use of living. My friend
did not know where the white azaleas
grew. It grows where the rose breasted
grosbeak would waken him at four o'-
clock in the morning ^vith a finer song'
than he would hear in town during" the
day. It grows where the hellebores
say 'I'm here !' to the g"oddess of spring"-
time — where the bracken fern ofl:'ers
best thanks for sunshine received, and
where the X'irginia tvu'tle shows us a
placer of unalloyed gold in the trout
brook."

THE PICTURESQUE E1)(;E OF THE SWIMMING POOL DEDICATED TO YOUTH AND

ENTHUSIASM.
Dr. Morris takes his morning dip here. Perhaps that has helped put so much vigor and freshness into
his philosophy.

112

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

THE PHILOSOPHER AND HIS ROSE.
'I have a beautiful clump in the woods not far from the farmhouse door.'

A NATURALIST WHO CONSIDERS MANY SUBJECTS 113

A BLAZE OF GLORY OF A DOUBLE ROSE.
Photographed by Mr. Nathan R. Graves. Rochester. New York.

"Is the most famous double rose
really finer than the healthy simple rose
after all ? By the gods I do not know !
Sit down by the side of a wild rose bush
— and not vulgarly close, for it has tan-
gible dignity indeed. It keeps one at
an aristocratic distance until he has
loved it enough to understand it. When
■one has loved the wild rose enough to
■take the trouble for really understand-
ing it he is then at liberty to hold its
finest flower in his hand, to press the
soft petals against his cheek ; to drink
the royal clear pink into his color soul,
and to enjoy the fragrance that is not
for the careless passer-by, but only for
liim who seeks it affectionately, and

who finds it as a reward. And then the
unfolding bud ! There is exquisite mod-
esty in its diffident advancement from
the sepals which protect, even as the
wise mother guards her beautiful
daughter until the tender heart can
bear the glance of a powerful but kind
and generous sun, which might unwit-
tingly do it harm.

"If I may have the choice between a
wild rose and a double rose upon my
grave, give me the sturdy wild rose that
combines its colors with those of early
morning sunlight in jewels of a thous-
and glimmering dewdrops, when the
robin and the woodthrush are making
the welkin ring with songs of life-joy
and of praise for the coming day."

114

THE. GUIDE TO NATURE

"Aly friend Dr. Bigelow, finding- him-
self near his lK)}diood scenes, in the
country, hunted up an old playmate
who was not at home. The Doctor en-
joyed the qtiaint old farmhouse and its
surrotuidings, and wc.s truly envio'>.:s oi
the owner. He took a photograph ot
the hotise, and later sent a copy of it to
his old time acqtiaintance. There was
no answer to the letter enclosing the
photograph, and the Doctor learned
later that his boyhood companion call-
ed him all sorts of names, and said

"I sometimes hear a man complaining
about having been born mto tiie world
against his will, an e^•ent concerning
which he had no chioce. Vv hat an un-
grateful wretch ! If you were born
blind, and could have sight as a reward
for being good for a period of ten years,
how very, very good you would be for
ten years at least. The complainer us-
ually has first rate eyes. If you were
born deaf, how good you would be if
you were to be given ears as a reward
of merit. The complainer usually has

THIS ROCK INSPIRES A "TOPIC" FAR AHEAD IN THE "TO-MORROW."

"Odd folks belonging to some strange new nation will come aiid sit upon the rock at the foot of my
garden two thousand years from next June."

that if he was protid of living in a bet-
ter house in the city, he ought not to
taunt anybody by taking a picttire of
the old farmhouse and sending it to
him. How many people there are in this
world surrounded by beatitifid things
and envied bv others but not aware
of it."

^ ^ ij; ;■; ^

"Men are best judged by their attitude
toward other people, because that re-
presents their tuiconsciotis and un-
guarded expression of personal feeling
for the degree of need for self protec-
tion.

first-rate ears. With all his gifts a man
is ungrateful. He obtained his gifts
for nothing and consequently does not
value them."

^ ^ ^ ^ sj:

"I have always refused to look at life
as anything excepting a good game of
sport, with its proportion of good losers
and bad losers among my friends.

"Would you like to know right now
everything you will ever know? 'Yes!'
That would spoil the game ! You are
not a good sport !

"If we knew everything at once it
would be like playing a game of cards

A NATURALIST WHO CONSIDERS MANY SUBJECTS ii

backward after the game was over.
There is no sport in that. There is
great sport in playing the game of life
if one plays fair.

"There is, to be sure, such a thing as
luck, btit man does not call it by that
name unless it is going against him,"

"Which pays best, goodness or bad-
ness? Anyone who is bound to put the
question upon a payment basis is him-
self bad. I can answer the question,
however, having made observations for
more than half a hundred years. It is
my conviction that goodness and bad-
ness pay about equally well so far as
material gains are concerned. Good
people, on the whole are-more comfort-
able. That is the only difiference."

"I would rather have dogs and babies
run to me instinctively, than to have a
press agent succeed in working into
'the society columns' an impression
that I was really on the inside with the
exclusives."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

"This is October the 5th, 1912. A
perfect autumn day, and mine the luck
to have traded temporarily a fine old
shopworn city in exchange for my
beautiful clean Merribrooke at Stam-
ford. What would I not give to return
to the farm house for one whole day
an hundred years from now on Octo-
ber the 5th, 2012. Not in spiritual form
with pure white wings and a golden
harp, but just in my old duds. A felt
hat torn at the top, hob nail shoes, and
my canvas shooting coat minus a but-
ton or two, but with its treasury of
capacious pockets all intact. The early
gunners walked this morning through
glinting frosty grass that was still
being lighted by the crescent of a wan-
ing moon, long after signal lights had
come from the east bidding the j^lanet
Neptune to retire. There will be no
change in that particular morning order
of the heavens for October 5th, 2012."

"It is difificult to live one's happiest
life among surroundings of the city. It
is only while at my old farmhouse in
vacation time that these notes can be
written, — near the pleasant sound of
rushing water, where vireos are sing-
ing, and a chattering squirrel in the
hickory tree tries to attract my atten-
tion. Here is where one can watch
sunset clouds and smell ripening fruit.

These must be my joyful surroundings,
for in the city one is engaged in making
adaptation to duties of the day as one
cog wheel fits into another cog wheel,
rotating with the rest of town machin-
ery. We may call it "life" in town, but
"soul" is in the country. W'ho cares
if soul and life were once synonymous
terms away back in the dark begin-
ning, so long as- now the course of life,
like the Nautilus of Dr. Holmes, estab-
lishes grander mansions' as it pro-
gresses. Eyes brighten most when
men speak of the country."

"A family is often proud when a
genius appears in their midst. They
should be sad, rather, because it indi-
cates beginning disintegration of the
family."

^ TfC ^ ^ ^

"One reason why science does not
have so many advocates as general
literature is because its reasons are not
turned into feeling and the public is
thankful to anybody who will serve as
proxy for its thinking."

^ 2(: ;{: ^ ^

"In the good old days of my youth,
there was a distinction in small vices
of the different sexes. W^here men
swore, women shed tears and had a
headache. Where men drank rum,
women drank tea. Tea and tears were
the equivalents of rum and swearing."

^ ;{; ^ ^ ^

"A bright thought let us say is nothing
but a potato expressed in another form
of energy, just as the whistle of the
locomotive is a piece of coal expressed
in another form of energy."

^ 5{C 5}C 5{C Jjc

"People understand each other very
well on the whole. I have watched a
bear for half an hour at a time feeding
or playing right near me in the woods.
I have watched a beaver at his work,
often but a few yards away. They did
not know they were being watched, or
they would not have stopped long
enough for two grunts. It is the same
way with people. Their intimate habits
are watched and understood by other
])eo])le, just as T watched the bear and
the beaver."

:^ ^z ^ :^ ^

"A\"hen al)out to make a sarcastic re-
niarl<. sto]:> to think if you would do it
beside a man's cof^n when his hands
are folded on his breast, and the white
face can make no reply. If you would

ii6

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

not do it then, why do it now?"

"A young man said to a father : 'I
suppose you will refuse if I ask for
the hand of your daughter." The father
replied, "Yes, I will refuse ; but if
you had put it the other way, that you
were bound to have my daughter if
you had to kill me first, you could
have had her. As it is, you have defeat-
ed yourself at the start, and I do not
want a son-in-law of that type of mind.
A man who defeats himself on pro-
positions at the start needs to be look-
ed after by some one else most of the
time."

"I have had under my care many an
one whose history would make a novel,
and yet the entire lii.'-tory would be of no
real consequence to the world. If the
same people had been engaged in some
.?tudy of .science their lives woulil ha\c
been completely filled, there would ha'c
been a life-satisfaction for them, and the
social world would have profited by their
presence instead of being subjected to
a destructive attrition resulting from
their friction applied to its surface. To-
morrow social efficiency experts will
utilize such waste material."

;i< ^ :); H=

"How quickly sympathy changes a
man's entire point of view? In camp
in the north we were all very fond of
wild goslings for the camp table. One
day I captured a couple of them wdien
going off salmon fishing; kept them in
the canoe all day for company, and to-
ward evening handed a little fresh
grass toward them. They came up and
took it out of my hand, and I never
could kill goslings after that.

"Although meat is a necessary article
of diet for most people I suppose that as
we get older we all dislike more and
more the idea of having anything killed.
Hot roast duck stuft'ed with chestnuts,
mushrooms and sausage, and served
with a flood of rich brown gravy is
pretty good, but any one who has had
cunning little yellow downy ducklings
climbing all over his feet and hands
and has watched them grow under his
care, would rather have someone's else
ducks killed for his dinner. When eat-
ing roast duck I always try to imagine
that it was raised by somebody who
didn't know Timmie from Dickie. —
somebody who raised impersonal ducks.

"I often wish the pathetic did not ap-
peal to me so deeply, for it does not
seem to belong to a broad shouldered
bear hunter who is about six feet in
height. When I find a little dead bird ly-
ing upon its back with feet outstretched
in mute appeal against a decree which
could bring destruction to one so little
and innocent, I always know w^here
tears start from in women. It is from a
place away down deep. It requires
something of an effort to put aside the
feeling on the ground that it is woman-
ly, and not masculine in origin."

^ ^ :^ ^ ^

"Thousands of women of education
and refinement spend a large part of
every day in card playing. This is done
largely by time-wasters of the elim

HE IJUDS A nSTAClIIi BRANCH AND A
THOUGHT.

A NATURALIST WHO CONSIDERS MANY SUBJECTS 117

group. Imagine how a country would
progress if all these minds were to be
engaged in any department of natural
science whatsoever."

'T know an elderly couple who lost all
their money. They formerly entertained
extensively, and carried all of the com-
plicated responsibilities of social form.
Now they sing' all day long since the
money is gone, and say they were never
so happy in their lives previously. They
are on a tiny salary, keeping chickens
and enjoying life. Their former butler
came to call upon them one day when I
was present. He looked very grand.
Why is this couple happy? One reason
is because a former butler would call
respectfully when their money was
gone."

"Happiness is said to consist in not
wanting wdiat we cannot get. Satisfac-
tion is really better than happiness, the
satisfaction of getting things in the end
which one was not cjuite sure he would
obtain.

"Contentment is to be deprecated if
it leads to inaction. The man who is
most contented wdien he is hardest at
work has the right sort of content-
ment.

"Contentment is not altogether pleas-
ing to nature and she sees to it that it
does not last long unless one is con-
tented when at hard work.

"Most people are well off, but they
do not know it. Often when hunting
I have been cold, wet and hungry, and
have thought how^ well off people were
with their warm clothes on. in some
distant house in which I saw" the light
shining from a window. Perhaps the
people there were uncomfortable also
but in a different way, bothering them-
selves with some financial or social
question or disturbed about their
neighbors. They were well oft' but did
not know it."

^ ^ :^ ^ ^

"Among all bird songs appropriate
to the environment what can be more
delightful than the song of the wood-
cock? It is the song of the tenderest
of lovers, and it strikes the very note
that poets have sought in their ideals
of love in a cottage, or of a secluded
spot in some far wilderness. The song
of a woodcock is the dearest song in
the world. "Would that some one would

sing to me such a lullaby ! All is quiet
in the valley. Moonlight is transmut-
ing spring mist into gold. The jingle
of silver bells of the Hyla chorus comes
faintly from some distant marsh. Then
it is that the woodcock looks into the
dreamy eyes of his beautiful bride and
springing aloft with twittering wing, —
stills the wing note when high in the
air, and warbles so softly and sweetly
to his true love that it seems almost
sacrilege to listen. It is not to the mul-
titude that he sings. Oh, no, indeed !
Tt is just for you and me, Betty! Not
for the w^orld w'ould we disturb any-
one with our affection, but we love each
other and our happiness is complete.' "

^ ^ ^ ^ sic

"We love people who bring out our
best qualities, and avoid those who.
bring out our worst equalities."

^ ^ ;{< jjc ^

"Anger and emotional stress of any
sort places an undue burden upon the
liver, with bad reciprocal consequences,
and may give one gall stones."
*****

"]\Ien of large affairs are knocked
down on favorite propositions every
year of their lives and they enjoy it as
much as hearty players enjoy the bangs
in a football game."

"'Had I twenty-five millions of dollars
to give away at the present time, I
would give ten millions of dollars to a
certain medical school wdiich teaches
graduate doctors to be of greater ser-
vice to humanity in modern ways. Ten-
millions of dollars would go to the na-
tural history departments of my former
alma mater and five millions of dollars
would be devoted to my experimental
work in developing nut trees for fur-
nishing a great food supply for the
masses of the future."

*****

"I find the only way for obtaining
mental relief is to emulate the guinea
hen, and she is now my pet symbol. A
guinea hen will find a choice corner in
the brush lot and soon has forty eggs
in her nest. Then she sits in the mid-
dle of the nest. She cannot hatch all
of the eggs, but hatches out all that she
can, and lets the rest go. The lesson
taught by the guinea hen came to me as
a srreat coiufort."

ii8

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

All communications for this department
should be sent to the Department Editor,
Mr. Harry G. Higbee, 13 Austin Street,
Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Items, articles
and photographs in this department not
otherwise credited are by the Department
Editor.

Let Us Make It Better!

Hyde Park. Mass.
To Our Readers :

In assuming the responsibility of this
department, I have done so somewhat
reluctantly and only with the confi-
dence in our readers of their willingness
to assist in making it a success.

Let us have a department as brim-
ful of interesting bird notes and obser-
vations as the bobolink's song is full
■of melody. To do this we must depend
upon the help of many rather than the
over-exertion of a few.

Personal observations and anecdotes
•of bird-life are always interesting and
faithful research by our thousands of
readers in their widely separated locali-
ties cannot fail to bring to light much
valuable information.
Take your note-books and pencils with
you afield. If you have a camera you
will get so much more enjoyment out of
your study. Sharp eyes and ears are
the prime requisites. In any event ob-
serve accurately and do not over-look
■details — these may be the most import-
ant— and above all. never jmnp at con-
•clusions.

By the interchange of ideas, the re-
sults of what we see and hear and the
facts learned we should be able
to help each other and may each
learn something to our profit. First-
"hand study is what we want and oppor-
tunities are never lacking for faithful
observers.

Bespeaking the indulgence of our
rea'ders I wish to assure them of my
earnest endeavors to make this depart-
ment of interest to all. and to urge their
co-operation in the attainment of this
end.

Harry G. Higbee.

A Visit to the Home of the American
Eagle.

PHOTOGRAPHS BV DR. A. W. KING AND
THE AUTHOR.

About midway along the western
coast of Florida, where the blue waters
of the Gulf of ]*iIexico lap the white
sands and wash up curious sponges,
shells, and other forms of marine life, a
channel has broken through the low-
lying coastal reefs, and finding its way
in graceful curves among the palmettos,
has spread out its waters into the quiet

BALD EAGLE AND NEST.

ORNITHOLOGY

119

and peaceful seclusion of Dona Bay.

Far up in the eastern arm of this bay
are the few scattered houses and orange
groves of the little town of \'enice.
Aside from the enjoyment of life, the
raising of citrus fruits here seems to
be the principal occupation of the in-
habitants,— exceot for the intrusion of
the turpentine camps, whose exhaustive
work is causing the beautiful and char-
acteristic groves of longleaf pine to fast
disappear.

Here, in a grove of scattered pines
near the shore, within sight of some of
the houses on the outskirts of the vil-
lage, and but a few rods from the sandy
road which winds through the scrub
palmettos, my companion and I saw our
first nest of the bald eagle. It was a
huge mass of sticks, wdiich the top of
the stout pine in which it was placed
seemed hardly able to support, and its
height commanded a good view of the
surrounding territory.

We had been observing this magnifi-
cent bird for the past month, on our
cruise down the east coast and through
The Everglades, — admiring his impos-
ing attitude as he sat perched on the
tallest cypress of an inaccessible swamp,
sometimes for more than an hour ; mark-
ing his rapid flight in pursuit of the os-
prey, to rob him of his quarry, or watch-
ing his dignified movements on an oc-
casional fishing trip of his own, along
the mangrove keys, — and it was thus
with a keen delight that we at last be-
held the nest of "The Bird of Our Coun-
try."

It was on the evening of the seventh
of January, 1914, while Old Boreas still
held New England in a savage grip of
intense cold, that we entered Casey's
Pass and anchored our launch on the
placid waters of Dona Bay. The sun
was just setting over the gulf, rimming
the horizon with an indescribable color-
ing of crimson and gold, and the fring-
ing palm trees along the shores leaned
far out over the water, as if to admire
their beauty reflected in perfect image
below. A delicious odor was in the air,
for it was spring along the hummocks
and bayous of tropical Florida. The
buds were swelling and bursting on the
live-oaks ; flowers were in bloom, and
the birds were doing their best to instill
into us some of their exuberant joy.
Bluebirds called softly; meadowlarks
whistled, and Florida wrens warbled

THE P\LMETTO BLIND. CONCEALING THE
CAMERA AND PHOTOGRAPHER.

their ventriloquial notes, and as these
died away the purer strains of a hermit
thrush came floating across the_ water,
bidding us a sweet "good-night."

A\^e"had planned to spend but one
night here, but on learning from a friend
whom we visited that evening of another
eagles" nest in the vicinity, we decided
to stop over in -hope of securing some
photographs of the home life of these
birds. Before breakfast on the follow-
ing morning our good friends were
alongside in their canoe, and we made
our plans for a visit to the eagles' eyrie.
The first nest appeared not to be oc-
cupied, though we learned it had been
used for several years past — usually in
the month of February. It was about
sixtv feet up in the tallest pine in the
grove, and we estimated it to be over
six feet in depth and three or four feet
in diameter. It was apparently com-
posed entirely of sticks, although we
made no attempt to ascend the tree, as it
was seemingly impossible to climb up
over the bulkv mass.

120

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

THE FEMALE EAGLE UPON THE NEST.

After photographing this nest our
friends guided us to the other grove
not far away, where a pair of breeding
birds were said to be. and we had no
difficulty in locating the spot. Indeed
this great nest, which was considerably
larger than the other, was the most con-
spicuous object in the grove. being
placed in the upper crotches of a large
dead pine, where the watchful birds
might obtain an unobstructed view. A
long distance observation through our
binoculars showed the nest to be occu-
pied,— the white head of the parent bird
showing distinctly over the top, — so
making a detour of about half a mile, I
attempted an approach near enough to
secure a photograph of the eagle upon
the nest. The birds proved extremely
wary, however, and scrub palmetto
rather difficult to make one's way
through quietly, and while still about a
hundred yards distant the bird arose and
circled about overhead, uttering a series
of rapid shrill cries, accomoanied by a
low scolding and hissing when directly
above me. The male bird, which had
been soaring far overhead, now joined
its mate and they continued their circling
about with cries of alarm. Wq could
distinP'uish a difference in their calls, —

that of the male being a rapid, whistling
alarm or cackle, and uttered more regu-
larly than that of the female : the plum-
age of both sexes being alike, these birds
are otherwise indistinguishable. Their
conspicuous markings, — in the adult a
uniform brownish-black, with the head,
neck and tail of pure white,-^ and their
large size, with a wing-spread of over
six feet, give to these bn-ds an imposing
appearance, and to watch them at close
range in their native haunts was a rare
privilege which we thoroughly enjoyed.

By partially concealing myself in the
scrub palmetto and standing in one po-
sition for about an hour, I was able to
secure a photograph of the nest and both
birds, and finally another of the female
about to alight upon the nest. I then
withdrew to where my companions had
been waiting — being followed by the agi-
tated birds until well out of the grove —
and planned to return the following day
for further observations.

There was a spring feeling in the air
as we went ashore the next morning, with
two cameras, climbing-irons, life l^elt and
ropes, prepared to spend a day with the
eagles and if possible to make a close
scrutiny of the nest and its contents.
There had been rain in the early morn-
ing with clearing about seven, the tem-
perature was 65, and a fresh clear atmos-
])here made every breath exhilarating.

THE EAGLE ABOUT TO LIGHT UPON HER
NEST.

ORNITHOLOGY

121

We met our friends at the bridge, and
as we walked through the woods the
white-eved towhees and mcadowlarks
mounted the scrub pahiiettos and called;
several loggerhead shrikes were in evi-
dence, and a pair of red-bellied wood-
peckers were busily engaged hunting
about on a cabbage palm. At our close
approach they flew across the water, —
the male giving a loud, rattling call like
that of a kingfisher as he flew. Ground
doves moved noiselessly about under the
scrub, while the animated wrens jerked
restlessly over it or disappeared beneath
the broad leaves, only to peer out from
some hidden retreat with a chuckling
call, as if they had gotten the best of us,
— and so they had, for they were ever
present yet always disappearing just
as we wanted to watch them.

The eagle allowed us to approach to
within abotit fifty yards of the nest be-
fore taking flight this morning, and re-
mained in a nearby tree until we were
verv close. She then began circling
about overhead and uttering a low gut-
teral note, while the male soon appeared
giving his sharp, piercing cry. Select-
ing a favorable spot, the 5x7 camera was
set up close by and focussed on the nest.
We then constructed a rough blind of
palmetto leaves about it, concealing all
but the lens and leaving room to crouch
behind and work the camera. Entering
the blind. I was covered by my compan-
ions, who then walked away making no
attempt at concealment, and the birds
after following them out of the grove,
returned and ceased their cries, circling
about and apparently paying not the
slightest attention to the blind. They
were evidently able to distinguish no dif-
ference between three persons entering
the grove and two persons leaving it,
and their actions clearly indicated that
thev did not realize mv presence in the
blind.

The following detailed notes of the
birds' actions will give an idea of their
extreme wariness and watchfulness
about the nest. The male almost im-
mediately flew away, while his mate
circled about a few times and then
perched on the tree within a few feet
of the nest, where she sat looking into
it with mouth open but uttering no cries.
It was now eleven o'clock. After a few
moments in this position as if to assure
herself that her home had not been dis-
turbed, she flew up ; hovered for an in-
stant over the nest, then flew off. cir-

cling about a few times and seeming to«
scrutinize the ground below, and at 11.05
returned and dropped into the nest, soon,
settling down where she could not be
seen over its rim from my position in
the blind. After making several expos-

AT THE EAGLE'S NEST.
This nest, seven by twelve feet, was seventy feet
up in a dead pine eight feet in circumference in a
grove of long-leaf pine.

Photograph by Dr. A. W. King.

ures I quietly watched. At 1 1 :20 the
male came circling over the tree, but
without alighting and with no cry flew
immediately awa}'. I then made a slight
sound to attract the attention of the bird
on the nest so she would hold her head
up high enough to show in the photo-
graph,— which she did, but immediately
settled down again out of sight.

At II -.23 she left the nest, evidently-
alarmed by something, and circling about
she alighted on a tree, called several
times and then flew away. At 1 1 :43 she
returned, and slowly circling overhead
a few times, alighted near the nest, utter-
ing some low, cackling notes. She re-
mained thus, looking about and below
her for three minutes, then again circling
about emitted several rapid, whistling
calls followed by shrill peeps. After
several minutes absence she returned to
the tree and looked about from her perch
for two minutes : then flew oft", again
circled about and returned without call-
ing, remaining, however, but a few
minutes, when she was oft' again. Soar-
ing- in circles overhead she uttered sev-
eral rapid calls. — shrill whistles begin-
ning with a rising inflection and rapidly
running downward : then in a few
minutes returned to the tree and at
1 1 :59 dropped onto the edge of the nest
— where she remained for three minutes,
then flew off. circled and returned to
her perch on the tree.

122

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Here she remained for nine minutes,
uttering no sound but scanning the sur-
roundings closely. She then flew away,
circling about w^ith a shrill call, and at
12:17 returned and alighted on a dead
pine near-by. Remaining here for four
minutes, she flew up, hovered over the
nest, called twice, then circled about a
few times and returned to the near-by
tree wliere she looked about for a few
seconds ; flew to her perch over the nest,
and after again scrutinizing the nest and
its surroundings, hopped quietly onto it.
She seemed still restless and at the snap
of the camera flew oif and soared about,
soon returning to the tree close by where
she perched for a few moments ; then
•was off with more circling, after which
she alighted near the nest and again
dropped onto it at 12:35. Almost im-
mediately leaving, she resumed her circ-
ling for about five minutes, when she
returned to the near-by tree. After mak-
ing a few exposures with the Graflex
(cajniera as the eagle soared overhead I
emerged from the blind, — feeling some-
what cramped and uncomfortably warm
from my confinement of over two hours,
but pleased with my observations. The
watchful bird had spent about a fourth
of this time upon her nest, and in her
restlessness and anxiety had left and
returned to it sixteen times.

At one o'clock there was a tempera-
ture of 74 and a fresh east wind. We
lunched at our friends' house and re-
turned to the eagles' nest at one-thirty,
the bird leaving quietly when we were
a hundred yards away. I at once made
ready to ascend the tree, which was a
•dead long-leaf pine eight feet in circum-
:ference. Climbing to the top where the
huge nest was set among the forking
branches was not an especially difficult
task, but I now found myself beneath
a mass of sticks measuring seven feet in di-
ameter and twelve feet high, and the prob-
lem seemed to be how to get around and
above it. After working on one course
for half an hour and being compelled to
abandon it on account of the rottenness
of the branches, I managed finally, by
throwing a rope over several of the
limbs, to pull myself, up ; and standing
on the uppermost brantch coming out
of the side of the mass I peered over the
top and into the nest. I was immediately
greeted by a young eaglet, which, utter-
ing long peeping cries, scrambled to the
edsre of the nest to meet me. I judged

it to be about two weeks old. It was
covered with a soft grayish down, had
snapping black eyes and a black beak,
and although not strong enough to stand
upon its feet, it insisted upon working
itself to the edge of the nest nearest me
after I had continually replaced it to-
ward the middle.

This nest was evidently a very old one
showing where it had been added to and
repaired year after year. It was a solid
mass of coarse sticks, some of which
were over two and a half feet long and
an inch or more in thickness, and the
huge bulk must have weighed more than
five hundred pounds. There was but a
very slight depression in the top and no
attempt at a lining of softer material. A
fe^v clumps of coarse grass and a bit of
11 loss lay among the sticks near the up-
])fcr edge, and scattered about through
the mass were a few fish 'ooiits, bird
skulls, etc. The remains of a fresh,
partly eaten catfish, about a foot long,
lay in the nest beside the eaglet.

J.owering a rope, I drew up niv cam-
' ras one at a time, and made several
attempts to photograph the young bird,
though I soon found that maneuvering
about with such apparatus sixty feet in
the air, — with nothing above 3'ou to h oid
onto and your subject determined to
walk into the camera, — was not condu-
cive to pictorial success. I finally tried
focussing on an object the approximate
distance from the lens and holding the
camera up over my head to get it far
enough away from this inquisitive young
chicken, — and thus out of five attempts
secured one passable picture.

The view from this eyrie was su])erb.
There was no chance for an enemy to
approach unobserved by the keen-sight-
ed birds, as they could see for a long dis-
tance in every direction. Considerably
above the tops of the surrounding trees,
they would be first to receive the breath
of the new dawn, while away to the west-
ward over the sparkling gulf the last
glow of the sunset would be theirs.
Even now as I looked, the great fiery
ball was dropping into the midst of those
rippling waters, — its slanting rays still
lighting up the nest with a glow, though
it had disappeared from view from the
ground beneath some minutes before.

After holding up the eaglet to the view
of my companions below, I carefully re-
placed it in the nest and descended to
the ground, having been in the tree two
hours and fifteen minutes. Although I
was prepared for trouble from the pa-

ORNITHOLOGY

123

rent birds, they made no attempt to de-
fend their nest and young, and during
all this time soared majestically about.
high overhead.

The next morning we noted both
eagles circling about the nest, but did
not re-visit it. Subsequently inquiries in
the vicinity showed that both nests here
referred to have been occupied succes-

on a most exciting trip as far as Sara-
sota Bay — which, however, is another
storv and has nothinsf to do with eacles.

State Bird Sanctuaries.

A new held of service for Natural
History Societies is made possible by
the ^Massachusetts statute which g-ives

THE EAGLET IN THE NEST.

sively for the past seven years, a family
near-by assuring us that the large one
has been used to their personal knowl-
edge for at least eighteen years, being
when they first knew it but a comparatively
small nest. \\'e were told that the eagles
leave this locality about the first or mid-
dle of August and are absent for a
period of about two months. A pair had
been seen roosting nightl\' in the trees
near here, and another pair about a mile
away. \A e learned also from a woman
living not far distant of a still larger
nest which she stated she had known for
over twenty years, ^^'e did not, how-
ever, have opportunity to investigate it,
and though we saw other eagles in this
general locality, — both in the immature
and adult plumages, — we could not
spare the time to search for their nests.

With urgent invitations to return we
left A'enice about smirise on the morn-
ing of the twelvth, to continue our cruise
up the west coast. Somewhat reluctant-
ly we left our anchorage and passed out
of this quiet bay. for it was a charming-
spot and we had made several new
friends, three of whom accompanied us

to the Fish and Game Commissioners
power to take over land, on request of
the owners, and use it as sanctuary for
wild life.

The Andover Natural History So-
ciety, for example, selected a tract of
wild country some two miles long and
a half mile wide, containing a stream
and a small pond, and persuaded its
owners, some fifteen in number, to join
with it in having the area made a State
Reservation. The society undertook
to relieve the owners of all trouble and
expense, to put up bird houses, to
keep down enemies of the interesting-
wild life, and to feed the creatures
through the winter. In return, the
owners are protected In- the state offi-
cers from the depredations of gunners
— so that as a matter of fact, they were
nearly all heartily glad to come into
the scheme.

Thus through the efl:'orts of the local
society, the community has added an
interesting feature to its other attrac-
tions, although no single owner had
any special interest in the matter or

124

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

would have put himself to any trouble
to secure the result. In addition, while
notes in the local paper have educated
the adults,' by having- the public school
classes in carpentry make the bird
houses, zeal for wild life protection has
been given a distinct "boost" among
the young.

Here then, in states where the laws
make it possible, is an interesting and
worthy field of effort. To any organi-
zation disposed to attempt a like pro-
ject, the Andover Society offers freely
the results of its experience. — Address
E. T. Brewster, Andover, Mass.

An Unusual Vireo's Nest.

The accompanying photograph shows
the nest of a red-eyed vireo found in a
very unusual and beautiful location. It
is from Merrimac, N. H. and was
placed in the low branches of a young
white pine, where it was but a little
over two feet from the ground and
seemed well concealed among similar
:growth and scrub hardwoods near the
edge of an open pasture.

This nest when first visited, on the
morning of the 29th of June, contained
naked young, apparently but a few days

old. Thinking from its location in the
pine tree that it might be the nest of
the "blue-headed" rather than the red-
eyed species, I visited the place with
a jack-light about ten-thirty the follow-
ing night to positively identify the bird
upon the nest. By approaching care-
ful!}" with the light held out in front I
was enabled to get within two or three
feet of the nest without being noticed
by the brooding bird who was fast
asleep with her head buried under her
right wing. After studying her for
about a minute she suddenly awoke
with a startled look in her deep red
eyes and gazed intently at the light,
btit remained motionless. The com-
pactly woven nest of strips of bark and
fibre, decorated with bits of paper and
white birch bark lighted up beautifully
against the soft delicate green back-
groimdof pine needles and made a pretty
picture. Not wishing to disturb her fur-
ther I quietly withdrew, making an-
other visit the next morning and find-
ing her again on the nest.

My next opportimity for visiting this
nest was on the tenth of July, when I
foimd it empty, with no traces of either
parents or young in the immediate
locality. It may have been possible that
the young birds had flown, though I
half suspect that a large black snake
Avhich I foimd lurking in the vicinity
ma}' have had something to do with
their disappearance.

The English Starling.

The U. S. Department of Agricid-
ture is making a wide-spread investi-
gation of the status of the English
starling, a bird recently introduced into
the United States, which has been con-
sidered by many an undesirable addi-
tion to our fainia. It is a bird which
has increased and spread rapidly and
seems able to hold its own against all
comers, and it is to be hoped, therefore,
that its beneficial traits will so far out-
weigh its injurious ones that this hand-
some bird may be welcome to remain
with us. Nobody wants a second
"English sparrow."

A VIREO'S NEST IN A WHITE PINE

I wish to express my appreciation of
The Guide to Nature. We have found
much of interest and have been greatly
aided in our efforts to become better ac-
quainted with nature. — Miss ]\Iatilda
Krebs, Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

ORNITHOLOGY

12 =

Photographing Young Birds.

The most attractive age of a young
bird is usually the tirst week or so after
it has left the nest, — when it is lainich-

Flickers and goldfinches, in Riverside
Drive between ii6th Street and Grant's
Tomb, late in November.

YOUNG CATRIRn JUST AFTER LEAVNG NEST.

Photograph by Mr. Charles I. Reid, Millersburg;

Pennsylvania.

ing forth into the world to try its own
resources. It is shy, yet it seems to
know no fear : its poses are graceful
combining with the freshness and vigor
of youth some of the dignity and repose
of the adult. This period might be said
to be the "sweet sixteen" of bird life,
and it seems to contain all the attrac-
tive qualities of the bird with none of
the objectionable ones, making its sub-
ject as lovable as an opening flower.

Bird Notes for New York City,

BY MISS ELIZABETH VAX HOEVEXBERG,
FISH KILL, XEW YORK.

A Blackburnian warbler was observed
May ly, 1914, on Lenox Avenue at
129th Street, in a tree near the curb in
front of a florist's greenhouses.

Kinglets and redstarts have been
seen among the trees and shrubs of the
Upper Campus, Columbia University,
New York City.

Juncos, feeding among the chickens
on a "Harlam Squatter's" claim, on
Morningside Drive, at 121st Street, be-
fore the great apartment houses, now
there, were built.

Bird Photography for Women.

That bird-photography is not only
possible for women to enjoy, but that
it may be made one of the most fasci-
nating and healthful of out-door studies
is shown in an interesting article tinder
the above title, published in the May-
June number of "Bird Lore." The
author is Miss E. L. Turner, F. Z. S.
of Cambridge, England.

A number of women in our own
country have also done most admirable
work along similar lines, and such re-
sults should be encouraging to others
who are taking up this useful pastime.

Remarkable Devotion of a Robin.

BY RE\'. MAXLEY B. TOWXSEXD. X.ASHU.A,
XEW HAMPSHIRE.

A number of years ago, when living
in Southbridge, Mass., this remarkable
robin incident came to my notice. A
friend, a conductor on the railroad that
runs from Thompsonville, Conn., to
Southbridge, told me the story.

One morning at Thompsonville a
passenger car that had been standing
idle on a siding for several weeks was
attached to the train. Several miles
otit of the place the attention of some
passengers standing on the rear plat-
form was attracted by the peculiar
actions of a robin that seemed to be
persistently following the train. My
friend, the condtictor. was informed
rnd a close watch kept upon the bird.
Yes. it was certainly following the
train, but for what purpose? The an-
swer soon came, for when the train
made its first stop the robin flew
directly to the car and disappeared be-
neath the trucks. An investigation
revealed a nest containing four newly-
batched voung, on whom the mother
was sitting close. Bright-eyed and
fearful, but bravely, she eyed the faces
thrust close to her and her treasures.
Wben the train started she flew out,
but followed faithfully the entire run,
brooding and warming her bal)ies
whenever the train stopped and af-
forded her the opportunit}'. Thus she
kept them alive and warm until ."^outh-
bridtre was reached. The conductor at

126

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

once notified the railroad officials, who
gave orders that the car should be de-
tached and set apart.

It is gratifying to be able to report
that such devotion had its fitting re-
ward, and that the little family was
safely reared and launched out into the
world. The other day I read of a
mother who made a great sacrifice for
her child. Readers of the deed were
thrilled by the mother-love behind the
act, yet here in this simple, humble
bird we find the same mother-love. —
strong and beautiful. Shall we not ren-
der her our tribute as truly as if she
were a human mother?

An Ambitious Wild Goose.

In the Zoological Park wc have
reared yearly a goodly number of Can-
ada geese, our flock of these birds now
numbering more than fifty. In the
spring of 191 5, the usual number of
pairs nested, and succeeded in hatching
their goslings. But one curiously
acquisitive and equally pugnacious
pair, apparently dissatisfied wath their
own brood of five, decided to increase it.
By means of a system of browbeating
on one hand, and persuasion on the
other, thev actuallv succeeded in ab-

ducting the goslings of other birds
until they had gathered a flock of fif-
teen ; a number entirely without pre-
cedent in the writer's experience.

The trouble of the "old lady who
lived in the shoe" was caused by the
fact that she didn't know what to do
with so many. Our geese never be-
trayed any such tribulation, and while
there was some scantiness of space be-
neath the sheltering feathers of the
mother, the overflow could always col-
lect alongside and receive a share of
warmth. All are being safely reared,
and the excellence of their care is at-
tested by the evident prosperity of the
goslings, as shown in the accompany-
ing picture. — L. S. C. in the "Zoological
Societv Bulletin."

"American Forestry" for July con-
tains a five-page article on "Bird Pro-
tection and the Work of the Brookline
Bird Club" in Brookline, Mass., an or-
ganization which has done invaluable
work in that town. This magazine also
makes the following announcement :
"Birds and the Need of Them" will be
another subject given a special depart-
ment. The conservation of birds is vi-
tally necessary to the preservation of
human life. So few people realize this
that "American Forestry" will make a

CANADA GOOSE WITH HER KIDNAPPED GOSLINGS

Cut by courtesy of the "Zoological Society Bulletin."

ORNITHOLOGY

127

special effort to promote proper protec-
tion and care of birds."

It is indeed gratifying to note the in-
terest being- shown in this subject by
such magazines, and denotes an awaken-
ing which is becoming wide-spread and
must certainly result in a great deal of
good. Publicity means education, and
education means progress.

Dr. Arthur W. King of Jacksonville.
Fla., who has recently returned from a
motor-boat trip around the lower part
of that state, brings back well authenti-
cated reports of a good-sized colony of
Roseate Spoonbills on an island near
Caxambas on the west coast, and it is
hoped arrangements may be made at
once for the protection of these beauti-
ful birds, which were formerly so abun-
dant but had become nearly extermin-
ated throughout the state. It is grati-
fying also to learn of the large rook-
eries of the "great white" and snowy
egrets in regions through which he
passed, the recent increase of these
birds being largely due, no doubt, to the
excellent work of the Audubon Society
wdiich has done so much to stop the
plumage traffic and to protect the fast-
disappearing birds of this region.

Two recent publications by the ]\Iass.
State Board of Agriculture of especial
interest to bird students are Circular
No. 45, entitled "The Starling" and Cir-
cular No. 47 on Bird Houses and nest-
ing Boxes." The former gives a his-
tory of the introduction of the Starling
into America and the increase, dis-
tribution, food and habits of this bird of
questionable character, while the latter
covers well the subject of which it
treats, and being fully illustrated
should be of valuable assistance to
those contemplating erecting bird boxes
on their gromids.

Both circulars are l:)y Edward Howe
Forbush. the State Ornithologist,
known throughout the country for his
painstaking work and valuable con-
tributions on eccjnomic ornitholoe:^^

sistants to our agriculture. We are de-
pendent upon the birds much more
than the average person has realized,
and their protection and increase about
our homes has a large bearing upon the
insect problem, which is so vital to any
lover of trees. Let us not forget them
when we plan our grounds.

The many attractive appliances in
the natv:re of feeding stations, nesting-
boxes and bird-l)aths now oft'ered the
bird-loving ]n:blic are doing much to
stimulate an interest in our feathered
friends and to bring us into a right
relation with these most valuable as-

Beautiful Photograph of Snowy Owl.

Ebensl)urg, Pennsylvania.

To the Editor :

I am sending the photograph of a
snowv owl, which I took some time
ago. Experts say that this species of

A SX(:)\N"Y 0\VL.

owl is rare in Pennsylvania, and is
usually found in the state of }^Iaine.

The bird is one of the most beautiful
specimens of this type ever seen. It
was shot and slightly injured near
Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, and upon
discovery that the l>ird was in the pro-
tected class, was turned over to the
state game warden for this district.

Yours ver}- truly.

Deck Laxe.

A Four }klonth's Trial Sul)scri])tior
for onlv 2SC. Send to a friend.

128

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

i;lack-tiiroated loon ox nest.

A Real Not a Wooden Bird. apparently of wood and striped with

In this remarkable specimen of the paint. It is a photograph of the living

black-throated loon, nature has success- bird. For its use we gratefully ac-

fully imitated an artificial bird made knowledge the courtesy of "Bird-Lore."

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

129

Contributions to the Sound Beach
Observatory.

Miss Frances H. Errett, New-
town, Ohio (Increase — total

$179-38) ....$154-38

Dr. P. J. Oettinger, New York

City 1 .00

Miss Eulalee Finney. Sound

Beach i.oo

The Frost Family, Soitnd Beach

($1.00 each) 5.00

Mr. H. E. Deats. Flemington.

New Jersey (Increase — total

$15.00) 10.00

Mr. Thomas W. King. Sound

Beach 5.00

A Friend 2.00

Mr. W. W. Lathrop, Warren,

Ohio 50

Mr. William T. Finney, Stam-
ford I.oo

Reverend Fay E. Livengood.

Sound Beach 2.00

Mrs. H. H. Knox, New Canaan,

Connecticut i.oo

Mr.]\Iitchell Kennerley, ]^Iamar-

oneck. New York 5.00

Total $187.88

Previously acknowledged . . . 506.20

Grand Total $694.08

Here is a good example for other young
folks. Miss Eulalee Finney of Sound
Beach has contributed a dollar to The
Agassiz Association for a telescope,
and writes as follows :

"I earned a dollar a few days ago.
and I want you to have it, to help buy
the telescope wihch I know we shall
all enjoy."

It is probable that every girl and boy
in Sound Beach would contribute at
least five cents each if it could be made
clear to all yonug folks how much they
will enjoy and be benefitted by becom-
ing familiar with "the wonders of the
sky." These wonders are marvelously
entertaining, and few people, even the
adults, know much about them. Eula-

lee Finney is right in the statement
that we shall all enjoy the telescope.
The heavens are moving pictures
that are not "trash," and that are al-
ways uplifting in thought.

Variable Star Observing. Fascinating
Work for the Amateur Astronomer

BY WILLIAM TYLER OLCOTT, CORRESPOXD-
IXG SECRET.4RY, AMERICAX .4SSOCL\TIOX
OF VARIABLE STAR OBSERVERS

There may be many members of
The Agassiz Association who possess
small telescopes. By small telescopes
I mean those mounted on tripods of
three to five inch aperture. It is the
purpose of this article to outline briefly
how telescopes of this type may be
turned to good advantage in the aid of
science by anyone willing to engage in
an interesting bit of astrophysical re-
search work that involves no mathe-
matics and the details of which are
quickly and easily mastered.

There are many stars, telescopic for
the most part, that, strange-enough,
do not present the constant state of
brightness that characterizes most of
the lucid stars with which the layman
is familiar. The light of these stars,
which are known as Variables, fluctu-
ates, and the law that governs their
variation presents a baffling enigma,
which only time, and a large number of
observations can solve.

Professional astronomers the world
over are for the most part too busily
engaged in solving other great astro-
nomical problems to give much atten-
tion to \'ariables, and consequently
this important work has been some-
what neglected, and the field is open
to the amateur astronomer with his
modest telescopic equipment to do
something that is worth while in the
realm of astronomical research that so
many think is for the professional as-
tronomer alone.

The only requisites for the work,
aside from a certain amount of patience
and perseverance, is a knowledge of

130

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

the constellations, easily acquired, a
"Star Atlas," (a good one can be pur-
chased for $1.25), and the charts which
the writer will gladly furnish to those
who wish to take up the work. The
method of observing is briefly as fol-
lows :

On each of the charts the Right As-
cension and Declination of the Variable
is designated, that is to say. its latitude
and longitude terrestrially speaking.
First the position of the \"ariable is
roughly plotted on the "Star Atlas,"
and then the region is swept over with
the telescope, using a low power ocular
until the immediate field given on the
chart is identified. The \'ariable is then
easily located. This may strike the
reader as difficult, but it does not prove
so as many have found out who have
essayed this form of c>bservational
work.

The observation of the \ ariable then
follows. On each chart are a number
of constant stars that have been photo-
metrically measured, and their definite
magnitude is designated. These are the
comparison stars. Note one a trifle
brighter and one fainter than the Vari-
able and you have the means of ascer-
taining and estimating visually the
magnitude of the Variable on the date
observed.

Observe the \'ariable a few nighis
later, and you will note a change in its
degree of brightness. Continue the
work for a time and you can trace out
its light curve in full, thus determining
very closely its exact magnitude at
maximum and at minimum, and the
date of each, which constitute valuable
scientific data.

There is nothing monotonous about
the work, and every observation you
make has a positive and scientific value
which renders observing a pleasurable
and interesting task. You always have
the assurance that your time is well
spent, and that you are not engaged
in the desultory work in which class
so much that the amateur does with the
microscope and telescope falls.

Once you engage in \'ariable star ob-
serving you will l:)ecome fascinated
with it, and will wish to join the Ameri-
can Association of \"ariable Star Ob-
servers, a group of amateurs who de-
light in this interesting telescopic em-
ployment.

There are no dues to frighten vou a-

away, or exacting obligations of any
sort. You simply agree to observe Var-
iables when it is convenient, and pay
a nominal tax of twenty-five cents per
annum to cover postage. You are fur-
nished with a valuable set of charts
gratis, and in return make a monthly
report of your observations to the Har-
vard College Observatory and the wri-
ter. The observations appear each
month in "Popular Astronomy," and
later are published in the Harvard An-
nals.

Here is a chance you have been look-
ing for. An opportunity to assist if
even by the contribution of a mite in
adding to the sum total of scientific
knowledge.

The work is endorsed by Professor
E. C. Pickering, Director of the Har-
vard College Observatory, who consi-
ders it to be the most valuable and use-
ful that the amateur can engage in.

Get out that old glass up in the attic.
It is a valuable scientific instrument in
intelligent hands. You can do as good
work with it in observing Variables
as can be done with an expensive tele-
scope of great aperture. You will not
find the work difficult, of that I can
assure you, for many write me that
they have success from their initial ef-
forts.

Naturally the cjuality of the esti-
mates depends on constant practice, but
in a wonderfully short time the eye
yields results that are reliable and val-
uable.

Some day we will know the secret
these inconstant stars now possess, and
the fame and satisfaction of the discov-
ery will be shared in a great measure
by the faithful group of amateur astro-
nomers now engaged in this delightful
and intellectually profitable telescopic
work.

Fm willin' a man should go tollable
strong
Agin w'rong in the abstract, for that
kind o' wrong
Is oilers unpop'lar an' never gits pitied,
Because it's a crime no one never
committed ;
But he musn't be hard on partickler
sins,
'Coz then he'll be kickin' the peo-
ple's own shins.

J.4MES RUSSEL LoWELL.

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

131

A Young Man's Homemade Telescope.

Dayton. Ohio.
To the Editor :

Enclosed you will find a picture of the
telescope that I constructed with the aid
of Air. Fosdick. The instrument is a

astronomer as R. E. Fosdick declares is
as g-ood for all practical purposes as any
telescope costing $150.

"John made his own design of the
telescope according to directions that he
read in books obtained from the library.

MR. JOHN L. WALLACE AND THE TELESCOPE HE MADE

reflector of the Newtonian type with a
mirror six and one-half inches in diame-
ter and a focal length of one hundred and
ten inches.

Some of the parts are odds and ends
found in a garage, such as an automobile
drive shaft for a declination axis, but for
the larger part I bought the material and
worked it down.

Yours truly,

John L. \\'allace.

Mr. Fosdick is the leader of a local
group of amateur astronomers. From a
newspaper clipping sent to us by him we
quote as follows :

"The latest mechanical genius that has
been discovered in this city is John \\'al-
lace, sixteen years of age, a sophomore
in Steele high school. The lad who is the
son of Clinton Wallace, of the Rotterman
building, has just constructed a telescope
— an instrument that such a well-known

He conceived the idea while studying as-
tronomy, although there was nothing
brought out in the classroom that would
provide the directions for making the
telescope.

"He began his work some time before
Christmas and worked on Saturdays
and at various times on week days, when
he wasn't occupied in doing other things,
until he had completed the instrument.
Everything was carried on in his father's
garage. He consulted Mr. Fosdick at
various stages of the work, but he per-
formed the actual labor himself^

"The tubes are of common sheet iron.
There is a silver glass mirror at one end
and an eyepiece at the other end. He
bought the glass for the lens and ground
it himself . The tube is one hundred
inches long and seven and one-iialf
inches in diameter. The mirror is six
and one-half inches in diameter.

132

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

133

The Starry Heavens in September.

BY PROF. ERIC DOOLITTLE, OF THE L XI-
VERSITV OF PEXXSYLVAXIA.

THOUGH the most brilHant con-
stellations of the heavens have all
now left ns. the evening skies of
September are wonderfully beautiful.
The ]\Iilky Way now passes through
the very zenith, its golden arch extend-
ing from the northeast to the south-
west, its succession of most interestiner

which was to the Persians one of the
four Guardians of Heaven ; and in the
northeast we again welcome the group
Perseus, with its wonderful variable
star, and the bright Capella, that sun
so like our own but so very much larger
and brighter.

\'ega, the autumn star, has now just
passed the highest point of the heavens ;
Arcturus, whose red color contrasts
strongly with Vega's brilliant blue, is
still high up from the ground in the

FiR. 1. The Constellations on September 1 9 P. M.
(If facing south, hold the map upright. If facing east, hold East below. If facing west, hold
West below. If facing north, hold the map inverted.)

Star groups, no less than its own won-
derful and intricate structure, forming
an object of endless interest for explora-
tion and study.

The September Stars.
The remarkable and striking summer
group, Scorpio, is just sinking from the
evening skies, while appearing in the
east to take the place of those constel-
lations which have withdrawn since
last month, we see only the very faint
Aries, Pisces and Cetus. But just be-
low these there has appeared the bril-
liant Formalhaut, the solitarv star.

west, w'hile, most conspicuous of all, we
seethe brilliant Jupiter shining out with
its golden radiance in the south. The
four best-known objects for a very
small telescope — the Nebula of Androm-
eda (at A, Figure i), the Cluster in
Hercules (at B), the double cluster in
Perseus (at C) and the remarkable
"Demon Star" (at D)— are all in favor-
able position for examination. The
eclipses of Algol can only be observed
toward the end of the present month,
since the earlier ones will occur during
the daytime. The times of the star's

134

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

greatest faintness are roughly as fol-
lows: September 24, i A. M. ; Septem-
ber 26, 10 P. M., and September 29,
7 P. M.

The Planets in September.
Mercury may be detected low in the
twilight glow throughout almost the
whole of the present month. On Sep-
tember I it sets almost exactly due
west, about one hour after sunset, while
on September ly it reaches its greatest

and a little below the planet Mars. It
rises far in the northeast about four
and one-half hours before sunrise on
September i. and this time is increased
five and one-half hours by Sep-
tember 30. The reader who chooses
to observe during the early morning
hours will find that both of these plan-
ets are excellently situated for study,
while at this time he will also see the
brilliant Jupiter low in the southwest.

Fig. 2. Measuring the distances of the stars. As the earth moves around its orbit, .ABC, a
near-by star seems to move about a similar orbit. ARCE

elongation, by which time, however, it
will have moved much farther toward
the south point of the horizon.

Venus passes the sun on September
12 and enters the evening sky, but
throughout the month it is far too near
the sun to be satisfactorily observed.

Mars is daily becoming more con-
spicuous in the eastern heavens before
sunrise. On September i it rises four
and one-half hours before the sun, and
its own eastward motion among the
stars is so rapid that this time is in-
creased only to five hours by the end
of the month. This planet is now near
the summer solstice and so rises as
high in the heavens as does the sun in
mid-summer. It is approaching the
earth, its distance diminishing from
163,000,000 to 147,000,000 of miles dur-
ing September, and its brightness is
consequently steadily increasing. It will
be seen shining as a reddish, first mag-
nitude star.

Jupiter will at once attract attention
in the southeast, just below the Great
Square of Pegasus. This world is now
slowly retrograding among the stars
and moving slowly downward and
westward from the Vernal Eqinox at
V, Figure i. The most numerous phe-
nomena of Jupiter's satellites will be
seen to occur on the evenings and
nights of September 2, 7, 14, 23, 25,
and 30.

Saturn is in the morning sky, lying,
on September i, six degrees to the east

The morning skies are thus far more
brilliant at present than those of the
early evening.

The moon, which passed over the
bright star Antares, at E, Figure i, on
the i8th of last month will again occult
this object on September 15 at 3 A. M.,
and in the course of its regular jovirney
around the heavens it will again hide
this star from view on October 12. But,
unfortunately, these interesting occul-
tations can only be seen by observers
who are near or below the equator of
the earth.

The sun will pass the Autumnal
Equinox on September 23 at 10 hours
24 minutes 12 seconds P. M. (Eastern
standard time,) and at this instant
autumn will begin. It should also be
noticed that we are now drawing near
to the time of a sun-spot maximum.
The observer who examines the sun's
disc will therefore almost surely notice
several spots upon its surface, and the
probability is that a few" of these inter-
esting objects will be seen which are
of an unusually large size.
Measuring the Distances of the Stars.
When the great astronomer Coper-
nicus, more than 350 vears ago, an-
nounced his discovery that the earth is
not fixed but that it is moving around
the sun, this new and startling idea
was opposed even by scientists, on the
strictly logical ground that such a mo-
tion of the earth must certainly cause
an apparent displacement of the stars

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

135

on the sky. Just as when one is walk-
ing through a wood or riding on a rail-
way he sees all objects apparently mov-
ing past him in a direction exactly op-
site to that in which he is going. The
nearer objects, because they are nearer,
appear to move the most rapidly, while
those which are very distant may seem
to be moving: verv little indeed.

observations were begun with the most
accurate instruments that had then ever
been constructed in order to see if any
such dis])lacement could be found, but
apparent!}' no trace of it existed. The
reason is that the stars are so very far
away that the greatest displacement of
even the nearest of them is quite too
small to have been detected with these

Fi^. 3. The Mi-ridian Circle in the United States Naval Observatory. Washington. An
instrument for determining^ the positions of stars on the sky with higrh accuraey.

In exactly the same way, if the earth
is really passing around a circular path,
any star should seem to be moving in
direction exactly opposite to that in
which the earth is moving at the instant
of observation. A little reflection will
show the reader that the total effect of
this apparent motion of the star will
be to cause it to apjiarently describe
a small closed jiath in the heavens,
completing its circuit alxjut this p;ilh
in exactly one year.

Three centuries aeo most careful

earl}- instruments. In fact, very nearly
all of the stars are so distant that even
in our most accurate instruments they
seem not to Idc displaced in the slightest
degree while we on the earth change
our position 186,000,000 of miles in
going from one side of our sun to the
other. If in the course of all this jour-
ney a star is displaced in its position
on the sk}- b}- the thickness of the finest
spider thread, we can measure the dis-
placement and so lind the distance
awav of the star. This work illustrates

136

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

probably better than any other the ex-
traordinary accuracy of modern astro-
nomical observations.

There are several different methods
employed for measuring these exces-
sively minute displacements. The most
direct one is to actually measure with
the so-called Meridian Circle the suc-
cessive positions of the star on the sky
— that is, its distance above or below
the Celestial Equator and its angular
distance from the Vernal Equinox. If
it is found that the point of the sphere
occupied by the star does not remain
constant but that it apparently moves
along a little elliptic curve, we know
that this apparent motion is wholly
due to the nearness of the star. The
nearer the star is to us the greater
will be its displacement; the computa-
tion of its absolute distance from the
amount of its displacement is a very
simple matter.

Another method now very exten-
sively employed is to measure the posi-
tion of the nearer star with reference
to one or more stars which are so in-
finitely far away that these so-called
comparison stars will not seem to move
at all as we move around the sun. This
can either be done by direct measures
at the telescope or, as is now more
usual, by photography. If at several
different dates a very small region of
the heavens about the star whose dis-
tance is to be measured is photographed
and if the plates are then carefully
measured under a microscope, a dis-
placement of any one star can thus be
found with reference to the others.

It is in this way that the distances
of the nearer stars are measured, and
the results are so enormous that thev
overwhelm the imagination. We find
that there is no star so near that the
light with which we view it, though
traveling with the inconceivable velo-
city of nearly 200,000 miles a second,
has occupied less than several years in
coming to us. while manv even of the
brighter stars are no less than 100 light
years awav.

And it is still more remarkable that
many of the very bright stars of the sky
are so remote that thev undergfo no dis-
placement arising from our motion
about the sun at all. It mav be that
their light has occupied thousands of
years in coming to us. and it is certain
that they are as far as 100 light years

away. The brilliant Arcturus now so»
conspicuous in the western sky is one
of these. This star is certainly many
thousands of times brighter than our
sun, for though it seems so bright to
us it is so infinitely remote that its-
distance cannot be measured.

Truly the great cloud of suns which
surrounds us is of so enormous a mag-
nitude that our whole solar system
seems to shrink into nothing in com-
parison with it.

The Ennobling Effect of Astronomy.

Dr. Brashear recently spoke at the-
annual banquet of the Providence
Society of Mechanical Engineers. From
an account of his address published in
"Popular Astronomy" we quote the
following :

"In closing, Dr. Brashear spoke of
the lofty and ennobling influence which
the study of 'the supreme science' has
upon the human mind and soul, and
spoke of a well-known millionaire,
whose son was not all that his father
desired him to be. The father had gone
to Dr. Brashear and asked him to take
the son into the Observatory, and show
him some of the marvels to be seen
through the telescope. This the Doctor
had done, the young man had become
interested in the study, and the inevi-
table ennobling effect had followed.
The young man is now one of the most
highly respected men in the city where
he lives."

C. C. Georgeson, of the United States
Department of Agriculture, has been
doing some special work on the native
wild fruits of Alaska with the hope of
breeding new cold-resistant varieties of
the cultivated species. Already he has
produced nearly four thousand hybrids
between the cultivated strawberry and
wild sort that grows along the Alaskan
coast. Other crosses between exotic
and native raspberries, gooseberries,
and currants have thus far been less
successful. There is also a wild Alas-
kan crab apple which it has been hoped
to cross with some of the hardiest of
our northern cultivated sorts, since
even the most resistant of these latter
are grown only with the greatest dififi-
cultv so close to the Arctic Circle.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

137

AQASSIZ ASSOCIATION'

k<.<.<i<<^<.<i<s:^^^

Established 1n7

irpoi'iiti'il, MiissacliUwetts, ISItL'

lMfc>i(MM-al.><l, CoMiiecttcut, 1910

Stop, Look, Listen

Young man, young woman, there are
two roads of life. Over one you may
travel in peace and calm, over the other
you may rush forward with a speed that
will finally crush 3'ou to pieces. Take
the quiet road of mental rather than that
of material things. For a time you may
seem to have a grand good time in rush-
ing from tango to bridge whist and the
cabaret. There is hilarity in speeding
up to seventy miles an hour. Nobody can
dispute that. But the best things in life
are not obtained at any such reckless
speed. There is an advantage in a crowd ;
one can there forget for a time every-
thing but the joy of life ; but reaction
must come. One cannot be continu-
ously in a crowd. Our isolation be-
comes more and more complete as the
years go by. Long ago a great w^riter
said God has set the solitary in families,
and He has set the lonely in communities,
which are just larger families. Learn to
have resources in yourself, depend less
and less upon fellow beings. The re-
sources of nature and of books are more
permanent and ever more readily avail-
able than are the sources of hilarity.
Mental things are more enduring and
satisfying than material. Happiness after
all is only a state of mind. It is easier
and pleasanter to keep a quiet mind than
to be in a perpetual ferment.

This may sound like preaching. Per-
haps it is a sermon, but the advice is
good. Acquire the habit of being pleased
by small things and by home friends. Not
many friends are required to make life
happy, but they must be true, congenial
and sympathetic. One may have a feel-
ing of friendship and a kindly feeling
for a number of people, but happiness
does not depend upon the cultivation of
hilarious joys amid the multitude. Learn
to love the trees, the birds, but learn
more thoroughly than all else to be on
friendly terms with yourself in your
quiet moments.

An Ideal for Girlhood.

Our whole idea of woman's charm
and woman's place was conceived by
men. The Englishman, well, we will
say up to the nineteenth century, was
a gallant where woman's "charm" was
concerned and a brute where her
"place" was concerned. Under their
training, woman herself uses the same
terms in describing herself. It does not
seem to occur to her that the concep-
tion was man-made, though she may
have, as a girl, wept bitter tears over
the freckles which she believed robbed
her of her charm. We are beginning
to resent the implication, and to insist
that woman's charm is the same thing
as man's charm. It does not depend
upon a woman's hair and eyes and
complexion and willowy figure any
more than it depends upon a man's
drooping moustache and melancholy
eyes, or that "genteel figure" which
Kate Hardcastle so much admired. Her
real attraction is not that subtle thing
which makes her desirable to men, but
that nobility which makes her attrac-
tive to God and to mankind. It is the
way in which she uses her faculties, her
opportunities, her perceptions that
makes her a force in the world. — Alice
B. Macdonald in "The Educational
Review."

A Work of Great Value.

I see a high work in turning the eyes
and faculties of the youth to Nature as
a means of laying a moral, intellectual
and spiritual foundation that will be
wholesome, sane and safe. I believe our
Infinite Father had this in mind as well
as the practical and material when He
formed our environment. In many in-
stances I have been able to trace an ex-
traordinarilv sweet, mild and gentle dis-
position back to a foundation laid in Na-
ture communion. — Will Webb Tuttle,
^luncie. Indiana.

138

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Distinguishing Male from Female
Canary.

(in reply To ax inquiry.)
The male can usually be distinguished
from the female canary by the fact that
it only sings. The young males usually
begin to sing even in the November or
December of the year in which they have
been hatched. If the female sings it
usually does so far less perfectly than
the male. The only absolute criterion is
that the female lays eggs and the male
does not. — Charles B. Davenport. The
Biological Laboratory, Cold Spring Har-
bor, New York.

The Protozoa, remarks a recent
writer should not be called "unicel-
lular" but "non-cellular."

The Fascination of Fasciation.

No abnormal plant growth seems to
attract more general attention than fasci-
ation. For most people fasciation has
a decided fascination. Fasciation occurs
frequently in asparagus, hyacinth, gold-
enrod and other strong plants. The
growths are hereditary in the cockscomb
or Celosia. The causes of this growth
are not known, but something goes
wrong, there is somewhere a kink that
leaves a kink in the whole stem. Profes-

sor \\'illiam F. Ganong writes as fol-
lows :

"Fasciations can also be produced, by
the way, by external injury, such as the
bites of some insects, though wdien pro-
duced in such manner they are not hered-
itary. They are of all degrees of com-
plexity, down to a simple forking of the
growing point, which may sometimes re-
sult in the formation of double fruits,
though these are more often the result
of the fusion of two buds in a sort of
natural grafting. It is obvious that such
fasciations come very close to the condi-
tion which originates the Birdseye Maple
or rather that the latter in reality is a
kind of fasciation. It is perfectly im-
possible to draw any sharp line between
these different forms of clustered abnor-
mal growths, or between external and
internal causes of their formation."

Of all the examples that have come to
ArcAdiA an asparagus stem presented
recently by Mrs. Frederick Gotthold of
Cos Cob, Connecticut, a Member of The
Agassiz Association and close student of
nature, is surely entitled to first pre-
mium. The stem is three inches in width
or a tririe more in some places, and the
fascinated growth itself stands the length
of a yard stick and yet if the stem were
straightened out it would be fully five
feet long.

ASPARAGUS FASCIATION SENT ]5Y MR. H. E. BEATS, FI.EMINGTON, NEW JERSEY.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

139

~^^:

A MOST ASTONISHING SPECIMEN OF ASPARAGUS FASCIATION FROM MRS. FREDERICK
GOTTHOLD, COS COC, CONNECTICUT.

140

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Insects that Swim under Water.

Professor C. R. Crosby, of Cornell
University, recently discovered an in-
teresting insect {Caraphractus ductus
Walker) that swims under water in the
adult or imago stage, by the aid of their
wings. He says :

"The adults of this species seem per-
fectly at home under water and swim
quite rapidly by means of their wings

THESE INSECTS ARE AT HOME UNDER WATER
AND SWIM BY MEANS OF THEIR WINGS.

with a jerky motion, corresponding to
the wing strokes made at the rate of
about two per second. The legs are
trailed behind and are not used in
swimming. They spend much of their
time walking nervously over the stems
of submerged plants, the surface of
which they examine carefully with the
tips of their antennae, as if searching
for eggs in which to oviposit. They
are able to walk on the sides of the
glass aquaria and on the under side of
the sm-face film. After transferring
a jar of water containing these para-
sites from one building to another a
number were found on the upper side
of the surface film in the air and flew
across the surface trailing their legs
attached to the film. They emerge from
the water by crawling up some object
and forcing their way through the sur-
face film.

"We have been vuiable to see any ex-
ternal air supply carried by these
insects while under water. While sub-
merged they appear to be perfectly
wet but as soon as they emerge into the
air they seem to be perfectly dry. They
are able to live submerged in water for
over 12 hours in a bottle filled full of
water and corked."

This is practically the same as Poly-
nema nataiis about which Lubbock of
England published fifty-two years ago.
Quite a number of aquatic insects can
fly in the adult stage, but do not use
their wings for "flying" through water.
They swim by aid of their flattened
legs.

Can any of our readers give informa-
tion of any other insect that "flies"
under water?

A Killdeer Assists a Farmer.

Stamford , Connecticut.
To the Editor :

A killdeer, or ring-necked snipe as it
is called on the eastern end of Long
Island, selected our asparagus field as
her home. The bird does not make a
nest, but lays her four eggs anywhere
on open ground in the sunlight. The
size of the eggs is wonderful. The bird
in body is smaller than our robin, but
her eggs are three times the size of the
robin's. I am sorry we did not take a
photograph when the bird was near the
eggs. As we had to cultivate the field,
it being a young peach orchard, the
trees eighteen inches high, the birds be-
came used to us although they did not
cover the eggs in the middle of the day,
if the weather was clear. I think two
weeks were spent in hatching, but I am
not certain. The result was a bill, two
legs and a ball of down. The yoving
birds could fly in two weeks. What
the old birds did for me without pay,
if I put a pecuniary value on their
labors, would have been worth about
twenty dollars. They kept an acre of
asparagus clear of the asparagus
beetle for the season, by eating them
all, with how many other bugs I do not
know. They now have a lease of the
place for as many years as they will
take it. The young birds have left for
the South ; the older ones will go in a
few days. Why the young go first with
other young birds I do not know, but
as I have gunned on the eastern end of
Long Island for years, I do know that
the young flight comes first, and as a
rule on August first. The flight of the
old begins about two weeks later and
lasts till the first of September. I have
shot many ring-necked snipe, calling
them to stool by a penny whistle, and
have thus destroyed many cheap labor-
ers that would have helped the farmer.

Yours truly,

Robert L. Case.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

141

Centipede and Young.

BY H. STUART DOVE, WEST DAVENPORT,
T A S M A N I A, A U ST R A L I A .

In December last (midsummer with
us in Tasmania), while splitting" some
partly deca\ed gum logs on my land, I
exposed to light, in a niche in the wood,
a large greenish centipede, about three
inches in length, curled round about
twenty young ones. The young were
each nearly one-half inch long, whitish,
almost transparent and delicate in ap-
pearance. The mother would not de-
sert them in spite of the uneasiness
caused by the sudden exposure of her
home to the strong sunlight. The shock
of the axe having caused a partial dis-
persal, she gathered them again as well
as she could and curled snugly around
them. I thought this was so fine an in-
stance of maternal care under untoward
circumstances, that I gathered the fam-
ily on their piece of gum log and placed
them under shelter where they could ma-
ture and be undisturbed.

Strange Vegetation of the Sea.

BY MAME BUXTOX, REDONDO BEACH, CALI-
FORNIA.

Msitors to the beaches of Southern
California view with wonder and sur-
prise the strange marine vegetation that
is washed up on the shore by the fury of
the waves during a storm. While there

X ^^H

%

are many beautiful and curious speci-
mens of seaweed the giant kelp is the
most wonderful. Its striking peculiarity
is the bulb or air sack that gives the plant
sufficient bouyancy to float on the surface
of the water. The foliage, resembling
antlers, grows out of the top of the bulb,
and the plant is anchored to the rocks at
the bottom of the sea by a cord-like ap-
pendage that is sometimes 300 feet long.
It is said to be the longest plant in the
Avorld. The growth of the kelp is some-
times so extensive as to form a natural
breakwater, and sometimes endangers
navigation.

The value of kelp as a fertilizer has
led to investigations by the Department
of Agriculture with the view to arous-
ing interest in the commercial possibili-
ties. Germany has furnished the potash
used in the United States, and now that
the supply is cut off doubtless manufac-
turies will soon be erected along the Paci-
fic coast for the production of potash from
these plants, as well as iodine. The kelp
is sometimes used medicinally in glandu-
lar aft'ections on account of the iodine it
contains.

"The man who tamed the blueberry,
Frederick V. Coville, has been trying
his hand at the still wilder Mayflower.
He reports that the two plants are much
alike in their requirements, since each
demands a "sour" soil that has never
been treated with lime, manure or
chemical fertilizer. The fruit of the Mav-
flower is a small edible berry not unlike
that of the wild strawberry, but much
smaller, and ripening about the same
time. This must be collected by search-
ing under the leaves in June' or July,
and promptly sown in a mixture of one
part clean sand with two parts upland
peat, preferably from laurel thickets.
The young plants are repotted from
time to time, and after exposure to win-
ter cold are ready to bloom the next
spring. Under cultivation the blossoms
are much finer than in the wild state.

THE GIAXT KELP IS THE MOST WONDER-
FUL OF SEAWEEDS.

A recent German authority main-
tains that the irritant of the nettle is
not. as has commonly been supposed,
formic acid, but a substance of at
least the general nature of the pro-
teins resembling in many respects an
■nzyme. In other words, the poison
of the nettle not unlike that of the
cobra and rattlesnake.

142

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

A Milk Snake Mimicking a Rattler.

Andover, Mass.
To the Editor :

I have just had an adventure which
seems to cast doubt on the statement of
the natural histories that the common
milk snake confines its mimicry of the
rattler to its coloring and the trick of
shaking its tail. I found a milk snake,
some two feet long,, which on being
annoyed struck viciously at my foot
some half dozen times, the blows com-
ing in rapid succession and so hard that
I felt the jar through the thick boot-
sole which I presented to his attention.
Einding he made no impression on the
leather, the animal tried apparently to
reach my shin by shooting straight up
into the air nearly half his length. This
he repeated three or four times. Mean-
while he kept his tail going like the
clapper of an alarm clock.

In fact, the whole imitation was so
very convincing that I began to wonder
whether I might not myself be mis-
taken. And so, the chance for observa-
tion not being at all good, I killed the
animal, to be on the safe side. There
proved to be neither rattles nor any
sign of fangs. It was beyond all doubt
just a common milk snake.

Now I wonder wdiether the books are
wrong or whether this sort of perform-

ance is really uncommon.
Yours very truly.

Edwin^ Tenney Brewster.
Upon referring- the above to Raymond
L. Ditmars of the Herpetological De-
partment of the New^ York Zoological
Park, he writes as follows : "The only
indication of mimicry is in shaking the
tail. Eorm of body and coloration are
rather unlike the rattlesnake. The
greater numl^er of the harmless snakes
vigorously put up a defence when cor-
nered and strike at the enemv."

Decorative Fish Eggs.

Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
To the Editor : —

I send with this letter a small box
containing what I take to be the eggs
of some marine animal. I have found
them before, but have never been able
to learn what they are.

During a storm large numbers of
them were cast on the beach. The
colors of the different clusters were so
varied and so beautiful that they at-
tracted considerable attention.

I wish I could send you a picture of
some of the clusters which I have ar-
ranged in water in a glass dish. The
colors run through various soft shades
of brown and green, some having a

•••f#v.^

XrfE DECORATIVE FISH EGGS.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATIOX

143

reddish and some a purplish tinge, Hke
amethyst. One cluster is firmly at-
tached to one of our common finger
sponges, which rises out of the center
in a pretty way.

Very truly yours,

Emma \'.\x Gilluwe.
The dried eggs appear to be those of

point — considers them vermin and legit-
imate prey. The hunting instinct seizes
ever\-one at the Lodge, and when a
5ro\vn object is seen in a distant field or
orchard, Mr. Burroughs seizes his rifle
and creeps toward the railing of the
porch. Usually the woodchuck, under-
standing conditions perfectly, notes the

THE EIGHTEEN SPINED SCXXPIX.

the eighteen spined sculpin Myoxocepha-
liis octodecimspinosns (Mitchill), the
common sculpin of our coast which
lays its eggs in masses attached usual-
ly to seaweeds in shallow water. In
storms these often wash on shore in
great numbers — Raymond C. Osburn,
Assistant Director, New York Aqua-
rium.

John Burroughs, Woodchuck Hunter.

^Ir. Albert Houghton Pratt has an in-
teresting article in a recent number of
"The Outlook," descriptive of his visit
to the home of John Burroughs, at West
Park, New York. Among the illustra-
tions is a full jage of Mr. Bur-
roughs as a woodchuck hunter. Most
of us think of this famous natural-
ist as an observer rather than a shooter
of animals, but it appears that between
him and woodchucks there is a point
where patience ceases to be a virtue.
When the woodchucks become a pest,
Jlr. Burroughs does not hesitate to get
after them with his rifle. Mr. Pratt
writes as follows :

"Woodchuck Lodge lives up to its
name. The reason for its being so called
is apparent on all sides, and is never lost
sight of. Woodchuck holes are visible
everywhere. ^Ir. Bunoughs — looking
at woodchucks from the farmer's stand-

movement, even if a hundred yards
away, and disappears into his hole. If,
however, he is seen over the barrel of the
gun — it usually means one woodchuck
less. One day I saw i\Ir. Burroughs dis-
pose of five of the rodents with six shots.
This warfare does not tend toward ex-
termination, for nothwithstanding it the
woodchucks are as numerous as ever.

"So, whether trying his skill as a
marksman on woodchucks. contemplat-
ing nature, or thinking and writing about
the new discoveries in chemistry and the
new conceptions of matter, the best days
of the year for ]\Ir. Burroughs are those
spent at Woodchuck Lodge."

]\Ir. P. J. O'Gara, American Smelting
and Refining Company, Salt Lake City,
Utah, is interested in white English
Sparrows and asks for notes on their
occurrence in normal flocks.

Dr. Otto x\ppel, of the Berlin, Ger-
many, Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tion, finds that the dift'erent resistance
to disease of various sorts of potato
depends largely on the rapidity with
which small wounds heal. Some varie-
ties begin to "skin over" a wound in six
b.ours, while others let it remain open
for forty-eight. The former, therefore,
may escape infection to which the
latter succumb.

144

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Rattlesnake's Worst Enemy.

Aiken, South CaroHna.
To the Editor : —

Some years ago while I was
riding in Atascosa County on the
Frio River in southwest Texas, a
rattlesnake crossed the road about
twenty-five yards in front of me,
and looked back as though he were being-
pursued. He paid not the least attention
to the sounds of the horse's hoofs, al-
though as a rule rattlesnakes will coil at
any sound and prepare for fight. To see
what was going on I stopped my pony.
The rattler had not advanced more than
fifteen or twenty feet, when a blacksnake
appeared. I knew that a blacksnake will
kill and swallow any other kind of snake,
so I waited to witness the struggle. In
a cleared space in the mesquite. a few
steps from the road, the rattler was
coiled ready for the battle that he seemed
to know must be fought. With his rattles
hissing, a menace and warning to man
and beast, his eyes glaring fiery hate at
the enemy, he waited.

The blacksnake, his head slightly lifted,
his eyes on his victim, approached the
edge of the clear space. With a slo\v
and deliberate movement he circled
around his enemy. Faster and faster he
made the round, and the rattler followed
the movement with his head — faster and
faster until I could see only a black streak
and a film of floating dust. The rattle-
snake's head steadily followed the mov-
ing streak. A sudden silence. The
lilacksnake had crossed the circle and w^as
eyeing his victim that was again coiled,
his head showing signs of weakness, and
his rattle only faintly hissing. In the
twinkling" of an eye, the blacksnake
caught him behind the head, and coiled
himself around the rattler and stretched
himself until I heard the rattler's bones
crack and snap. When the blacksnake
made the dart at the rattler, the latter
struck himself on the back, pouring all
his poison into his own body.

Then I went my way, knowing that
I had that day seen a battle that I was
not likelv to witness again.

W. D. Kkrshaw.

What "The Evening Star'' Says.

"The Star" today has given over con-
siderable space to the annual statement
of the Agassiz Association because "The
Star" wants to help along Dr. Bigelow
and the others who are engaged with him
in his work at ArcAdiA.

The public ought to read every word
of the statement and those of the public
who can afford it should put their hands
down in their pockets and "shell out."
The Agassiz Association or AA as it is
abbreviated is doing a good work, a
public work, and one that the public
ought to appreciate.

There are many institutions in Con-
necticut receiving regular grants from
the general assembly each year. ]Many of
these are much less worthy than the
AA's ArcAdiA at Sound Beach.

This matter should be put up to the
next general assembly.

Until then the institution must con-
tinue to rely upon the public as a whole.
If anybody doubts the statement that the
AA is a thing that should be encouraged,
let him go to Sound Beach and visit
ArcAdiA. If he goes to scoff he will
remain to pray. There isn't another thing-
like it in Connecticut, perhaps not in the
country.

It is invaluable — or could be made so
— to the sch(X)l children in this section of
the state. Nature study is part of the
curriculum of the schools. Botany is
taught in the High school. If these bud-
ding botanists would go to ArcAdiA to
supplement their "book-learning" they
would get a new idea of nature and its
wonders.

To sum it all up, ArcAdiA is built for
use. It can be used by anybody who has
a serious wish to study nature. It is
not, as a matter of fact, a playground, al-
though part of it is ideal for that pur-
pose. It is a place for serious work, and
it is up to students of nature to interest
themselves in its opportunities and then
they will be able to share its responsibili-
ties.— The Evening Star, Stamford.

Report comes of the finding of a
mastodon tusk in glacial gravels,
twelve miles southwest of Ithaca, Ncaa'
York. The fossil has been presented
to the Cornell ^Museum.

The famous Zoological Station at Na-
ples, among the oldest and best equipped
institutions of its sort in the world, is in
a serious condition financially owing to
the withdrawal of German support. It
is proposed that the American universi-
ties take up the places in the laboratories
left vacant bv the nations at war.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS. XI

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XII

THE GUIDE TO NATURE LITERARY NOTES

A Popular Handbook to the Microscope,

By Lewis Wright. London: The Religious

Tract Society.

This is the only book on the microscope
published from the standpoint of religious
interest that has come to the reviewer's desk.
The author says :

"The Microscope, then, has deserved well
of the Christian believer; and it is to be
lioped that this may not be the last work the
Religious Tract Society may see fit to publish
concerning the marvels it unfolds to us, upon
which part of the subject very limited space
has prevented any enlargement in this little
volume."

This is indeed a good point of view and
merits heart}' commendation from our Asso-
ciation whose motto is "Per Naturam ad
Deum." The book is up-to-date, convenient,
and contains good material in concise form.

Love and Service of Country. B3' Frede-
rick J. Gould, 17 Johnson's Court, Fleet
Street, E. C, London, England: Watts &
Company.

This booklet of some thirty pages has
just reached America. It is one of the
strongest and wisest little books that the

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COMPANY, 141 W. 36th St., New York

war has brought forth. Li the preface we
read :

"The European War of 1914-15 has con-
centrated the mind of the world, by a sad
necessity, upon the military forms of pa-
triotism. The present pamphlet seeks to
emphasize the non-aggressive aspects of
love and service of one's country. "

The true scientific method in bringing
out ''love and service" is shown in this
pamphlet. To be conscious of keen patriot-
ism in the activities of life is noble, but let
patriotism prove grander results than
through bloodshed!

Air. Gould is an English author and lec-
turer. He has devoted his life to pioneer
work for humanity.

The pamphlet may be used by both
teachers and speakers. It is filled with
ideas for both old and young.

An Illustrated Catalogue of American In-
sect Galls. By Alillett Taylor Thompson,
Ph. D. Published and distributed by
Rliode Island Hospital Trust Company,
Executor, in accordance with the provis-
ions.of the will of S. Millett Thompson.
Edited by E. P. Felt, Nassau, Rensselear
County, New York.

This interesting publication was needed.
It fills an important and previously unoc-
cupied field. Its pictures of a large number
of galls will be convenient in getting the
names but it is to be regretted that more
matter descriptive of galls has not been in-
cluded to teach us something more about
them. The book neglects to tell what a
gall is.

Alanj' years' experience with boys and
girls has shown that galls are interesting
objects to them. They are intrinsically in-
teresting to everybody. Why does not
some one write a book to tell what they
are and to describe the insects that cause
them, their life historj- as well as the struc-
ture of the plant malformation?

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AN ENLARGED AND IMPROVED
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ORNITHOLOGY

IN THIS NUMBER

(PAGE 160)

. IT IS EDITED

BY HARRY G. HIGBEE

13 AUSTIN STREET, HYDE PARK. MASSACHUSETTS

THE HEARTY COOPERATION OF ALL BIRD
LOVERS IS CORDIALLY INVITED

Vol. VIII
No. 5

October 1915

EDWARD F. BIGELOW

MANAGING EDITOR

Subscription, $1.00 a Year. Single Copies, 10 Cents

^s^^^^i^^:^s^^^^E^i^^m

GREENWICH

THE EDITION DE LUXE
OF CONNECTICUT TOWNS

GREENWICH

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Under this term are several forms of serv-
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of enterprises in financial difficulties; agent
for persons who want to be relieved of the
management of their own business and
property affairs.

A corporation is better than an individual,
because: It never dies; it is never absent
or too busy for immediate action; and do-
ing its work by the collective judgment
and efforts of several experienced persons,
it is superior to individual human frailties
of judgment and conduct which so often
result disastrously in the case of one man
trusteeship.
Our Officers will gladly confer with you re-
garding the services above outlined.

The Greenwich Trust Co.

96 Greenwich Avenue
GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT

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THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

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IV

THE GUIDE TO N ATU RE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

TRADE MARK REGISTERED

NO CHANCE FOR AN ARGUMENT.

When you and the "man next door" have those
Sunday morning discussions, you differ on many
points.

Makes of tires, brands of oil, body design, rela-
tive merits of fours, sixes and eights — all of these
you can find arguments for and against.

But when you consider storage batteries you
agree that the Willard satisfies all your require-
ments for starting and lighting. And nobody
questions the value of Willard Service Stations —
they have proved indispensable to owners every-
where.

If you haven't learned the advantages of an
acquaintance with Willard, now's the time to
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cars.

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The Egotism of Youth.

It was commencement evening. A
youth rose to deliver his oration. His sub-
ject was "Light." He began:

" 'In the beginning God said, Let there
be Hght : and there was light.' Now let
us consider some of the modern improve-
ments."— Canadian Monthly.

Less Than Human,
Tom, the country six-year-old, pre-
senting himself one day in even more
than his usual state of dust and dis-
order, was asked by his mother if he
would not like to be a little city boy,
and always be nice and clean in white
suits and shoes and stockings. Tom
answered scornfully : "They're not
children ; they're pets." — Harper's
Monthly.

Interrupted Story.

Supper was in progress and the father
was telling about a row which took place
in front of his store that morning. "The
first thing I saw was one man deal the
other a sounding blow, and then a crowd
gathered. The man who was struck ran

Citizens Savings
Bank

OF STAMFORD, CONN.

Assets

$4,300,000.00

A Savings Account is the best
investment for your Money
To foster the Habit of Saving
We make Small Deposits a
Specialty. A Dollar or more
will Start You and give you a
small bank for home savings.

WILLIAM D. SMITH.

President

CHARLES D. LOCKWOOD,

Vice President

WALTER E. HOUGHTON.

Sec'y and Trees.

and grabbed a large shovel he had been
using on the street and rushed back, his
eyes flashing fire. I thought he'd surely
knock the other man's brains out and I
stepped right in between them."

The }'Oung son of the family had be-
come so hugely interested in the narra-
tive as it proceeded that he had stopped
eating his pudding. So proud was he
of his father's valor his eyes fairly
shone, and he cried :

"He couldn't knock any brains out of
you, could he, father?"

Father looked at him long and ear-
nestly, but the lad's countenance was
frank and open.

Father gasped slightly and resumed
his supper. — Lippincott's Magazine.

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HOMES NEAR TO NATURE

Homes Near to Nature. architect to supply further information.

The Guide to Nature intends to pub- We begin the series with a pleasing

lish a series of plans for suburban or design and convenient arrangement for

country homes with estimates of cost, a home near to nature that can be built

TlRST Tl,00^ PU*^^

f?ECOHD 5\LOOR-RLAN

Detailed specifications may be obtained for $4,175.

by addressing this office. We have The exterior is of stucco, with shin-
made arrangements with an expert gle roof.

146

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The first floor provides for a porch
across the entire front of house, with a
living room of exceptional dimensions
provided with a fireplace.

The kitchen is almost square and
connects with the dining room by a
small pantry. Two good closets are
also provided. There is a small porch
at the rear.

The second floor is complete with
four bed rooms, a fair sized bath room
and a hall.

Following is an itemized cost of con-
struction :

publi5her;s

Excavation $150

Stonework $200

Brickwork $125

Carpenter work $800

Plastering $800

Lumber $600

Millwork $900

Painting and Glazing $150

Plumbing, etc. $200

Hardware $85

Hot air heating $125

Range $40

$4 J 75

NOTICES

Tis not in mortals to COMMAND success, but we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll DESERVE IT.

—Addison: Cato

The Slingerland Insect Slides.

It is with special pleasure that we
call attention to the advertisement in
this number of the Slingerland lantern
slides of insects. They are used at
ArcAdiA to the delight oi the visitors
that have seen them on the screen.
They are colored true to nature and are
sharply and clearly defined on the can-
vas. They are in every respect first-
class.

High Awards for Dog Foods.

Gold Medal and Highest Award for
dog foods at the Panama-Pacific Expo-
sition has been given to Spratt's Patent.
Newark, New Jersey.

Is this surprising when you are told
that at three (3) shows recently, over
3000 prizes were won by dogs fed regu-
larly and exclusively on Spratt's Dog
Foods?

The products manufactured by this
company have been on the market for
over fifty years. During this period
they have received the highest honors
at all the principal national and inter-
national expositions, a convincing proof
that merit wins in the long run.

There are more prize-winners reared
and fed on Spratt's Dog Foods than on
all others combined.

Spratt's will bench and feed the
Panama-Pacific Dog, Poultrv, Cat and

Pet Stock Shows. These exhibitions
are among the largest and most impor-
tant held in this country and the fact
that the contracts for all the above men-
tioned shows have been awarded to this
well known firm speaks volumes for
their up-to-date methods, efficiency, etc.

Get the Right Camera and Lens.

The Goerz hand cameras equipped
with the Goerz lenses, the result of
twenty-five years painstaking research
work, are offered in a variety of styles
and lenses. The editor believes that
every form of hand camera, if the ex-
pense can be met, should be equipped
with an anastigmat. The difference
between the price of an ordinary lens
and that of an anastigmat is large, but
the result is well worth the increase.
Good work is occasionally done with
the simpler form of lens, but the anas-
tigmat is the most satisfactory, and as-
sures the largest percentage of success.
The Goerz people have devised a cam-
era that for convenience is ideal, and
have equipped it with anastigmat lens-
es, because they are not satisfied with
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want every exposure to be the best pos-
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"Goerz Lenses." Address C. P. Goerz
American Optical Company, 317 East
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Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Connecticut,

Subscription, $1.00 a year Single copy, 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12, 1909. at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897.

Vol

VllI

OCTOBER.

Number 5

A Well-Equipped Chemical Laboratory

By EDWARD F. BIGELOW, ARCADIA: Sound Beach, Connecticut

PROFESSOR Frederick H. Getman,
for several years professor of chem-
istry at Bryn Mawr College, has
decided to devote his time to original
research in chemistry, and for that pur-
pose has recently completed an ideally
equipped laboratory on the steep hill-
side in the rear of his home on Glen-
brook Road, and has very appropri-
ately named it The Hillside Labora-
tory. The writer believes that not only
locally, but generalh% there is keen in-
terest in this kind of work. For this
reason we publish the accompanying
photographs and this description of the
laboratory and its ecpiipment. Dr. Get-
man is well-known locally on account
of his active interest in our Stamford
High School as a teacher in chemistry
and physics.

This Laboratory is a single-story
building, thirty feet long and twenty
wide. One enters it through a small
vestibule into a well-lighted office
where, in addition to the usual office
furniture, is a library of about five
hundred volumes bearing upon Physics
and Chemistry, together with files of
the more important chemical journals.

From the office, a doorway leads into
the main laboratory, which is devoted
to measurements of precision. Near
the center of the room a marble slab
resting upon two brick piers free from
all vibration, serves as a support for
an analytical balance and a cathetom-
eter.

hi this room are two stills, one for
the distillation of the city water, the
other for the distillation of the product
from the first still The distilled w^ater
obtained from the second still is of so
high a degree of purity that its electri-
cal conductance is only 0.000002 recip-
rocal ohms.

Among other special pieces of appara-
tus in use in this room may be mentioned
a large electrically controlled thermo-
stat bath, capable of maintaining its
contents at any desired temperature
between that of the room and 35°C.,
with a maximum variation of o°.oi ; a
potentiometer permitting direct read-
ings of electromotive force to hundred-
thousandths of a volt, and an apparatus
for metallurgical photomicrography.
An apparatus-case in the same room
contains other fine specimens of the
instrument maker's skill, such as a

Copyright 1915 by The Agassiz Association, AkcAdiA: Sound Beach, Coin

148

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

DR. FREDERICK H. GETMAN OF

STAMFORD, C( )N N EC
TORY.

ICLr, AND HIS HILLSIDE LAUORA-

w^ave-leiigth spectroscope, a polarime-
ler and a refractometer.

A-djoining the main laljoratory is a
dark room especially arranged for
scientific photography.

Beyond the(main laboratory is a small-
er apartment devoted to purely chemi-
cal work. In this the desks are equip-
ped with water, gas, and electricity,
while a fume-closet connected with a
special flue in the chimney serves to
•carry off noxious gases.

Adjoining the chemical laboratory is
a small room for the storage of chemi-
cals.

Owing to its situation upon the side
of a hill, a well lighted basement is
secured. Here is installed a one kilo-
watt motor generator furnishing direct
current for experimental purposes, and
for charging the laboratory storage-
battery. The basement also contains a
work bench well stocked with tools,
the nucleus of a future shop, and ample
•shelves for the storage of laboratory
•glass-ware.

The building is heated throughout by
"hot water, and is lighted by electricity.

The Hillside Laboratory was plan-
ned primarily for physico chemical re-
search along lines already developed
by its owner.

At the present time certain interest-
ing phenomena connected with the
metals are under investigation. In the
course of a series of experimental stu-
dies conducted by Dr. Getman several
years ago at BrynMawr College, certain
peculiarities were noted in the electri-
cal behavior of metallic cadmium when
it is immersed in an aqueous solution
of one of its own salts. During the
past year this phenomenon has been
studied much more thoroughly, and
several exceedingly interesting facts
have been clearly established.

When a stick of cadmium is immers-
ed in an aqueous solution of cadmium
iodide, a difference of potential between
the metal and the solution is developed.

Lest the term difference of potential
be unfamiliar to some of the readers of
this magazine it may not be amiss to
attempt to make its meaning clearer-
If two tanks of water, A and B, be con-
nected lDy a pipe, and the water flow^s
from A to B, we infer that the hydro-
static pressure at the point where the
pipe leaves A is greater than it is where
it enters B, and we attribute the flow
to this difference of pressure. Similarly
if two bodies. A and B, are connected
by a conducting wire and an electric
charge is found to pass from A to B

A WELL EQUIPPED CHEMICAL LABORATORY

149

we say that the potential of A is higher
than that of B, and the cause of the
current is assigned to the difference of
potential between the two bodies. Dif-
ference of potential may thus be
thought of as a difference of electrical
le\el. The unit in which difTerence of
potential is measured is called the volt.

It was found that freshly cast sticks
of cadmium were negative to the solu-
tion of cadmium iodide in which they
were immersed, but the magnitude of
this difference was not constant under
apparently identical conditions. Upon
prolonged immersion in the solution of
cadmium iodide, however, a constant
dift'erence of potential was established,
the average difference between the ini-
tial and final values being abottt 0.0093
volt.

\^arious hypotheses were advanced
to account for these facts, but the only
one which has thus far survived the
searching test of experiment, is that
which assumes the existence of two or
more forms of the metal cadmium.
Such different forms of the same ele-
ment are known as allotropic tnodifica-
tions,

Allotropic modifications of an element
undergo transformation from one form
into the other at a definite temperature

known as the transition temperature.
Obviously at this particular tempera-
ture there should be no difference be-
tween the electrical behavior of freshly
cast cadmium and that which has been
immersed for some hours in a solution
of cadmium iodide. This was actually
found to be the case at about 70° C.
Therefore, this temperature may be
considered as a close approximation to
the transition temperature of the two
forms of cadmium.

Furthermore, if we were to construct
a cell having for its two poles sticks
of freshly cast cadmium, and cadmium
which had been transformed by pro-
longed immersion in a solution of cad-
mium iodide, and having as an electro-
lyte a solution of a cadmium salt, the
direction of the current furnished by
such a cell should be conditioned by
its temperature. Below 7o°C the fresh-
ly cast electrode should be positive,
while above 70° it should be negative.

A careful series of experiments
served to completely verify the correct-
ness of this prediction.

Among other facts it was observed
that whereas freshly cast cadmium has
a bright silvery lustre, that which has
been immersed in a solution of a cad-
mium salt for twenty-four hours ac-
quires a dull gray color.

THE OFFICE OF THE HILLSIDE LABOliATORV,

T50

thp: guide to nature

A CORNER IX THE MAIN LABORATORY.

It therefore seemed of interest to
subject the surface of the metal before
and after immersion to microscopical
examination.

The results of such observation were
more than g-ratifvinQ- as the accom-

Danying- photomicrographs will show.
The appearance of a piece of freshly
cast cadmium, polished and etched in
nic.ic acid, is shown in Fig. i, the mag-
nification being two hundred diameters.
After five weeks immersion in a solu-

AIAIN LAliORATORV SHOWING VIBRATION-FREE SUPPORTS.

A WELL EQUIPPED CHE^IICAL LABORATORY

i^i

FIG.

>i FRESHLY
MIUM.

CAST CAD-

tion of cadmium iodide, the metal ap-
peared, under a magnification of one
hundred diameters, as shown in Fig. 2.

That we are, in fact, dealing with
allotropic modifications of cadmium
can no longer be doubted. Further-
more the change in crystalline form is
from a lower to a higher degree of sym-
metry, which is as it should be, if the
freshly cast metal is to be more electro-
positive than the gray modification.

Other lines of evidence are being
accumulated to confirm the correctness
of the view that cadmium exists in at
least two allotropic modifications.

It is of interest to point out that simi-
lar results have recently been obtained
bv Professor Ernst Cohen of Utrecht,
Holland.

He has succeeded in showing that
ordinary freshl}^ cast cadmium consists
of a mixture of three allotropic modifi-
cations which he designates as a, b. and
2 cadmium.

In addition to the investigation of
cadmium, similar studies are being
carried out with lead. While it would
be premature to make any detailed
statement at this time yet it may be of
interest to point out that there is un-
questionable evidence in favor of the
allotropjsm of lead. This is clearly
shown by Figs. 3 and 4. In Fig. 3 is
shown a photomicrograph of a freshly
cast lead surface magnified one hun-
dred diameters, while in Fig. 4 the
same surface is shown after six weeks
immersion in a solution of lead acetate.

the magnification being one hundred
diameters.

The complete disintegration of the
metal is clearly shown in Fig. 4.

The question that the visitor to the
Hillside Laboratory invariabl}^ asks is,
'A\'hat is the practical bearing of all
this work"?

To this Dr. Getman invariably replies
that he does not know, — rthat it fre-
quently happens that discoveries,
which at the time when they are made
are of purely scientific interest, turn
out later to have practical application
and hence commercial value.

In writing to the Faraday Society of
London about his work along similar
lines. Professor Cohen has this to say :
"****A new field of research for chem-
ists, as well as for physicists, presents
itself. Whilst it will be the task of the
chemist to prepare the pure modifica-
tions (of the metals) and study their
physicochemical properties, the physi-
cist will require to turn his attention
to the determination of their physical
and mechanical constants. As the phe-
nomena described have been unknown
up to the present, metallurgists have
not been able to take them into account
when studying the hardening of metals.
And yet these reversible transforma-
tions, which so often go on so very
slowly in consequence of the retarda-
tions mentioned above, must play an
important role when the metals are
subjected to changes of temperature.

FIG. 2. SURFACE OF CADMIUM AFTER IM-
MERSION IN A SOLUTION OF CADMIUM
IODIDE.

152

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

This role may become fatal if the
metals are in contact with electrolytes
(water), as these accelerate enormous-
ly the transformation velocity. The
volume changes which generally accom-
pany these transformations may cause
the disintegration of the materials.

Research in pure science has its
place in the world's work. It is not a
mere pastime for the dilettante, nor is
it an easy pursuit for the trained inves-
tigator. At the bottom of all of our
real progress lies what may be called
the scientific spirit.

*"Those who have come to under-
stand what is meant by scientific proof
of an hypothesis have learned that even
the most fascinating theory may go
down into oblivion if it cannot meet
new facts."

"Scientific training tends to exalt the
idea of knowledge attained.

_ Few people outside of the scientific
circle can grasp the satisfaction felt by
an investigator, when he feels that his
work has opened up a new line of
thought. The ordinary man, looking
at the progress of chemistry, would be
apt to imagine that the synthesis of a
new dye, the production of a new ex-
plosive or the simplifying of some
metallurgical operation w^ould cause a
profound impression in the scientific
world. But such things can be pro-
duced by methods which are largely

sive, is a sudden development, which
the ordinary man probably never hears
mentioned, something which the scien-

FIG. 4. Sl'KI'ACfc: ()!<■ LEAD AFTER IMMER-
SION IN A SOLUTION LEAD ACETATE.

tific mind sees will revolutionize more
than one field of inquiry, and bring a
flood of light to bear upon intricate
problems still awaiting solution. Ap-
plied science any one can understand,
as it comes into touch Avith his daily
experience ; but applied science is only
a superstructure built upon the solid
foundations which have been laid by
men who never sought to make a cash
transaction of their knowledge. Yet,
if it had not been for their labor, di-
vorced apparently from all practical
application, applied science would not
stand where is stands today. On the
one hand are the needs of humanity,
on the other lies the search for knowl-
edge ; the bridge between them is ap-
plied science. But unless the pursuit
of knowledge was going on, there
would be no bridge, for the acquire-
ment of knowledge must come before
its application."

A new study of one of the Trypano-
somes of the common rat, made by two
British zoologists, adds an important
point to our knowledge of human infec-
FiG.^ 3. ^ SURFACE OF FRESHLY CAST LEAD, tious by way of rat flcas, such for ex-
applications of old principles of no ample as the bubonic plague. The flea
great scientific interest. What is much takes the infection from the rat by
more rare, and therefore more impres- biting. But the rat becomes infected
^Chemistry and its Borderland. A. W. only by licking its own fur or by eating

infected insects, not by the flea's bite.

Stewart.

THE FLOWER BED OX TOP OF A ROCK

153

A Beautiful Flower Bed in an Unusual
Situation.

We ha\-e all heard that it is difficult
to grow o-rass on a rock, but a lady of
Sound Beach and her son have proved
that it is possible to grow petunias on
a rock.

The accompanying photograph shows
a novel flower bed at the home of Mrs.
]\Iary E. Campbell and her son, Mr.
Mr. George \V. Campbell, of Sound

a rim of pointed stones along the edge
uf that hollow that was then tilled with
earth. The result is that with constant
care, prol)abl}' with more care than an
ordinary flower bed would need, Mr.
Campbell has one of the most luxuri-
ant beds of flowers ever seen in this
vicinity. "Indeed," he says, "it was so
sturdy a growth that we got tired of
the rankness, and recently cleaned it
out, and put in rosebushes." A good
suggestion for ornamenting an other-

Tin-: FLOWER 1!EJ) (JX

Beach. Mr. Campbell is an architect
of long experience, which he has ap-
plied in building a home for himself,
comfortable and unique. The wall
fronting the street is made of pointed
rocks ; the posts are capped in a simi-
lar manner. Within these caps earth
has been placed, and in them flowers
are growing.

But perhaps the most novel of these
designs is the bold plan of growing
petunias upon the top of the ledge. Mr.
Campbell explains that the ledge was
naturally somewhat hollow'ed at the
top. and all he needed to do was to run

TOP OF .'v R(_)CK.

wise barren place to make it a thing
of beautv.

The red rust of wheat has been vir-
tually extirpated from Germany by de-
stroying all wild barberry bushes near
the wheat fields. The barberry serves
as the host plant for one of the alter-
nating generations, the other of which
spoils the wheat. This being elimi-
r.ated, the rust can no longer reproduce
iliself. In the same way. pear rust can
be prc\-ented by remo\-ing all juniper
trees.

154

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Land of Paradoxes.

BY MR. JOHN C. UHRLAUB, RIDGEWOOD,
GLENBROOK, CONNECTICUT.

I believe the Chinese, rich and poor
ahke, of all people on earth, may be
counted anion"- the g^reatest lovers of

find there hundreds of citizens, resting
after the toil of the day, sipping hot tea
or wiping" their face with one of the lux-
uries of a Chinese restaurant or theatre,
the sweat cloth, a piece of cotton wrung
out in boiling water, while at least half
of the tea drinkers hold in their hand or

MR. UHRLAUB WITH THE PET BIRDS IN CHINA.

nature. To have evidence of this, one
only need to go to any large tea house in
Canton or in anv other Chinese citv, to

A BIRD'S NEST FROM WHICH THE CHINESE
MAKE SOUP.

have on the table in front of them a cage
containing a pet bird. I have seen a
street beggar asking for alms with a
caged bird on his arm. At dawn of a
summer morning, I have seen hundreds
of people sitting at the street corners or
in the public squares and giving their
pets an airing. Many of the birds are
trained to do marvelous tricks. A rice
bird of large size is commonly taught to
catch a grain of "kalian" (giant millet)
in the air and fly back to the hands of
its owner and eat the grain at leisure
while it sits on its patron's thumb. The
birds, among which are many beautiful
songsters, are petted and well cared for,
and often have free access to their cage,
going and coming as they please.

But the same John Chinaman that will
assiduously and gently care for his song
bird, will quietly look on the torture and
execution of a criminal so horrible in its
details that it would freeze our blood. A
land of paradoxes and things incongru-
ous, this flowery kingdom ! In Pekin on
the old Hattaman Street, what a mixture
of modernism and a remote past ! A car-
avan of ^Mongolian dromedaries coming
for eighteen hundred miles from the Gobi
desert, laden with furs, wool and tea,
meets a procession of Ford motor cars !

SEEING THEXGS IX AUTUMN

155

But everything- changes, even in China.
r^Iany Chinamen to-day j^refer a juicy
beefsteak to the finest plate of bird nest
soup. I do not blame them, after having

A REMARKABLE -'HEAD OX"
STUDY.

PHOTUGRAPHIC

Ixjth seen an uncooked bird nest and
tasted the soup. The famotis edible bird
nest is formed of the regurgitations
and excrements of a rock swallow, and
is considered one of the greatest of Chi-
nese delicacies. The isoirp tastes like
musty dishwater. The Chinese are om-
nivorotis in the ftillest sense ; aquatic
beetles, owls. cats. dogs, rats, snakes.
toads mice, are all dainty dishes for a
Chinese palate.

I have assisted at sonie great Chinese
dinners, some of one htmdred and fifty
courses, beginning with bird nest soup,
shark fins, sea cucumbers (Holothurea),
seaweeds, eggs a hundred years old.
roasted dog, dried rats, fried ice, boiled
water beetles, etc., etc. — that is. I have
been present, bttt taste, appearance and
odor prevnting me from reallv eating.

Fried ice? Yes, fried ice is absolute-

ly correct. Pieces of flavored ice are
covered with batter and cpiickly dipped
in boiling lard. The batter, fried crisp,
encloses a piece of ice. The dish is
served with lightning-like rapidity
from the frying pan to table.

Seeing Things in Autumn.

BY .MAY L. JOIIXSOX, RICIIAIOXD HILL,
XEW YORK.

Every lover of nature can find inter-
esting things in the springtime, for
then all the outdoor world is waking
up and rising into life with a promise
of glorious beauty to come ; the birds
are returning; Ave ourselves feel a new
zest in living, it seems to be in the
air. But hoAv about the autumn? Each
-eason has its attractions for the true
nature lover, although some of our
pessimistic friends who are poetically-
inclined may quote Bryant's :

"The melancholy days are come, the

saddest of the j-ear.
Of wailing winds and naked woods, and
meadows brown and sear."

An yet even the withered leaves may-
be a source of enjoyment, as I discov-
crd a short time ago, as I sat in the
dusk and Avatched the wind playing
pranks Avith the dead leaves that in the
twilight looked like little broAvn mice.
One moment they A\^ere Avhirling in a
circle as though playing some childish
game, then the A\and changed and
away they Acaa- one after the other
arotmd the corner of the house, playing
a game of folloAv the leader. A few
moments later the Avind A'eered and
caught them from every direction and
huddled them in a group. One could
almost imagine that they Avere aliA^e,
and bobbing their heads together like
a little company of fairies congregated
like small boys to talk over some all-
important secret, or planning Avhat
mischief to do next as they danced and
fluttered ; but the restless Avind scat-
tered them eA'en before their plans
could be laid and aAvay the little broAA^n
felloAvs fleA\% each to his OAvn important
task. To a person of the aA-erage
amotmt of imagination it seemed hard
to belieA'e that they Avere inanimate.
If our friends Avotild enjoy this moA-ing
jMcture experience in the tAvilight of
a Avindy autumn evening before the
leaA-es are gone. I am sure they would
appreciate literally "The Fun of v^eeing
'Jliinefs."

I50

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Collecting Crooked Sticks.

BY FRANK A. ARNOLD, NEW YORK CITY,

[Reprinted by permission from the
August Countryside Magazine].

It is said that every man has, or
should have, a fad. Among the faddists
are many collectors, but who ever
heard of a man collecting crooked
sticks? There is such a man, however,
— E. A. Miles, of Clifton Springs, N.Y.,

wan, Canada, and was cut from a small
tree, close to the wood's path, leading
to the Canadian Pacific Hotel.

"C" Avas found about 300 feet below
the summit of Mount Tamalpais, Cali-
fornia, within sight of the city of San
Francisco.

The letter "D" came from Erie
County, N. Y.

"E" was found in the village of Ma-
rilla, near Bufifalo, N. Y.

THE ALPHABET I'RO.M MOTHER NATURE.

— who has collected all the letters of
the alphabet from Mother Nature in
the shape of crooked branches of trees
and shrubs, and with just one root to
finish the twenty-six letters.

Here you have the collection before
you, framed and photographed, and
worthy of permanent preservation in
narrative form. Mr. Miles has been col-
lecting these letters for many years,
and each letter has its history.

"A" comes from Oshawa, Canada, on
the northern shore of Lake Ontario,
about forty miles east of Toronto.

"B" was found at Banff, Saskatche-

"F" in a grove at the Great Falls of
the Potomac,, about thirty miles from
\\'ashington, D. C.

The letters, "G," "K,"M," and "W"
were found either in, or near Attica,
N. Y. How very appropriate that
w4ien he found the letter "M" he should
have been taking a walk through the
woods with his mother !

It is quite natural that several of
these specimens should have been
found near Mr. Miles's home, in Clifton
Springs, N. Y., for he is a great walker,
and enjoys exceedingly a long ramble
through^ the fields and Avoods. wdiere.

COLLECTING CROOKED STICKS

157

with his eyes wide open, he sees many
things which the ordinary pedestrian
would overlook entirely.

The letter "N" which was the first
of the series, was discovered in this
vicinity; likewise the letters "H," "O,"
"P," ''S," "U," and "Z."

The letter "H" formed a portion of a
root, and is the only exception in the
list, the other letters coming exclu-
sively from branches of trees.

The letter "1" grew in a small park
adjoining the home of the late William
A. Wheeler Malone, N. Y., once Vice-
President of the United States.

*'T" was cut from a scrubby tree about
fifty feet from the edge of the Grand
Caiion of the Colorado, in Arizona.

"L" came from Lundy's Lane battle-
field, Province of Ontario, Canada.

The letter "Q" was found growing
beside the trail leading to, and about
five hundred feet from the summit of
Mount Lowe, Southern California.

"R" was discovered at the corner of
Queen Park Avenue, Toronto, not far
from the Parliament Buildings.

The letter "T" has an exceptional
history. Mr. Miles was visiting the
tomb of Abraham Lincoln, at Spring-
field. Illinois, and, by a strange coinci-
dence found a workman pruning a tree
directly beside it. With his quick eye,
]\Ir. Miles detected a branch which
would naturally form the letter T, and
in a moment it was his, with all of its
historical association and without a
hint of vandalism to his charge.

"Y" came from the "Plains of Abra-
liam, Quebec, where "Wolfe died vic-
torious."

"X" was found very near the Fifth
Corps headquarters Monument on Lit-
tle Round Top, Gettysburg, Pa.

The letter "Y" has another bit of in-
teresting history. It was found form-
ing a part of a bush, growing where
the Union Army commenced the tun-
nel, which, when completed, terminated
in a chamber under Fort IMalone in
front of Petersburgh, Virginia. When
the mine was exploded, it created what
is known in history as "the crater."

It will be noticed that, in addition to
the letters, a complete set of numerals
has been obtained in the same way; all
of these, however, having been cut from
.trees or bushes in the immediate vicin-
ity of Clifton Springs.

In talking of this unique collection.

Mr. Miles says that in no instance has
any twig or branch been bent or artifi-
cially twisted. Each letter and numeral
represents the actual formation by
Nature — a fact which renders this
alphabet all the more wonderful.

We read often of how the preacher
obtains sermons from stones, books
from running brooks, and so on ; but,
so far as we know, it has been left for
Mr. Miles to obtain from Nature the
sum total of human knowledge, as em-
bodied in the alphabet and its corres-
ponding word combinations !

If you should by chance be in Clif-
ton Springs some time, stop your auto-
mobile in front of the Sanitarium, and
step just inside the lobby, and there,
protected by a frame, you will find the
original from which the above illustra-
tion was taken, and, if Mr. Miles hap-
pens to be at his desk, I know how
pleased he will be to tell you some of
his personal experiences connected
with collecting these bits of wood.

T. A. Jagger, formerly of Harvard,
now of the Hawaiian Volcanic Ob-
servatory, with a number of his assist-
ants, narrowly escaped losing their
lives during the recent errtiption of
^launa Loa. The party had ascended
the mountain for nearer observation
of the crater, and were caught by a
storm and avalanches almost in the
path of a lava stream.

"Perhaps the most convincing sign
of this new-old faith is the unconscious-
ness of the unbeliever. He has no idea
that he is believing or having faith in
any thing. He is simply loving the
green earth and the blue sea, and the
ways of birds and fish and animals ;
but he is so happy in his innocent,
ignorant joy that he seems almost to
shine with his happiness. There is, lit-
erally, a light about him — that light
which edges with brightness all sincere
action. The trout, or the wild duck, or
the sea bass is only an innocent excuse
to be alone with the Infinite. To be
alone. To be afar. Men sail precarious
craft in perilous waters for no reason
they could tell of. They may think
that trawling, or dredging, or whaling
is the explanation : the real reason is the
mystery we call the Sea. — Richard Le
Gallienne in "The Phoenix."

15^

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

An Impaled Fly.

New York City.
To the Editor :

A few days ago I was camping on
that stretch of sand and sand dunes
which ranges from Fire Island to Mon-

TIIE \\'IX]) IMPALED THIS FLY.

tank Point, and separates the Atlantic
()cean from those inland bays, such as
Great South Bay, Peconic Bay, etc., and
was forced during this period to supply
my own meals through my craftiness as
a fisherman and hunter.

As I found no birds flying along the
shore, I decided to enter the fields of
sedge grass and try my luck there. I

lay down in grass about three and a
half or four feet high, and scanned the
horizon for any birds that might be
coming my way. Every time I looked
over my left shoulder I saw, a few feet
from me, a blade of sedge grass on
which a fly seemed to be perching.
After a lapse of from fifteen to twenty
minutes, I became curious to learn how
and why that fly clung to that blade of
grass, so I laid down my gun and walk-
ed over to gratify my curiosity, and
found that the sharp point of the grass
blade had pierced the fly's body and was
holding it impaled. It had evidently
l:)een flying over the field when a sudden
gust of wind blew it against the tip of
the blade and impaled it there. I
lirought it home, because I considered
it a peculiar freak of nature, illustrating
one of the many dangers that threaten
the insect world.

I took the specimen to the IMuseum
of Natural History and showed it to
the curator, Doctor Lutz, who told me
that he had never seen a similar speci-
men. The butcher bird kills insects of
all kinds and places them on thorns but
Doctor Lutz doubts if this bird is a
habitant of this stretch of Long Island.

I enclose two photographs made from
the s])ecimen. I shall be pleased to hear
v.hat you think of them.

\^ery sincerely yours,

A. L. Goodman, M. D.

This is a rare and remarkable acci-
dent. The fly's life was lost as is that
of a tree when it is lilown over by the
wind.

The [Missouri Experiment Station re-
ports encouraging progress with its ef-
forts to breed more hardy strains of ';e\-
era! of our most prized varieties of
reach.

I think your August number quite
excellent and the September number its
equal. I hail with delight the new de-
nartment of "Ornithology." In fact if
I were to trv to express my apprecia-
tion it would take shape something like
the following: The Guide to NaTl'RE
is a live olive leaf dropped into my
window by the dove of good fortune
that impels the belief that the blinding
mists are abating and a new beauty is
rising from the common like a green
island thrust up from the sea! — Will
Webb Tuttle. Muncie, Indiana.

ANIMAL ART STAMPS

159

Animal Art Stamps.

The increasing popularity of poster
stamps and their collecting in various
wavs has suggested the reproduction
in that form of some of the remarkable
photographs of animals taken in the
New York Zoological Park during the
fifteen vears that institution has been
open to the public.

The series issued at this time con-

A SAMPLE OF ONE OF THE STAMPS.

sists of 130 subjects, reproduced in
natural colors by the four-color process.
The stamps are 2}i x 3 inches in size
and are particularly clear and well exe-
cuted pictures. They are to be disposed
of in six sets of twenty stamps each, at
ten cents per set. The remaining ten
stamps of the series are mounted in a
thirty-two page album sold at fifteen
cents, which provides space for the en-
tire 130 stamps, making the cost of the
complete series and album seventy-
five cents. Carefully written captions
giving authentic infomation regarding
each animal represented appears in the
album under the space for each stamp.
This educational feature, in connection
with the fact that they are from actual
photographs, which include many rare
animals unknown to the average child,
makes the series the most worth while
picture stamps that have yet come to
our attention.

If this isstie proves popular, others
will follow, as the collection of photo-
graphs available runs into the thous-
ands.

A Mouse-eating Garter Snake.

BY JOSEPH W. LIPPINCOTT.

It is claimed by anthropologists that
different species of snakes have a re-
stricted diet from which they never vary
and that those which eat batrachians will
never eat warm-blooded animals and vice
versa ; nevertheless I once saw a garter
snake sw'allowing a meadow mouse re-
gardless of the fact that this species of
snake comes under the former head and
feeds regularly on toads, frogs, small
fish and earthworms.

It happened that, when walking along
the sea cHft's on Conanicut Island, Nar-
ragansett Bay, I saw^ quite a distance
away a queer head rear itself above the
thick meadow grass, wag oddly once or
twice on its thin neck and then drop
again below the grass tops. It proved
to be a stout three-foot garter snake
with the biggest, fattest, short-tailed
meadow mouse I ever saw stuck in his
jaws in such a way that it seemed a pro-
longation of the snake's head. The hind
quarters and the tail were down the
throat and when the snake reared up in
his earnest yet comical endeavors to
climb over the grass in the directon of a
briar patch, the mouse seemed to be
calmly sitting on a pedestal.

The grass was too thick 10 push
through with the cumbersome load so the
snake rose on his tail as high as he could
and then toppled over, or rather fiung
himself, towards his goal. His head

would land in the grass about a foot
away from where the tail had been, the
tail being drawm after the head and
coiled again preparator_\- to repeating the
strange performance.

I evidently hastened the reptile in his
retreat for he soon made much quicker
motions and scarcely ever rested between
jumps. The closer I watched the more
ner^-ous he grew until without any warn-
ing- he disgorged the half swallow^ed
mouse and then beat a very hasty retreat
to the briar patch, finding no difficulty
in threading his way through the grass
^low that the bulky prey was discarded.
There w^as not the least doubt about his
being a common garter snake.

Tests at the IMaryland Agricultural
College show that 700 yards is the out-
side limit to which a fly commonly
roves from the point where it is hatch-
ed.

New measurement by a French as-
tronomer shows that the sun's corona
is apparently spinning faster than the
general mass. About two miles a
second is the probable velocity.

1 6c

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

All communications for this department
should be sent to the Department Editor,
Mr. Harry G. Higbee, 13 Austin Street,
Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Items, articles
and photographs in this department not
otherwise credited are by the Department
Editor.

What One Bird Club Is Doing.

When any organization reaches a
membership of over half a million it nat-
urally commands some attention.

The Liberty Bell Bird Club— without
doubt the largest organization of this
kind in the world — has reached these pro-
portions, and in two and a half years'
time.

The active work and growth of this
club is outlined below by Mr. Shoftner,
its leader, at my recjuest, and the magnifi-
cent restdts accomplished in so short a
time should be a source of gratitude to
all friends of the birds and an inspira-
tion to other clubs of a like nature.

Over Half a Million Bird Club.

BY CriAS. p. SHOFFXER, PHILADELPHIA^
EDITOR OE THE LIBERTY BELL BIRD CLUB.

In this day and generation, anv move-
ment to be a success, must be built on a
need. You can popularize, to a certain
extent, almost anybody or anything by
advertising and a judicious use of print-
er's ink. But to make a movement grow,
increase in value and in the estimation of
the, very often, fickle public, is another
problem. If the foundation is of sand,
down your building will go, it matters
not how fine, strong, or well planned the
superstructure.

^^'hen the formation of a new bird
club was discussed two and a half years
ago, there Avere fifty-seven apparent rea-
sons given why such a club was unnec-
essary. There were many bird clul:)S,
there had been bird clubs for years, folks
wouldn't join any more clubs, and so on
and so on.

\\'e know now thev were not reasons.

A LIBERTY BELL BIRD CLUB AT BAKERVLLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

ORNITHOLOGY

i6i

The one who believed in the new chib
idea was positive of two facts, first, that
we should have more birds, and, second,
that the great majority of the bird clubs
confined their activities principally to the
cities.

So, on January i, 1913, The Liberty
Bell Bird Club was formed. The
name was significant : Independence for
Birds. The motto was, "Protect
our Feathered Friends." The Pledge :
"I desire to become a member of The
Liberty Bell Bird Club, and promise to
study and protect all song and insectiv-
orous birds, and do what I can for the
Club." The "Farm Journal," of Phila-
delphia, was to be the official spokesman,
and the publishers of that paper said, as
an educational feature and with a sincere
desire to help the farmers of America,
they would bear the expense of the Club.
There were to be no dues, no fines, no
assessments of any kind. Upon receipt
of the signed pledge, a button and a
twenty page "Guide" were to be sent
free of all charge.

The great feature of the Club was that
it was especially formed to interest, in-
struct and enlist the support of the men,
women and children of the country, the
real place where birds are found. ( )f
course, city members w'ould be welcomed.
We now have many thousands in the
cities, and we would like to have more.

The Club grew rapidly. On its first
birthday, it had 86,000 members, on its
second birthday, 252,904 members, and
to-day August 4, 1915, 533,194 members.
We believe it to be the largest active bird
club in the world. Our members work.
We started a campaign of education and
and it has brought forth much good fruit.
Formerly few farmers had bird-houses
or nesting thickets. To-day, thousands
of farms have both and thousands of
trees have been planted to furnish food
for the birds.

Our birds have been thoughtlessly
slaughtered for food and for adornment.
Civilization and the onward tread of the
times have taken from the birds their
natural food supply. They decreased,
I ut the insects, which only the birds
can keep in check, increased. Those
insects cause an annual loss of $1,000.-
000.00. The farmers are the sufiferers.

Increase the bird population and the
insect pests will decrease. The Liberty
Bell Bird Club members are pledged to
increase the bird population, and they are
doing it.

Cp to March i, 1915, we brought the
battle for the birds before 3577 county
superintendents, 166,471 school teachers,,
and introduced bird study into nearly^
9.000 schools.

Our members have put up thousands-
of bird houses, faithfully fed the birds
in winter and given them water in sum-
mer. We have installed many bird sanc-
tuaries and have established the second
Friday in April of every year to be the
Annual Bird Day of The Liberty Bell
Bird Club. This year, celebrations were
held from Maine to California and from
Canada to the Gulf. We believe our Clvib
was the first to buy an entire page in one
of the great magazines to bring the sub-
ject of bird conservation to the attention
of the country.

Our Platform is easily imderstood.
Here it is :

Protection by competent laws through-
out the world for all song and insectiv-
orous birds.

The teaching of practical ornithology
in all public and private schools.

The regulation, but not persecution, of
cats, red squirrels, and all enemies of
the beneficial birds.

The establishment of ])ird sanctuaries
in every city, town, village and hamlet.

The planting of trees, shrubs and vines
that will attract and feed our birds.

The putting up of safe and artistic
bird houses and the feeding of our winter
birds.

We have not always received roses.
Many could not believe we were sincere,
so we have had to print this : "Save the
Birds, The Farm Journal can take care
of itself." Educators, ornithologists and
economic students everywhere have ap-
proved our work, and we are much en-
couraged.

Xow, dear friends, don't you think our
Club was needed ?

Much more remains to be done. The
more we can interest, the sooner will bird
protection become an assured fact. Re-
member this, The Liberty Bell Bird Club
is trying to secure the right balance of
bird life, in a practical way.

Are vou with us?

First Federal Bird Preserve in Minne-
sota.

By executive order of the president
a small rocky islet on Mille Lacs. Min-
nesota, which is the breeding resort of
a number of varieties of gulls, has been
set apart for a federal bird reservation..

1 62

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Poisoning of Birds by Spraying
Trees.

The increasing use of arsenate of lead
in spraying orchards and shade trees for
the suppression of insect pests seems to
have created considerable alarm among

arsenic is required to kill caterpillars,
and a great many of the poisoned ones
would have to be eaten at one time to
affect a bird under ordinary conditions.

In ten years' experience with spraying
in various localities the writer has been

A BIRDLESS AREA STRIPPED BY GIPSV MOTHS.
Photographed in July.

'bird-lovers generally as to the danger of
killing birds through the poisoning of
their food. Especially has this been the
case throughout the territory of the gyp-
sy and brown-tail moth infestation in
Massacliusetts and elsewhere, as it has
frequently become necessary to spray
large areas of woodland, and there has
been a number of reports of birds being
found dead in these localities, attribut-
ed to the spraying.

A thorough investigation of this matter
tends to show, however, that there is lit-
tle danger to birds of poisoning from this
source, and there appears to be several
practical reasons born out by extended
and careful observation for this conclu-
sion. That birds will seldom feed upon
<iead ordyingcaterpillars has been prac-
tically proven in many instances, and by
this means only would they be likely to
obtain much of the poison. A^ery little

interested to note its effect on birds, and
has never known of an instance of a bird
being killed by the poison, nor of tlreir
deserting the locality on account of this
work. He has, however, seen birds' nests
deserted and found young birds dead and
dying from heat and exposure in infested
preas where no spraying had been done
and the trees and shubbery were eaten
bare by the caterpillars. Such an area
is destitute of bird life, and under present
conditions any badly infested localit}' is
sure to be reduced to this condition if it
is not sprayed.

Dr. Willard G. Van Nann, Zoologist
of the New York State Museum, writes
me as follows in regard to this subect :

"In regard to the poisoning of birds by
spraying trees there seems to be a gen-
eral agreement that it is responsible for
killing some birds, especially orioles,
cuckoos, grosbeaks and purple finches,

ORNITHOLOGY

163

but when positive evidence is sought it is
surprisingly hard to find. Several pur-
ple finches have been sent in to this office
which appear to have been killed in that
way but the evidence is not positive. The
State Entomologist, Dr. E. P. Felt, was
unable to give me positive instances when
I inquired of him recently and he prob-
ably would have informed me if he had
learned of any since then."

The following extracts are also of in-
terest, bearing directly upon the subject
at hand :

From Prof. E. H. Forbush. State Or-
nithologist of Mass. Report of 1912:

"Reports of the finding of dead bn-ds
under trees sprayed with insecticides con-
tinue to come in but no great numbers
of birds have been found in any case, and
two years' work investigating the subject
leads to the belief that very few birds
are killed by spraying."

The following from the Pureau of
Biological Survey at Washington, D. C. :

'Tn response to your letter about ar-
senical sprays for birds, I may say that
there is little evidence that birds are kill-
ed as the result of such work. The prob-
lem has been investigated by the State
Ornithologist of Alassachusetts, by this
Bureau, and bv the Bureau of Entomol-

ogy wiili the result that little tangible
connection could l)e established by the
use of sprays and other insecticides and
the death of any wild birds.
\'erv truly yours,
'E. W. Nelsox,
Acting Chief, Biological Survey."

In conclusion, this extract from Prof.
H. A. Surface, D. Sc, State Zoologist of
Pennsylvania, who is an exceedingly care-
ful and painstaking investigator, seems
to bear out the above testimony and
should be convincing :

"Replying to your letter of the 21st,
making inquiry concerning the poisoning
of birds by spraying, I can say that I
have watched this subject with the great-
est care in thousands of sprayed orchards
in this state, and I am prepared to say
with certainty that I have never known
a case of a bird being killed by spraying,
or having been found dead under circum-
stances that would justify the suspicion
that this was the cause of its death. We
have examined the stomachs of dead
birds, and have found no 'evidence of ar-
senic to which tlieir death could be attri-
buted. I live in the midst of one of the
largest orchards in Pennsylvania, which
has been sprayed frequently, and it is full
of birds' nests. I am sure that if spray-

A SPR.WED TERKITORV AND PLENTY OF BIRDS.

164

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

ing were destructive to birds they would
not be nesting in this orchard.

"It is true that there is a firm engaged
in the manufacture of a so-called insecti-
cide, fungicide and fertilizer, which they
claim contains "mineral oxides," but not
poisons, and which they further claim
should be used in order to prevent the
death of the birds by the arsenicals. It
can be seen that their statements of the
poisoning of birds are a part of the me-
thods of selling their goods. One of their
agents has gone so far as to criticise me
very severely, stating that I am respon-
sible for the killing of birds in this State
in great numbers, because I recommend
arsenical spraying. It is true that I have
made such recommendations, and have
shown thousands of persons how to
spray, and as a result of such instructions
we have better fruit in this State than ever
before; but the advocates of the bird-
poisoning theory can not show evidence
of a bird being killed by poison spray,
and they can not reconcile the presence
of birds in great numbers in sprayed or-
chards with their theory of death by
sprays."

When the Birds Go South.

Even as early as the latter part of June,
when the red-wings are flocking, after
their nesting season, we have occasional
reminders of that miracle of bird life to
begin — the fall migration. It seems hard
to comprehend the powerful instinct
which calls these tinv bits of life twice

annuall}- on their long journey — a jour-
ney filled with dangers and fatalities —
and which guides them across the thous-
ands of miles of that trackless and seem-
ingly unknown territory of the air.

Xow and then, as I write, the faint
chirps of passing flocks high up in the
darkness come drifting down to me,
though I cannot identify their voices,
for these night calls of the migrants seem
different from any we hear in our ordi-
nary acquaintance with the birds at home.
I have sometimes listened by the hour
to these chirps and twitterings. A few
are recognizable at times, — the bobolinks,
tanagers and some of the shore-birds
giving calls which we know, but the vast
army moves on, flying high or low, ac-
cording to the weather conditions, —
sometimes hundreds of miles without a
patise, — and we are scarcely aware of
their movements until we realize that
they have gone.

Thus it is with the night migrants,
though the several species which travel
by day offer better chances for observa-
tion. The "honking" of the Canada
geese announces their coming far in ad-
vance and we look up to see their wedge-
shape flocks cleaving the sky. Hawks
and crows ; swifts, swallows and many
of the sea birds may be observed migrat-
ing by day, although many undoubtedly
also pass over in the night.

The large flocks of grackles passing
through the fields and pastures are con-
spicuous examples of this great move-

THE LARGE FLOCKS OF GRACKLES ARE CONSPICUOUS EXAMPLES.

ORNITHOLOGY

i6=

DUCKS MIGRATING.

ment. . Flocks of robins, sparrows and
finches may also be encountered along the
hedges and roadsides as they are gather-
ing for the flight, and many of the warb-
lers on their leisurely journey southward
spend days with us "en route" to rest and
feed. Especially noticeable in the north-
eastern and some of the central states is
this fall flight of blackpoU warblers.
These birds breed northward to Alaska ;
the flocks concentrating as they move
southward, and all pass through Florida,
The Bahamas and West Indies to the
northern part of South America, where
they spend the winter five thousand miles
from their svunmer home.

In August we see immense numbers
of swallows flocking about the ponds and
marshes as they prepare to leave the
locality; then suddenly in a day they are
gone, and we cannot find one by search-
ing. Some ten years ago, in north-east-
ern Maine, I had the opportunity of wit-
nessing for over two hours a continuous
flight of swallows and martins, of which
I identified several species among the
low-flying migrants. Thousands upon
thousands of these birds passed steadily
by to the southward as we watched them
from a veranda, and the flight had not
ceased when we left, although it had
somewhat diminished. This was in the
latter part of August late one afternoon,
and the following day we saw no signs
of anv of these birds.

The night migrants have sometimes been
studied by the aid of powerful search
lights, or by focussing a telescope on the
face of the full moon, and watching the
birds as they move across its illuminated
path. IMuch of interest may also be
learned by spending the night upon some
hill-top in a favorable location, noting
the sounds and times of passing of the
difi:'erent birds.

The definite routes of migration now
known to be followed by most of our
birds may be studied to advantage, al-
though many }-et remain a mystery and
there is ample opportunity for research
along- these lines. Perhaps some day we
will know what becomes of the chimney
swifts as they disappear ofif the coast of
the Gulf of Mexico after slowh- gath-
ering from their breeding haunts and
migrating southward to this point. It is
only known now that they absolutely van-
ish here in the fall, making their appear-
ance again in the early spring from their
unknown winter home.

Six species of our shore birds breed-
ing north of the arctic circle and finding
their way over an eight thousand mile
route to Patagonia ; the golden plover
flying twenty-four hundred miles across
the water, from Nova Scotia to South
America, without food or rest, and the
ering eleven thousand miles each way to
arctic tern — champion of them all — cov-
visit its winter home, are some of the

1 65

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

marvellous examples of bird migration.

Identifying the smaller birds — espec-
ially the warblers— during the fall flight
is no easy matter: the predominence of
immature' birds in their differing plum-
ages, and the change in many of the
adults from their well-known summer
g-arb to a totally dififerent winter one,
making them scarcely recognizable. The
new songs of the young and changed
calls of the old bird's also seem to add to
this difficulty. In northern Florida, in
early November. I have observed this
confusion among the warblers, sometimes
studying them close at hand when there
seemed to be so many diiTerent kinds that
] could scarcely find two birds alike in
the entire flock.

Bird migration is an interesting and
important part of general bird study, nnd
we should be glad to receive notes and
observations upon this subject from any
of our readers.

The Value of Birds to Man.

A few^ items from the comprehensive
and valuable article under the above
title by James Buckland of London.
England, in the annual report of the
Smithsonian Institution for 1913 have
been briefly summed up in the follow-
ing by the Alal:)ama Bird Day Book,
and printed in the August number of
the "National Humane Review."

It is impossible to review the many
valuable features of this article in so
limited a space and it should be read
entire by all interested in bird protec-
tion and insect depredations.

"Remarkable instances of the birds'
services to man include the introduc-
tion of the English sparrow into New
Zealand with the resulting elimination
of the thistle and the caterpillar,
which were ruining the land and
crops, and the saving of Australian
agriculture from the grasshoppers by
the straw-necked ibis, in individual
craws of which an average of 2,400
grasshoppers was found. The story
of Frederick the Great, wherein he is
alleged to have ordered all small birds
killed because the sparrows had pecked
at some of his cherries, and the result-
ing lack of fruit but fine crop of
caterpillars two years later, proves a
graphic lesson. The "Scalp Act" of
Pennsylvania, which paid bounties of
$90,000 for the extermination of
hawks and owls, lost for the State

$3,850,000 in damage to agriculture,
due to the increase of small rodents
which resulted. When Montana was
free from hawks and owls it became
so overrun with destructive rodents
that the Legislature offered rewards
for them — a task which the banished
hawks and owls had performed free
of charge. But during the first six
months such large sums of money
were paid out that a special session
of the Legislature was called to repeal
the act before the State went bank-
rupt. In 191 2 Lord Kitchener pointed
out the necessity of prohibiting the de-
struction of certain Egyptian birds
which prevented insect pests."

Shore Bird Protection.

The placing lA the small sandpipers,
curlew, avocet, godwit and several spe-
cies of plover which have been nearing
extinction on the protected list under
the federal law is a timely procedure
by our national legislators.

Mr. Wells W' . Cooke of the Biological
Survey in advocating the prohibiting of
all shooting at the beach resorts along
the Atlantic coast is also starting a
movement which should do consider-
able toward increasing these graceful
little birds which add so much to the
life along our shores, and every prop-
erty owner at these resorts should glad-
ly give his assistance toward the secur-
insT of such lesfislation.

A fifty-three page article, with seven-
ty-two colored plates and four half-tones,
on "American Game Birds" appears in
the "National Geographic Magazine" for
August ; this being the fifth of a compre-
hensive series of bird articles printed in
that magazine within the past two years.

The present article deals with the
waterfowl, shore-birds, grouse, quail,
etc., — each picture being accompanied by
a short description of the bird's habits
and range. The plates are from paint-
ings by that well-known bird artist, Louis
Agassiz Fuertes,and the text is by Hen-
ry W. Henshaw, Chief of the U. S. Bio-
logical Survey. This list is supplement •
ed by a short resume of the protective
game laws and an index, and, especially
in connection with the previous articles
referred to, which have been combined
and issued in a thin volume, it makes a
handv reference.

ORNITHOLOGY

167

Feeding the Birds.

It is none too earl_\- in the northern and
middle states to start putting" out food
for the winter birds, as the more they
become accustomed to their feethng sta-
tions, the more surely have we won their
confidence and the more plentiful they
will be about our homes during the win-
ter months.

Suet, scraps of meat and l^roken ])ieces

THIS FOOD r.!)X TS XEX'ER EMPTY.

of bone should be tied to the trees or at-
tached by some of the wire feeding cages
made for this purpose, and seeds, crumbs,
and vegetable scraps may be placed in
window boxes, where the birds may be
closely studied at their feeding.

If wild seed-bearing shrubs and fruit-
ing trees have been planted about the
grounds many will now be maturing and
are attractive to several species of our
migrating birds. Some of these in fav-
orable locations may winter over where
there is an abundance of food, when
otherwise thev would leave for the want
of it.

A\"ater should be kept in the bird-bath
until there is danger of freezing, as there
will be many davs when the birds will
deliglit in its use.

The window-box shown in the picture
is never without food ; there are always
scrap-bones hanging in tlie trees nearbv,
— and there is an abundance of birds of
various kinds about this farm at all
seasons of the vear.

Birds in the War Zone.

From the firing line in Flanders,
along with the boom of heavy artillery
and the snapping of musketry, comes
word by a correspondent of the "Lon-
don Times" of the friendliness of many
of the small birds and the interest taken
in them by the entrenched soldiers.

The writer speaks of skylarks run-
ning about over the ground and some-
times in the heavy cannonading soaring
aloft and singing as if their ambition
were to drown the noise of the bom-
bardment. Blackbirds, robins and
others, seemingly indifferent to the in-
termittent firing, make friends with the
men, — even hopping down into the
trenches for food offered them, — in one
instance a bird alighting on a bayonet
held up out of the trench for it.

Many other stories of bird observa-
tions come from letters written home
by the soldiers, showing instances ot
their appreciation of the songs, and
facts relating to birds nesting on the
battle-grounds that seem truly remark-
able under the circumstances of their
environment.

A Rooster that Puts Up at a Hotel.

While sitting in the office of a hotel at
English. Indiana, my attention was at-
tracted to a rooster that was wandering
slowly along the sidewalk, having ap-
parently come in from the suburbs.
\Miat was my surprise when I saw him
walk to the door and peer through the
wire screen. The proprietor advanced,
opened the door for his approaching
guest and, lifting him in his arms and
proudly displaying him to the other
guests in the office, explained that the
rooster is a permanent guest with a
room to himself and a nice big bed.
When young, the bird had his thigh
broken. The bone was set and ban-
daged, and during the healing process
the rooster became very tame and was
iM'ought in every day to the bed. As
his recovery progressed, he began to
make daily journeys, gradually increas-
ing the distance, but never associating
with other fowls. for,while he was so
nearly helpless, the others jumped on
him, pulled out his feathers, and so an-
noyed him that he decided that the
hotel is a good place, and every evening
returns and suggests that he be taken
to his room. — E. F. R.

i6>

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Starry Heavens in October.

BY PROF. ERIC DOOLITTLE, OF THE UNIVER-
SITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

During the past month the whole of
the striking constellation of the Scor-
pion has sunk below the western hori-
zon of the evening heavens ; Sagittarius
has partly disappeared, as has also the
winding Serpent and the great Bootes,
the principal star of the latter constel-

now swung completely below the Pole
which has shone so brightly in the
and is seen resting in an upright posi-
tion almost upon the horizon ; here it
seems to be a far larger figure than
when it is higher in the heavens. The
Solitaiy Star, Fomalhaut, is almost on
the meridian in the south, the Great
Scjuare of Pegasus is high in the heav-
ens, and the planet Jupiter shines out

Fig. 1. The Constellations at 9 P. M., October 1. (If facing south, hold the map upright. If
facing east, hold East below. If facing west, hold West below. If facing north, hold the map inverted.)

lation, — the great, reddish Arcturus, —
northwest for so many months, has
completely withdrawn, not to again
be seen in our evening skies until next
March.

In the North, the great Dipper has

with its steady, golden radiance in the
Southwest.

The October Stars.
But the most interesting of all the
changes in the heavens is the reappear-
ance of the brilliant Taurus, the very
first of the train of Winter groups,

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

169

-which, with its beautiful Pleiades and
Hyades, will now be seen well above
the ground in the northeast. The little
•dipper-shaped group of rather faint
stars which form the Pleiades is the

Fig. 2. Showing the present positions of the plan.
ets Mars and Saturn.

most noted of all star groups in the
heavens. Every nation had its legends
about this beautiful star figure, and
many peoples regulated their calendar
"by its appearance and withdrawal from
the evening sky. The little group can
easily be seen and studied now. but it
is November which is the Pleiad Month
and which marked the beginning of the
new year when this was determined by
these stars.

The observer will probably at once
notice six stars in the Pleiades, but a
small telescope or opera glass will
■greatly increase the number, while on a
delicate photographic plate no less than
two thousand have appeared. All of
these form a compact little group of
suns, which are moving through space
together, and it is most remarkable
that the principal stars of the cluster
are surrounded and connected together
with clouds and streams of faintly shin-
ing nebulous matter.

Below the Pleiades there is the beau-
tiful A^-shaped group of the Hyades.
whose principal star is the great red-
dish Aldebaran. or Follower, so called
because this sun is seen to follow the
Pleiades across the sky as the hours
of the night go by. The light from this
star requires twenty-eight years to
reach us. If we represent the great
distance which separates the earth
from our sun by one inch, then the dis-
tance to Aldebaran, preserving the
same scale, will be no less than twenty-
seven miles.

The Planets in October.

Mercury which reached its greatest

distance east of the sun on September

27, may possibly be detected low in the

■southwest after sunset during the first

few davs of October, but it will soon

be again lost in the sun's rays. On
October 22 it will pass to the west of
the sun and enter the morning sky. On
October 30 the planet will be nearest
the sun and this little world will then
have its season of greatest heat. At this
time more than twice as much light and
heat will be poured down upon it as it
will receive when it reaches its greatest
distance from the sun forty-four days
later.

Venus is in the evening sky, but too
near the sun to be well observed. It
sets about 20 minutes after sunset on
October i, and this time is increased to
nearly an hour by the end of the month.

^lars and Saturn are conspicuous in
the heavens during the late hours of the
night but they are still beyond the
borders of our evening map. The for-
mer is moving eastward so rapidly that
it passes from Gemini entirely across
the constellation Cancer during the
month ; Saturn is near the center of the
former constellation, in the position
shown in Figure 2. Jupiter is in excel-
lent position for observation. The most
interesting phenomena of its satellites
will be seen on the evenings of October
9, 15, 22, and 31.

* ^ H= =1= *
The Planet Uranus.

This great world, no less than 32,000
miles in diameter, is always so very far
away from our earth that it is never
more than barely visible to the naked
eve, and even in a moderatelv large

• »

• . •

' •<: , ..•

• «u •

Fig. 3. The small square of Fig. 1 enlarged to
show the position of the planet Uranus.

telescope it is always an inconspicuous
object. Yet this planet, with its very
strangely moving system of moons and
the remarkable position of its axis is

I70

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

one of the most interesting of all the
worlds of our sun's family. During the
present month it is not only in good
position or observation but it happens
to be so near a moderately bright star
that it can be found with less difficulty
than usual. And on October i6 the

glass, appearing as a greenish star of
the sixth magnitude.

Though this distant world is so large
it is far less dense than our earth and is
indeed almost certainly in a vaporous
condition. Long ages must pass before
it can become a cold and solid world.

EAST

Fig. 4. Passage of Uranus and a star behind the moon on the evening of October 1(

planet will be occulted by the moon.
On all of these accounts therefore, the
possessor of a small telescope should
not fail to search for this most interest-
ig object.

Uranus moves steadily along the
path A V B, Figure i, completing the
entire circuit of the heavens in eighty-
four years. It is now in Capricornus,
far below the celestial equator and
therefore cannot rise very high in our
southern skies, but for the past ten
years it has been slowly climbing up-
ward and in the course of thirty-two
years more it will reach the Summer
Solstice, near B, Fig. i, and will then
be in its highest position in the heavens.

The planet is now exactly 3 minutes
33 seconds west of the star at C, and 21
minutes 45 seconds south of it. In Fig.
3 all of the faint stars near C are shown.
The faintest of these will probably not
be visible in a telescope of but two or
three inches aperture, unless the air at
this low altitude is unusually clear, but
Uranus will be visible in the smallest

It has a system of four beautiful moons
whose paths among the stars are al-
most perpendicular to the path of the
sun as seen from Uranus. It is very
probable that the axis about which the
planet turns thus lies in the plane of the
orbit, a very strange position wholly
unlike that of any of the other planets
of our Solar System. Were the axis
of our earth in a similar position the
sun would be at some times nearly ver-
tically above the north pole of the
earth ; six months later it would be ver-
tically above the south pole, and not
only the north pole, but nearly the
whole northern hemisphere, would be
in complete darkness.

Thus at some time during each year
every part of the earth would be sub-
jected to a tropical heat ; at another
time, six months later, it \vould be
without sunlight, — or a frigid zone.
The wind motions and the character of
the seasons would thus be exceedingly
intricate and unlike those we now
enjoy.

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

171

The Occultation of Uranus.

The moon, which passes completely
around the sky in one month, following-
nearby along the path A \' B, Fig. i,
will pass over both Uranus and that
star at C on the evening of October i6.
As seen from Washington, the planet
will disappear at the eastern (dark)
edge of the moon at 9 hours 40 minutes
P. M., Eastern Standard Time, and will
reappear at 10 hours 43 minutes. The
star will disappear at iihours 34 min-
utes and reappear at 12 hours 34 min-
utes, but at the emergence the moon
will have set throughout the eastern
states.

These exact times, however, apply
■only for observers at Washington, at
another station they will be very differ-
ent. The observer should therefore
find Uranus in his telescope in the
early evening" and having noted the
relative positions of the planet and the
moon, he should estimate as closely as
"he can the time when the occultation
will occur, remembering that the moon
requires one hour of time to move
eastward a distance equal to its own
diameter. As the planet has a disc, he
will see this object gradually fade away
as the dark edge of the moon pauses
•over it ; the disappearance of the star
will, on the contrary, be absolutely
instantaneous. This fact shows us that
•our satellite has no appreciable atmos-
phere upon its surface.

The Hunter's Moon.

The full moon of October 22 is the so-
called Hunters' Moon. On this evening
the moon will rise almost exactly at the
east point of the horizon while on the
following evening it will rise much
farther north and only about a half
an hour later than on the evening
before. For four or five evenings the
moon will thus move so rapidly north-
ward on the heavens that this motion
will partly overcome it usual retarda-
tion in rising. It will rise but about
one half hour later on each successive
evening instead of about one hour later
as is usual. These nights will there-
fore have an unusual amount of moon-
light. The efifect was even more marked
at the time of the Harvest Moon, which
occurred this year on September 23, —
the exact dav of the AiUumnal T^ciuinox.

Retrogradation of Stars.

Pattersonville, New York.
To the Editor :

I noticed in your August number of
The Guide to Nature that you speak of
the planet Jupiter retrograding. What
is the cause of this motion?
Very truly yours,
Charles H. Patterson.

University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia.

The outer planets all move Cjuite
steadily eastward among the stars,
completing the circuit of the heavens
in a greater or less time depending
upon their distances from the sun.
Thus Jupiter moves completely around
the stm in 11.86 years, Saturn in 29.46
years, Uranus in 84.02 years, and Nep-
tune in 164.78 years. These numbers
represent the times that the planets
occupy in themselves actually passing
around the sun. But we must remem-
ber that we do not view them from
the sun itself but from our moving
earth, which world is itself going around
the sun once each year. The resulting
apparent motions can readily be imi-
tated by turning one wheel inside of
another, much larger one and noticing
how^ a point on the inner wheel some-
times passes a point on the outer one
and how sometimes these two points
are moving in the same direction.

When the earth is between Jupiter
and the sun it is moving forward so
much more rapidly than Jupiter that,
as seen from the earth, the larger planet
seems to move backward on the sky.
and this backward motion continues
until the earth is about sixty degrees
ahead of the position of conjunction.
WHien, however, the earth gets on the
opposite side of the sun, both its own
motion and that of Jupiter make the
latter planet appear to move forward :
hence at these times the outer planets
run rapidly eastward.

Figures illustrating this may be
found in almost any astronomy, but
the best way is to study it from a small
model. A so-called planetarium shows
it beautifully, but it may also be clearly
shown l)y merely drawing two concen-
tric circles of different sizes, moving
a point around each of the circles, let-
ting the point on the inner circle move
the faster, and noticing, (or indicating
l)v drawiiiQ- lines between the two

1/2

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

points in their different positions) how
as viewed from the inner point the
outer one is sometimes moving for-
ward and sometimes moving backward.
In the former case the motion of the
outer point is said to be "direct;" in
the latter it is "retrograde." — Eric
Doolittle.

Mr. Warner's Observatory at Tarry-
town.

After 'Mv. Worcester Reed Warner,
of the well-known firm of Warner &

collapse, but is l)raced rigidly, for the
barn and the trees hide the horizon,
but when it is open, as here shown, I
have plenty of room for the pole.

"The foundation is only eight posts
set in concrete, the tops sawed oft' level
after hardening. A concrete pier ex-
tends from hard gravel to twelve inches
l)elow the floor where the broad iron
column of the telescope meets it. I
should have mentioned that the two
quadruple bronze hinges into which the
girders screw were made at my factory

TWO SELF-K.\PLA.\AT()RV \ I l-.W >

Swazey of Cleveland, Ohio, had estab-
lished his residence at Tarrytown-on-
Hudson, New York, one of the first
things that he did was to erect an ob-
servatory. Upon request of the editor,
Mr. Warner has sent two photographs,
and has written as follows :

"I enclose two views of my new ob-
servatory. I think you will find them
largely self-explanatory. The building
was not quite finished when they were
taken.

"Nearly every piece of wood was
sawed to length and shape at the mill
(except flooring) and my chauft'eur did
the erecting.

"The girders are four pieces of one-
half inch galvanized pipe bent to shape
by the erector. The covering was fit-
ted and put on l)y our local carpet
dealer. The northern section does not

IV MK. WARNER'S OBSER\'.\TORY.

in Cleveland. The cost of the building
Was low, and its efficiency seems high,
for the severest storm does not succeed
in getting a drop of water inside.

"My telescope is our standard pat-
tern ; the objective is seven and three-
quarters aperture."

]\Ir. Warner has gone to California,
and on October 2nd, will sail for the
Orient, where he expects to spend the
winter.

"The wistlom of C^iod receives small
honor from those that stare about and
with gross rusticity admire His works :
those highly magnify Him, whose ju-
dicious inquiry into His acts, and delib-
erate research into His creations, return
the duty of a devout and learned (i. e.,
intelligent) admiration." — Religio Medi-
ci. A.^D.. i(

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

What Visitors See at The Lick Observ-
atory.

Aiouiit llamilton, Califurnia.
To the Editor :

On Saturday nights the thirty-six
inch telescope is directed upon the most
interesting available object, and the
twelve inch upon the next most in:er-
esting. With so many visitors it is im-
possible to show more than one object
with each telescope. At this season,
in the dark of the moon, the Hercules
Cluster and a double star, Epsilon
Lyrse, more often than any other
usually shown. Jupiter is now getting
into position and will be shown to-
night (August 28thj with the twelve
inch. It is not high enough yet to be
convenient for the thirty-six inch.

AA'e ask our visitors to be prompt in
taking their places at the telescope,
but when there to look till they are
satisfied. Some merely glance in,
others take two or three minutes or
more. Alany ask a number of ques-
tions which are always answered to the
extent of our knowledge.

No lantern slides are shown, but in
the main hallway or corrider are five
large cases of transparencies, holding
from eight to twenty-eight plates
eight by ten or larger. These are
illuminated by electric lights and the
views — sun, moon, comets, nebulae,
clusters, spectra, Milky Way, etc. — ex-
plained to all who care to hear.

There are also numerous photo-
graphs on the walls.

Besides this the clocks, transit instru-
ment, seismograph, weather instru-
ments, etc., are shown and their use
explained.

Rouglily speaking, about half the
Saturday night visitors are content
with looking through the telescopes
and taking a rapid survey of the build-
ing without guide. The rest see and
hear as much as possible.

Yours verv trulv,

' R. G. AiTKEx.

lishes "The Monthly Evening Sky Map,"
subscription to w'hich is one dollar per
year and which we cordially commend to
our readers. It is a clear, large sized
monthly map, and contains many items
of astronomical interest. Mr. Barritt
has continued this work with a faithful-
ness that elicits our admiration. The
publication cannot be sufficiently remun-
erative to give him full returns for his
time, and he should therefore be consid-
ered as an enthusiastic missionary in be-
half of the science of astronomy.

Contributions to the Sound Beach
Observatory.

A Friend, Stamford $ i.oo

Mrs. S. O. Edwards, Sound

Beach 5.00

Mrs.W. G. Ihrig, Brooklyn, N.Y. i.oo
Mr. Tamizo Watanabe, Green-
wich 2.00

A Friend, Massachusetts 5.00

Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Hilliard,

Stamford i.oo

]\Ir. and Mrs. C. W. Payne, Case-

novia, N.Y i .00

Antietam Farm, Smithtown, N.Y, 5.00
Mr. John xA.. Brown, Stamford. . i.oo

Dr. F. Schavoir, Stamford 10.00

Mr. Robert Stewart, Sound Beach 5.00

A Friend, California i.oo

Mr. Charles Andrews, Sound

Beach i.oo

]\Ir. Samuel P. Avery, Hartford,

Conn 25.00

Total $ 64.00

Previously acknowledged. . . . 694.08

Grand Total $758.08

"As quick as a wink" proves on
the recognition of five different types
of Thunderstorm phenomenon. The
dividuals from 0.035 seconds to 0.049,
with a mean of 0.042. In other words,
a wink commonly takes about one
twentv-fifth of a second.

Mr. Barritt's Good Work.

Every lover of "the grandest of scien-
ces" should have a feeling of gratitude
and of appreciation for the excellent
work that Leon Barritt, 150 Nassau
Street, New York City, is doing in behalf
of all astronomical interests. He pub-

A promising attempt is now under
way to reclaim the waste peat bogs of
Ireland by planting them to pine.
The ordinar}^ Scots pine of the British
Isles will not grow in the peat ; but an-
other species, Pinu pinaster, has been found
to do well. Oddly enough, P. pinaster
cannot be transplanted to the bogs, but
must be grown from seed sown in place.

174

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

AQASSIZ ASSOCIATION

Established 1875 Incorporated, Massachusetts, 1892 Incorporated, Connecticut, 1910

The Value to Young People of Study
and Observation of Nature.

P.Y MRS. MARIA HE;RRICK BRAY, WEST
GLOUCESTER. MASSACtlUSETTS, A NA-
TURE STUDENT EIGHTY-SEVEN YEARS
YOUNG.

Life is eternal, and on each of its
pages we register what we are. As I
look back to the beginning of my earth-
ly life eighty-seven years ago, I am
firmly convinced that one of the duties
that I owe to the young people of this
generation is to urge them to come at
an early age into close and familiar
companionship with nature.

Nature never fails to give a cordial
welcome to every son and daughter
who is inspired with love for birds,
flowers, ferns, trees and the countless
variety of interesting attractions that
nature offers everywhere freely and
profusely.

Splendid opportunities open to _ us
every day. Years ago Browning
wrote :

" we're made so that we love

First when we see them painted,

things we have passed

Perhaps a hundred times nor cared
to see

A deep, reverent love for nature, a
real hunger for knowledge concerning
simple everyday objects in botany, or-
nithology, marine plants, things not
rare nor seclusive, but as Hamilton
Gibson says, "To be found in almost
any of our woods or fields, along the
seabeaches, and which any wide-awake
saunterer may discover with 'half
an eye' if that meml^er be properly
equipped."

Anticipation is an equipment, the
surest "open sesame" to discovery, and
anticipation may be quickened either
bv pictorial hint or previous experience.
The brain must be on the alert. A boy

who has woodchucks in his mind as
he crosses the farm is sure to see his
woodchuck.

Having lived for more than eight
decades I feel it a privilege and a pleas-
ure to counsel young people, if they
desire to enter into one of the broadest
zones of real enjoyment and happiness,
where the daily frets and worries of
life cannot enter, to begin the observa-
tion and study of nature early in life.

I give this counsel from personal ex-
perience. I have no recollection of the
time when the woods, the fields and
the shore of the multitudinous sea.
did not have strong attractions for me,
nor when I failed to find "Mother Na-
ture" a teller of true and entrancing
stories. If you begin early in life to
think, study and observe, the wise
mother will reveal wonderful stories of
planting, growth of leaf, bud, blossom
and fruit.

Turn another leaf in "nature's vast
storybook," and you become interested
in the study of the flowerless plants,
lichens, mosses and ferns. After these
interesting plants attract your atten-
tion, you cannot walk aimlessly through
the woods and fields, for as Mr. Under-
wood declares. "In the entire vegeta-
ble world, there are probably no forms
of growth that attract more general
notice than the ferns."

I recall hours filled with perfect joy
in "fern hunts." In a short time the
ferns become companionable through
observation and study of their names,
habits and habitats.

In early life I began to collect sea
plants, wild flowers and ferns. The
work was full of fascination, and devel-
oped within me an insatiable desire for
the study and observation of nature.
And in these later years memories of
the long ago are beautiful ; like rare
paintings thev glow with the colors of

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

175

flowers, intermingled with shadows of
green ferns and dotted by lichens, grey,
brown and in motley, and the himible
moss. Such pictures are securely en-
shrined wnthin my soul. They have
been to me blessed consolers in seasons
of sadness and sorrow, and now', in the
days of my declining years, they bring
to me the spirit of peace, joy and cheer-
fulness.

Then comes the study of the birds,
the observation of their habits. Read
'A\'ake-Robin" by John Burroughs.
That cannot fail to inspire you with a
desire to begin to study and observe
the birds that come about your door-
vards even in winter, waiting" to be
fed, and the great army of land birds
and sea birds that come with the return
of summer.

Olive Thorne Miller truly says, "Ears
have they, but they hear not, may be
said of many people Once learn to
hear the sounds from nature's vast do-
main, and observe even a small part of
what is wonderful and beautiful in the
helds, along the byways, and objects
in the open air, countless birds on the
wing, you cannot fail to find, not a de-
crease in your interest in nature's fauna
and her flora and the wonders of her
world, but an increase of satisfaction
and joy that can come from no other
source My last message to my young
friends that do not wish to grow old
in heart is : Keep in touch with ]\Iofher
Nature and her old storybook and you
will always find that she has a new leaf
for you to ttu-n. Finis has not yet been
written on her page. Every day it is
my experience that

"Spring still makes spring within the
mind

When over eighty years are told ;
Love wakes anew the throbbing heart

And I am never old."

Nature's portals open wide, ,

Her ,a:ifts are free to all;
Come, let us gather precious store.

Before the frosts of Fall.

— Emma Peirce.

I have lived to be fifty years old and
I have troubled myself overmuch with
books, yet with a tiniverse of knowl-
edge untouched before me I feel like a
child lisping its first lessons. What
hope, then, but that the lamp which
here dies shall be rekindled in a higher
sphere? — "The Phoenix."

Web-like Growth Around a Tree.

Singer's Glen, Virginia.
To the Editor :

This strange tree stands near Lester,
West X'irginia. The oak seems to have
grown u|) throitgh the maple and

A WKl; (IF MAl'I.K AROLXD AX OAK.

caused it to take this peculiar shape. I
can accoitnt for it in no other way.
Yours trtily,

Harry Staley.

The White-throated Sparrow.

By Elizabeth \'an Hoevenberg, East Stone-
ham, Maine.

The white-throat's ringing, bell-like note
Is filling all the air with nielod}- so sweet

and clear,
We seem to feel its mys'try float
About us far and near.

He calls on "Old Sam! Peabody, Peabody,
Peabody!"
Insistant, pleading, earnesth', to
"Sow \\heat! cleverly, cleverh-, cleverly!"

His little head is lifted high,, his white-
throat thrills and throbs.

The notes seem welling to the sky,

As, tumbling from his trembling beak, they
burst in swelling sobs —

Of "Sow wheat! cleverly, cleverly, clever-

Insistant, pleading, earnestly, for
"Old Sam! Peabod}', Peabod3\ Peabody!"

1/6

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Interesting Dog and Kittens.

Willimantic, Connecticut.
To the Editor :—

Herewith I send a picture, taken by
my self, of myself, of my white collie
dog, and my two white kittens eating
their breakfast together. When the
kittens were smaller, Duke, my dog.

Credit to Professor Matheson.

Through an oversight, credit to Pro-
fessor Robert Matheson, Ithaca, New
York, was omitted from the article,
"Insects that Swim under Water," in
our September number. Professor
Matheson was author with Professor
Crosby in the original publication.

KATING THEIR r.RE

used to carry them around like the
mother cat. Duke likes to play with
the kittens and is always careful not
to hurt them. The kittens were four
weeks old when we got them. They
slept in a basket and while they were
sleeping Duke would lie down beside
the basket. If he thought they were
sleeping too long, he would put his
nose in the basket and take the kittens
out very gently with his mouth and
then they would play together. I have
lots of fun playing with my dog and

kittens.

Helen Zipfel.

AKFAST TOGETHER.

Bluebells at Grand Manan.

All over the cliffs tiny l)luebells

Were nodding with exquisite grace,

The solid rock softening and brightening,
As smiles will illume a stern face.

— Emma Peirce.

Couleur de Rose.

Bright maple leaves a carpet made,

A roof above our heads;
Their wondrous tints were all about,,

Beyond the garden beds.

As though sunrise and sunset clouds

Encompassed us around,
And were jiot melting in the air.

But falling on the ground.

— Emma Peirce.

God speed the good work of making
God's creatures love the works of God
and through these grow to know the
Truth in spiritual fields. —

POULTNEY BiGEEOW.

(Personal letter.)

Mr. Charles T. Wills, of Greenwich,
Connecticut, a Member of The Agassiz
Association, died in the Greenwich
Hospital on Tuesday morning, August
31st. The deceased, one of the oldest
and most prominent residents in Green-
wich, held many prominent positions
in civic and business matters. He was
a member of several other scientific
organizations, including The Metro-
politan Museum of Natural History.
The American Geological Society, The
New York Botanical Society and The
New York Academy of Science. The
Agassiz Association extends to mem-
bers of the family sincere sympathy in
their great loss. and_to the community
for the loss of an ef^cient business man
who devoted a large part of his time
and means to scientific interests.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

//

The Agassiz Association and Its
Home Are for You.

To create and increase a knowledge
and love of nature. You are not too rich,
nor too poor ; not too wise nor too ig-
norant ; not too young nor too old, to
share in their benefits.

VISITING DAYS.

To Members (and accompanying
Friends) : All Days. Special personal
attention, if an appointment is made by
telephone or otherwise.

To Xon-Members (not accompanying
Members). Wednesdays and Saturdays,
3 :oo to 5 :oo P. M.. and at other times
by Special Invitation and Appointment.
ArcAdiA is not a Museum, not a Botan-
ical Garden, not a Zoo. Yet at different
times it has a few- special interests (under
special study) along some or all of these
lines. Our purpose is not so much to ex-
hibit nor to entertain, as to create a de-
sire to do what Agassiz so insisted upon —
that is. to "study xature.''

BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

Corporators: Edward F. Bigelow, Ph. D.,
Sound Beach. Conn., President and Treas-
urer; Hon. Homer S. Cummings, Stam-
ford, Conii., Secretary; Walter D. Daskam,
Stamford, Conn. Other Trustees: Harlan
H. Ballard. Pittsfield. Mass.. Honorary
Vice-President; Hiram E. Deats, Fleming-

ton. New Jersey, Business Adviser and
Auditor: Dr. David Starr Jordan, Chancel-
lor Leland Stanford Junior University,
Stanford University, California, Dean of
Council: Dr. Leland O. Howard, Washing-
ton, D. C, Naturalist Adviser; Reverend
Charles Morris Addison, Stamford, Conn,;
George Sherrill, M. D., Stamford, Conn.

Chapter Organization Expense

Entrance Fee *^i -^;

Handbook, "Three Kingdoms"... .75
Engraved Charter, in tube 1.00 $3.00

ANNUAL DUES — PAYABLE IN ADVANCE.

The Annual Dues for Chapter. .$2.00

Annual Dues Members of

Chapter Members @ 5c

each — $

Total Necessary Expense to Chap-
ter upon Joining the Associa-
tion <c —

,-^^

Ivi^

AGASSIZ AS A TEACHER

HE spoke with intense earnestness and all his words
were filled with that deep religious feeling so char-
acteristic of his mind. For to Agassiz each natural
object was a thought of God, and trifling with God's truth
as expressed in Nature was the basest of sacrilege.

And the Summer went on, with its succession of joj-ous
mornings, beautiful days, and calm nights, with every
charm of sea and sky: the master with us all day long,
ever ready to speak words of help and encouragement, evei
ready to give us from his own stock of learning. The
boundless enthusiasm which surrounded him like an at-
mosphere, and which sometimes gave the appearance of
great achievement to the commonest things was never
lacking. He was always an optimist, and his strength lay
largely in his realization of the value of the present mo-
ment He was a living illustration of the aphorism of
Thoreau. that "there is no hope for you unless the bit of
sod under your feet is the sweetest in this world — in any
world." The thing he had in hand was the thing worth
doing, and the men about him were the men worth ^elping
— Dai'id Slar-r Jorddn in ^'Agassiz at Fenikesf."

Corresponding Member's Expense

Entrance Fee $0.25

Handbook, "Three Kingdoms" 75

Certificate of Membership 50

$1.50

Annual Dues i.^o

$3.00

Student Members are required to make a
report at least once a year. This report
should contain not only a statement of
work done, but of "the promotion," "the
advancement," etc. See quotation from
Charter. We are to help others as well as
ourselves. Extend the influence of the AA.

The Auuiial Dues include payment for sub-
seriptiou to The Guide to IVature.

COOPERATING MEMBERSHIPS

Sustaining Member (annually) $5

Sustaining and Honorary (annually) . . $25

Life Member (paid at one time) $100

Patron (paid at one time) $1,000

Founder $5,000

Benefactor $25,000

178

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Propogation of Wild Birds. By Herbert K.
Job. Garden City, New York: Double-
day, Page & Company.
"Louis Agassiz Fuertes,, the artist of bird

rare or unusual one. Bless his artistic soul!
A thousand times, yes! It is one of the
most entrancing emotions; and the person
is fortunate indeed who knows it from fre-

'O

a,

.£■ c

U 1)

•S S

life, once asked the writer whether he ever
felt a sort of rapturous thrill when in close
proximity to a wild bird, especially with a

quent experience."

Thus speaks the author of this Dook, the
first and only popular manual to give prac-

BOOKS AND MAGAZINES

179

tical directions for the attracting and the
conserving wild bird life.

The scope of the work is set forth in a
prefatory note by T. Gilbert Pearson, Sec-
retary of the National Association of Au-
dubon Societies, as follows:

"There has grown up in the United
States, within the past ten years, a wide-

"As a natural consequence of these mani-
festations of interest on the part of the
public, there has appeared an increased de-
sire to have birds come about the home in
greater numbers. People are wanting more
robins on the lawn, more wrens in the
garden, and more bluebirds, thrashers,, and
woodpeckers in the neighborhood.

spread interest in birds, the extent of which
has never been equalled in this or any other
country. Along with the desire to acquire
more knowledge regarding the habits and
activities of these feathered denizens of the
great Outside has arisen a sense of personal
obligation to aid all movements that tend
toward safeguarding their lives and pro-
longing their usefulness.

'T recall that less than ten years ago I
spent much time in an effort to induce a
certain man to begin the manufacture and
sale of nesting-boxes for birds and similar
apparatus, with the view of supplying a
demand which I felt was certain to come.
It was with very great difficulty that he
was induced to go into this business. To-
day there are more than twenty well-known

i8o

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

manufacturers of bird-boxes and other bird-
attracting apparatus in the eastern part of
the United States alone.

"It has not been a great many years since
an estate on which pheasants and wild ducks
were reared was a curiosity and occasioned
much local comment. To-day hundreds of
persons are engaging in this pleasant and

rnct^'j;>afh by Com. oi\no,: H. Graham of Mass.

U. S. Senator George P. McLean feeding young ruffed grouse reared
on his estate at Simsbury, Connecticut

profitable occupation. Naturally much well-
meant effort in this direction has been ill-
directed; and it has become evident that
there is great need of some one highly
skilled in the matter of artificial propoga-
tion of birds to give counsel to those desir-
ing to undertake an enterprise of this char-
acter.

"It was to meet this demand and provide
expert advice for those desiring to begin
the raising of game-birds, or to make bird-
sanctuaries of their groves and fields, that
I arranged for the National Association of
Audubon Societies to establish, in 1914, its
'Department of Applied Ornithology.' "

In his introduction Mr. Job points out
that the work of the Audubon Societies
looking toward the propagation of wild
birds is really a movement in direct line
with the great national desire for the con-
servation of the natural resources and
beauties of the country. Up to about 1875
birds of all sorts were slaughtered for food,
for their plumage or for the mere sport of
killing. But at that time the economic
value of bird life began to dawn upon a few
thoughtful minds, and the effort ever since
has been to prevent the useless killing of
birds.

In another place he describes the joy to
be found in helping the birds in their un-
equal struggle for life:

"Recently I sat for more than hour on

the shore of a small pond close to several
species of wild ducks in all the glory of
their nuptial plumage. The previous_ sea-
son out in the wilds of northern Manitoba
I had hatched these ducklings in an incu-
bator, raised them by hand, and had
brought them under my personal care more
than two thousand miles to the spot where
I sat. The wonderful can-
vasbacks were diving and
eating the succulent roots
which they brought to the
surface. The light glanced
resplendent from their
delicately pencilled backs
and gleamed in the fiery
eyes of the inales. Was.
it tedious to sit there so
long in the cold April
wind? Nay, rather in my
delight I was oblivious tO'
the passing of time.

"Much the same feeling
may be kindled when a
pair of bluebirds, wrens,
or chickadees accept our
hospitality and raise a
brood or two in one of
our nesting-boxes; or
when the chirping spar-
rows and phoebes use the
building material we have
put out for them, and nest
in the woodbine or under
the porch by our very
door."

The author asserts that
the propagation of wild
birds for food or for other
practical purposes is go-
ing on to a greater extent
than ever before. He
showed the legitimate bas-
is of such propagation, and how the work of
the Audubon Society has created a new field
for scientific research.

The book is divided into three general
divisions. In the' first part, "Methods with
Gallinaceous Birds, and Others," it treats
of the wild turkey, the pheasant, the pigeon.
In the second part, "The Propagation of
Wild Waterfowl," it deals with wild ducks,
wild geese, swans, wading birds, and sim-
ilar types. In the third part, "Methods with
the Smaller Land Birds," the person just
beginning the study will perhaps find the
most interesting material. Here the author
discusses such important fundamental mat-
ters as nesting-boxes, nesting material,
water supply, attractive vegetation, sup-
pression of enemies, etc.

The book is profousely illustrated with
excellent photographs that have not only
artistic merit, but well illustrate the practi-
cal parts of the subject.

From the Agricultural Experiment
Station at Madras, India, comes the
report of successful experiments on
feeding cattle with dried fish. The diet
is by no means ideal, but serves to
keep the creatures alive when the
grass fails.

w

Fie upon thee, November ! thou dost ape
The airs of thy young sisters ; — thou hast stolen
The witching smile of May to grace thy lip,
And April's rare capricious loveliness
Thou'rt trying to put on !

Julia C, R. Dorr

VoLVIll November. 1915

PUBLISHED BY

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

ArcAdiA: sound beach, CONNECTICUT

EDWARD F. BIGELOW. Managing Editor
Subscription, $1.00 a Year, Single Copy, 10 Cents

No. 6

^^SE^^E^^^^^

ifSiSQ

^^JSt^Q^Al^.^^JliS^

GREENWICH

THE EDITION DE LUXE
OF CONNECTICUT TOWNS

GREENWICH

As Trustee

Under this term are several forms of serv-
ice covered by The Greenwich Trust
Company, such as: Administration of es-
tates left without wills, receiver or assignee
of enterprises in financial difficulties; agent
for persons who want to be relieved of the
management of their own business and
property affairs.

A corporation is better than an individual,
because: It never dies; it is never absent
or too busy for immediate action; and do-
ing its work by the collective judgment
and efforts of several experienced persons,
it is superior to individual human frailties
of judgment and conduct which so often
result disastrously in the case of one man
trusteeship.
Our Officers will gladly confer with you re-
garding the services above outlined.

The Greenwich Trust Co.

96 Greenwich Avenue
GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT

GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT

has good transportation facilities to
New York. You can buy or rent to
good advantage and enjoy living by
the water or among the hills to the
utmost satisfaction.

I have for Sale

Elegant Country Estates, Shore and Inland
Residences, Farms, Acreage, Cottages and
Building Sites. Also a number of selected
Furnished Residences and Cottages to Rent
in all locations.

Would be pleased to have you call or write.

Laurence Timmons

456 Opp. Depot Greenwich, Conn

BEST NURSERY STOCK EVER GROWN

Evergreens Fruit and Ornamental Trees
Flowering Shrubs Hedge Plants Vines
Roses Hardy Perennials ^ ^ ^

Preparing of Plans Laying Out of Grounds Grading
-:- -:- Road Building Tree Work -:- -:-

GREENWICH NURSERIES

DEHN & BERTOLF, Props.

LANDSCAPE GARDENERS AND NURSERYMEN

GREENWICH, CONN.

THE GUIDE rO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

VII

THE STAMFORD NOTE
BOOK

Inspiring for Late Autumn and Winter

One of the most stimulating and
satisfying stores is that of The Lock-
wood' & Palmer Company in Stamford,
Connecticut. Any lover of suburbs or
of country that enters this store will
love the home and its surroundings and
nature better than ever, and will see
that here are satisfying equipments of
every kind.

If you are interested in building, har-
vesting, care of chickens, the cultivating
of vegetables on the farm, in repairing
and painting the buildings for the win-
ter, if, in fact, you are interested in any-
thing connected with a home near to
nature, then here you will find the best
of everything with reasonable prices
and courteous treatment.

A store so well equipped and man-
aged is not only a commendable busi-
ness enterprise for the owners, but is to
the visitor educational and suggestive.
It tends to make living in the country
enjoyable and efficient.

Stamford's Biggest Candy Kitchen.

It is fifteen years since the Olympia
Candy Company started in business on
Atlantic Street, Stamford, Connecticut.
Their growth, the result of painstaking
endeavor to please the public, has been
steady.

The crowning point of their success
has recently been celebrated by several
changes and improvements. They have
installed the largest and best refrigerat-
ing plant in this vicinity, at a cost of
more than two thousand dollars, and
with a capacity of six tons. The work-
ing rooms have been extended. A new
ceiling and a new tile floor have been
put in. The entire establishment is
beautiful, convenient, spacious, attrac-
tive. A large variety of candy always
fresh and ice cream always delicious
is kept at all times. Everything about
this popular store is inviting.

A three-year-old girl became inter-
ested in a peculiar noise and asked what
it was. "A cricket, dear," replied the
mother. "Well," remarked the little
lady. " he ought to get himself oiled." —
Christian Resfister.

Cheering. — Mistress — "I shall be
very lonely, Bridget, if you leave me."

Bridget — Don't worry, mum. I'll not
go until ye have a houseful of com-
pany."— Boston Transcript.

Come out into the sunshine
Why stay cooped up in-doors?

This sparkling morning tonic
Is always freely yours.

— Emma Peirce.

A well-to-do Scottish lady one day
said to her gardener :

"Man Tammas, I wonder you don't
get married. You've a nice house, and
all you want to complete it is a wife.
You know the first gardener that ever
lived had a wife."

"Quite right, missis, quite right,"
said Tammas, "but he didna keep his
job lang after he got the wife."

The codfish lays a million eggs.

While the helpful hen lays one;
But the codfish does not cackle.

To inform us what she's done ;
And so we scorn the codfish coy,

But the helpful hen we prize;
Which indicates to thoughtful minds

It pays to advertise.

w. A. McClelland

OPTOMFTRIST OPTICIAN

J\keds-

whether business or social,
can be supplied here to the
best advantage. Variety,
quality, price, all in your
favor. We would espec-
ially like to show you

345 Atlantic Street

STAIVll-uRU, CONN.

VIII THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

THE C. O. MILLER CO.

Established 47 Years

Atlantic Square Stamford, Conn.

A Store for Particular People where you will find full stock
of reliable merchandise at reasonable prices

THE NEW FALL STOCKS

have been selected with careful discrimination and will be
found most attractive

SPECIAL ATTENTION IS DIRECTED TO

Dress Goods, Laces, Embroideries and Trimmings, Blankets, Comfortables,

etc. Rugs, Draperies, etc. A very large line of Linoleum is now on sale

— priced 50c square yard and up

THE C. O. MILLER CO.

ESTABLISHED 1S5:

THEQETMAN&JUDD CO.

Homes Near to Nature

Skould be so constructed as to give lasting satisfaction.
Our metkod of manufacturing dependable Imterior amd
Lumber And Tiiriber of AII Kinds Exterior kouse trim from thorougkly kiln dried materia)

by skilled meckanics insures sucii satisfaction.

SPECIALTY: High-Qrade HARDWOOD FLOORING THE ST. JOHN WOODWORKING CO.

tkoroughly KilnDiied aad stored in Steam keated kuild CANAL DOCKS. STAMFORD CONN,
lag until delivered to our customers. Our steadily in- -7- , o

creasing trade in tkis specialty proves the fact tkai Telephone 781

tke country home is not complete until fitted out witk

old ones.

tkii beautiful and sanitary furnishing. Old residences DIRECTORS

may be greatly imp'oved fcy laying tkin floors over tke WALTON FERGUSON, Pres. W. W. HEROY,

W. D. DASKAM, Vice Pres. F. H. HOYT.

CKS, STAMFORD, CONN. w. H. JUDD. Sec. and Treas. F. W. BOGARD

Telephone 2180. j. G. WIGG, General Manager.

The LOCKWOOD & PALMER Co.

Wholesale and Retail
Dealers in

HARDWARE

AGRICULTURAL

IMPLEMENTS

House Furnishings, Etc.

TOOLS
A.11 Kinds

92 PARK PLACE

(Cor. Summer Street)

STAMFORD - CONN

TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS

:ii:

n

Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA; Sound Beach, Connecticut,

Subscription, $1.00 a year Single copy, 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12. 1909. at Sound Beach Post Office, under .Act of M arch 3. 1897.

Vol

VIII

NOVEMBER

Number 6

A Lake of Possibilities and Difficulties.

By EDWARD F. BIGELOW, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Connecticut.

MR. Ernest Thompson Seton for the
past three years at his new home
that he calls "The Fincherie" has
been engaged for about three months each
year in developing- or transforming" a pes-
tilential marsh into a picturesque lake.
This famous naturalist quite evidently
likes to do that kind of a thing, because
on his former estate — "Wyndygoul" — he
had an extremely interesting lake that
was almost wholly his development, na-
ture provided onl.\ the water and a very
nice possibilit}- so that the attempt met
with a great many difficulties in order
to get the water back enough to flow over
a large stretch of territory and in giving
the whole thing a really natural appear-
ance. One would never think of calling
it a pond, because it really was a lake
to all intents and purposes.

Here at his recently acquired property
there are greater possibilities and greater
difficulties in producing the desired effect
but on the whole, the plan seems to give
promise of far greater results than did
his former lake. The road by the side of
the lake has every picturesque advantage
and the view from the south looking up
the lake is beautiful in the extreme. ^Ir.
Seton says, "I am a little shy about giving
information concerning the lake plan

just now because so much of it is prob-
lematic. I never know what the difificul-

MR. SKTOX

ADMIRES THK STUMP
M.VCHIXE.

PULLIXG

Copyright 1915 by The Agassiz Association. Arc.-Vdi.A: Sound Beach, Conn.

l82

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

"THE ROAD BY THE SIDE OF THE LAKE HAS EVERY PICTURESQUE ADVANTAGE."

ties are till I come to them, so I cannot separate treatment." However great are
say in advance how I am going to solve the difificulties, he will overcome them,
them. Bog, rock and level flat all require I remarked to a friend who visited the

THE MEN GO OUT IN BOATS TO ATTACH A WIKK CABLE TO THE STUMPS.

A LAKE OF POSSIBILITIES AND DIFFICULTIES

183

IN THE LATE AFTERNOON.

locality with me, "How is it that such a the right hands ?" His reply was : "When
marvelous locality could have been here the gods wish to have a work done, they
all these years and now fall into exactly not only provide the work but they keep

ONE OF THE MANY SCENES AMONG FALLEN TREES.

1 84

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

"THE VIEW FROM THE SOUTH LOOKING UP THE LAKE IS BEAUTIFUL IN THE EXTREME.

it until an opportune time and then they
provide the man."

That seems to be the solution to the
whole situation. Mr. Seton has had ex-
perience ; he loves the work ; he knows
nature ; he has an artistic eye and the re-
quisite knowledge and financial facilities
to carry the thing through successfully.
He does not work at it with feverish
impatience nor with the air of a con-
tractor who must rush the job. He em-
ploys a few men and makes use of a
powerful little machine that has a capacity
to draw between forty and fifty tons

through the labor of two men who work
a long lever. Huge trees are moved
bodily by this Oregon stumper and drag-
ged bodily from the lake bed to the road-
side. The stum])s are dragged with a
large mass of earth as much as a thou-
sand cubic feet at one pull to form ready
planted lake borders or enchanting
islands, so that a canoe trip of this mile
long lake will be a trip of exploration
with vistas and surprises at every turn.
It is quite evident that here is thorough-
ly original work and there is not much
precedent to go b\-, but the impression

MR. SETON IS MUCH INTERESTED IN SKUNK FARMING.

LAYING EGGS ON TIME

i8:

given to a visitor is that the problems are
quickly being" solved and that here will
be one of the most novel and picturesque
lakes covering about a dozen acres and
with a permanent depth of some eight
feet of water. The lake will be stocked
with fish, but the prime idea is not the
fisherman but the naturalist ; not a land-
scape decoration, but artistic satisfaction.

Mr. Seton is well known the world
over as being interested in skunk farming,
and, after returning from the lake with
him, he kindly consented to pose at the
feeding time of his favorite pets. He
also has two lynxes or bobtailed cats from
the Rocky ^Mountains, and he derives
much pleasure in studying their charac-
teristics. There, under close observation,
are several of our wildest and shyest
animals, including minks, martens, sables,
coons and others.

There is every indication that this
will become, under the transforming
hand of this famous naturalist, one of the
most beautiful and natural developments
and a real bird and animal sanctuarv.

Fall Dandelions.

Like golden stars throughout the browning

grass,
These tardy blooms appear to those who

pass;
A message of good cheer they have for

most,
Late lingerers of Summer's blossom host.
— Emma Peirce.

Laying Eggs on Time.

Go with your clock to the clock maker's
to have it repaired. Probably a dozen
people will say, "I see that you are going
to be on time as you are carrying it with
you. " Nowadays time is in the atmos-
phere. How soon can you do it? How
soon can I get there? Oh, Central, be
quick ; I am in a hurry ! Is this the fast-
est train? We discuss the number of
hours that shall form a working day, and
some predict that that day will soon be
shorter than it now is. Time is in the air.
It seems conclusive from circumstantial
evidence that even the hens are consider-
ing the matter. One can easily fancy that
over in Cos Cob during one of these dis-
cussions one of the egg layers arose to
a point of order and said, "What is the
use of this discussion? Human beings
have clocks but we haven't." Then arose
a Yankee biddie. "Necessity is the

mother of invention !" she laconically re-
marked. "If there is a need there is almost
always some method of supplying that
need. It is therefore evident to me that
all this discussion should have some effect
on our egg laying." Therefore sitting-
down to the situation, the hen produced
an egg with a clock face on it.

Some reader may be so bold as to be-
lieve that this is only a dream. But is

THE 'TIOUR" MARKS OX THE EGG.

The white ridges were marked with pencil in order

that they might show clearly in the photograph.

Mrs. Gotthold explains that the hen escaped from the

yard into the flower bed and fed from

a bed of thvmel I

this the photograph of a dream ? A hen's
egg with a clock dial on it. and put there
by the hen? The egg was kindly con-
tributed to ArcAdiA by Airs. Frederick
Gotthold. one of the Members of The
Asjassiz Association.

The new building for the Field Ahi-
seum of Natural History in Chicago is
a1 last under way. and is to be complet-
ed in three years. Seven hundred feet
by three hundred and fifty are its di-
mensions : wdiile its floor space will
amount to more than fifteen acres, of
which nearly ten acres will be given
over to exhibitions. Some three thou-
sand men will be employed on the struc-
ture, which when completed will be. the
largest marble building in the world,
and one of the largest museums.

i86

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

A Remarkable Piece of Veneer.

The illustration shows a remarkable
specimen of rotary cut, yellow poplar

labor and delicate machinery were re-
quired to cut such a piece of wood with-
out splitting it. In addition to this,

:^>^^NJ^::^>'>^^

veneer, one-eighth of an inch thick, ten think of the skill required to fit it to

feet wide, and thirty feet long. It is the ceiling and put it in position as one

to be used as a ceiling panel for an entire ornamental design,
electric street railway car. Much skill. We are indebted to "American For-

SQUIRREL BURVIXG A XUT

187

estry for the use of this remarkable
illustration, taken from an interesting
article entitled "Commercial Uses of
Tulip or Yellow Poplar." "American
Forestry." beginning with the August
numbei, has made a remarkable ad-
vance. The magazine is enlarged and
in every respect improved; the quality
of the paper is good; the printing is
first-class, and the reader must wonder
where the editors find so great an
amount of interesting material pertain-
ins: to our forests.

Squirrel Burying a Nut.

BY EWING SUMMERS, WASHINGTON, D. C.

For the first time in my life I saw a
few days ago the beautiful and interest-
ing operation of a squirrel burying a
morsel of food. As I was passing a park
I noticed the dear little creature work-
ing with all his rapid might, with his
nose close to the ground not more than
two feet from the sidewalk, and was
surprised that he did not notice me, he
was so enthusiastic in his task. Having
been drilled for many years by nature
study writers into the importance of
close observation, I immediately thought
that now there is a golden opportunity
for putting the principle into practice.
The provident little animal was digging
a hole in which to bury a peanut which
he was holding in his mouth with ends
up and down, not horizontally. There
was a wise object in this, as we shall
presently see. On his finishing the ex-
cavation I noticed that it was about two
inches wide at the top and two inches
deep. He stuck the peanut down end-
wise into the bottom of the hole as
tightly as he could and commenced to
cover it, not as we men would, by paw-
ing in the loose earth thrown up, but by
tearing in the unbroken earth next the
peanut. At first I did not discern the
reason of this, but I soon saw it. He
saved the soil first thrown up for the
final covering, so that it would not be
of a color diflferent from the surround-
ing surface. With his characteristic
quick movement, as rapidly as a small
dead leaf tree fluttering in a violent wind,
he finished ofif the surface by skillfully
patting it down so swiftly I could not see
what he was doing, and jerked a dead
leaf over the center and scampered
away, and not till then did I discover
what he had done. I peered at the com-
pleted task closely and could not see

even the least marking to show that the
surface had been disturbed !

Now the object of his plunging the
peanut down endwise at the bottom of
the hole w^as evidently to facilitate tak-
ing it up when he came to dig up the
store, by grasping the upper end with
his mouth as soon as he reached it, with-
out having to dig more for it had it been
laid horizontally. How he can ever find
the place again, I cannot imagine. Can
any of my readers suggest? The odor
of the soil is much stronger than that of
the nut. We men would have to de-
scribe the exact point in surveyor's
terms, as for instance, so many feet and
inches from a certain designated tree,
north 202 o mm 'i^y east.

Well, after the squirrel had run off
about twenty feet from me he noticed
that I did not go along about my busi-
ness as a decently behaved man ought
to, and his suspicions were aroused. So
he reared up into a statuesque position
to watch me. I took the warning and
passed on, and then he passed on his
way.

Studies of the White Pine.

The seasonal growth of the white
pine is the subject of a careful study
by an English botanist. He finds that
increase begins in March with the ex-
pansion of the soft tissues without cell
division. Late in April, the tissues
begin to divide — at first rapidly, then
more slowly. Growth begins in the
trunk, near the top, and spreads both
upward and downward, reaching the
tips of the branches some time before
the base of the tree. The butt, how-
ever, continues to grow after the crown
has stopped. The total growth period
is about five and a half months.

Rate of growth depends largely on
the temperature, and varies from day
to day and even from hour to hour. It
is most rapid in May and early June.
It then becomes less rapid, only to take
a new spurt in July and August. In-
crease is, however, not the same at all
levels in the tree, though in the end the
differences are evened up.

New wood begins to form early in
August, starting at the top. The new
shoots, however, stop elongating about
the beginning of July. But the needles
continue to grow until more than a
month later.

1 88

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

SOME SOUASH INTERESTS

189

The Value of Bees in Fertilizing Squash
Blossoms.

UV SUSAN E. HOWARD, STOXliHAM, MASSA-
CHUSETTS.

Replying to your inquiry as to the value
of bees to my squash and small fruits, 1
would say they are of the utmost impor-
tance, and they have been a great factor
in mv success in growing squashes The
development of a small orchard and fruit
growing are secondary to my bee inter-
ests; and while the trees ana bushes are
growing, I utilize the land by planting-
catch crops and fertilizing or cover sow-
ings. The eight tons of squash shown in
the picture were grown on iive-sixths ol
an acre, which also carried 115 two-year
fruit-trees and 600 one-year currant
bushes.

The squash followed a crop of 54 bush-
els of green peas, which were harvested
before the squash were ready to spread.

As recorded in Apiarian Bulletin Xo. 8,
Massachusetts Department Agriculture,
it was no uncommon occurrence to note
four to six bees in a squash-blossom at
one time, happy and contented. I have
also counted 28 bees within an hour in one
squash-blossom. The scpaash crop was
the banner one for this section, for the
land occupied, and was in marked con-
trast with results at a distance from my
apiary.

To people who realized in a measure
the good work performed by the Ijee it
was a revelation, and substantiated my
oft-repeated statement, "bees as ilower
fertilizers first, and honey production an
after-consideration." — "Gleanings in Bee
Culture," [Medina. Ohio.

Forest fires, during the last year,
burned over six million acres, and did
about ten million dollars' worth of dam-
age. More than half these fires were
due to pure carelessness — in no small
measure to campers.

Of the four or five thousand fires re-
ported each year in our national forests,
slightly more than a third are attribut-
ed to lightning. The largest proportion,
of thunderstorms come between three
and five o'clock in the afternoon : the
smallest, within an hour after midnighv
and between seven and eight o'clock in
the morning. Thunderstorms are most
frequent in June, rarest in December
and Tanuar\'.

A Twin Squash.
A remarkable twin squash, of which
an illustration is here shown, was
grown in Mr. Stanley Tompkins's
garden at Glenbrook, Connecticut,
and forwarded to this office by Miss
Lottiebelle Tompkins. We have re-

THE TWIN SQUASH.

ceived other forms of twin fruits, such
as apples, plums, strawberries, toma-
toes, etc.. l3Ut this is our first twin
squash. It is a fine specimen.

Students of mankind are taking ad-
vantage of the vast numbers of Russian
prisoners of war to push the study of
Russian anthropology To a single in-
vestigator, for this purpose, the Vienna
Academy of Sciences has lately made
a srrant of nearlv a thousand dollars.

Bronze and Gold.

The maple fires have come and gone,
And earth would be left drear.

But that the bronze and gold of trees
Are left to give us cheer.

The beech and birch and aspen gold

Is gold witliout allo3\
And with the richness of the oaks.

A late Autumnal joj-.

When they are gone, then all is gone,

.\nd Fall's parade is o'er;
But Winter has its beauties too,

A richly varied store.

— Emma Peirce.

190

HE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Bucket Orchids.

These are so unusual aud grotesque in
their appearance and structure that there
is nothing quite like them found among
the great variety of orchids, or even in
the entire plant kingdom. Perhaps no-
where is the curious structure of this
group of orchids more conspicuous than

from which the plant receives its common
name. Unfortunately, the flowers are of
such short duration and the plant itself is
so difficult to cultivate, that few have had
the pleasure of seeing this floral curiosity.

^ ^ ^ :}c ^

Dr. Cruger, formerly Director of the
Botanic Garden at Trinidad, writes as

,3 « w
"^ - c

o u, n

n H
lip

in the genus Coryanthes, of which there
are upwards of a dozen species indige-
nous to tropical America. The partially
opened buds resemble a bat at rest and
when the flower is fully opened it reveals
a ''bucket," which holds the nectar and

follows of his observations of the insects
which pollinate the flowers :

"Large humble-bees, noisy and quarrel-
some, are attracted at first by the smell
of the flower ; but the smell probably only
o-ives notice to the insects ; the substance

THE BUCKET ORCHIDS

191

they really come for is the interior lining
of the labelluni which they gnaw off with
great industry. They may be seen in
great numbers, disputing with each other
for a place on the edge of the hypochile.
Partly by contrast, partly perhaps intoxi-
cated by the matter they are indulging in,
they tumble down into the 'bucket' (epi-
chile) half full of the fluid secreted by
the horn-like organs at the base of the
column. They then crawl along the an-
terior inner side of the bucket where there
is a passage for them. If one is early on
the lookout, as these hymenopters are
early risers, one can see on every flower
how pollination is performed. The hum-
ble-bee in forcing its way out of its invol-
untary bath has to exert itself consider-
ably as the mouth of the epichile and the
face of the column fit together exactly and
are very stiff and elastic. The first bee
that is immersed will have the gland of
the pollen masses glued to its back. The
insect then generally gets through the
passage and com'es out with this peculiar
appendage, to return almost immediately
to its feast, when it is generally precipi-
tated a second time into the bucket, pas-
sing out through the same aperture, and
so inserting the pollen masses into the
stigma while it forces its way out, and
thereby pollinating either the same or
another flower. I have often seen this,
and sometimes there are so many of these
humble-bees assembled that there is a
continual procession of them through the
passage specified." — "Missouri Botanical
Garden Bulletin," St. Louis, ]\Iissouri.

Regent's Park, London.

BY DR. C. H. MYERS, CHATTANOOGA,

TENNHSSEE.

The Gardens of the Zoological Society,
situated in Regent's Park, London,
occupy more than thirty acres in the
northern portion of the Park adjoining
the grounds of the Botanical Society
and the Archery Society. The Society
is very old, having been founded by
Sir Humphrey Davy and Sir Stamford
Rafflees in 1826. 'Naturally it is a
Mecca for children, and hundreds are
familiar with the elephants and the
dromedaries, the pelicans and the par-
rots of this famous zoo. The band plays
for the children on Sunday afternoons.
Many Parks are inhumane enclosures,
where beasts and birds suffer from im-
proper feeding and limited space. The
photograph herewith will serve to
show the remarkably fine provision

made in Regent's Park. Rock and
cement have been used lavishly to re-
l)roduce as nearly^ as possible the habi-
tats of the animals. At the left back-
ground are the rocky crags for ante-
lopes, mountain goats and gazelles.
There are also furnished spacious pad-
docks. In the foregroimd is the polar

A POLAR BEAR IN CAPTIVITY UNDER GOOD
CONDITIONS.

bear's pond. This healthy white speci-
men is a good illustration of the possi-
bilities in well-conducted zoological
parks — which constitute one of the
finest of educational institutions.

The famous asphaltum beds of south-
ern California have preserved many in-
teresting remains of animals which
have become ingulfed in them. A col-
lection of more than two thousand
specimens from these deposits has late-
ly been acquired by the Field Museum
of Chicago. Among other bones, are
those of the sabre-toothed tiger, the
mastodon, bison, a giant sloth similar
to the Megatherium, with various cats,
horses, deer and the like. Nearly
everything is of the time of the Glacial
Period.

192

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Moles, and Their Relation to Agricul-
ture.

BY DR. R. W. SHUFELDT,
WASHINGTON, D. C.

In the present article it is my purpose
to touch upon the natural history of
moles, and in what way their presence
on the farm may affect the farmer's in-
terests— that is, should he regard them
as his enemies or as his friends. What
I have to say is chiefly from personal ob-
servation, as I have, for many years, had

of these, while in the case of others we
still have much to learn about them.

One of the most striking species is the
star-nosed mole. Coiidylura cristata, so
called on account of the peculiar fleshy
rosette of feelers ornamenting the distal
end of its snout. This mole is not
very abundant anywhere ; and, owing to
its habits and to its being a semi-aqua-
tic swamp species, it is but rarely ob-
served. I have never seen but three of
them in mv life. One of these was a

C4;

A COMMON MOLE CAPTURED NEAR WASHINGTON, D. C.

the Opportunity to study moles in na-
ture, in the museums, and in my own
laboratory. The two photographs from
which the cuts that illustrate this article
were made were taken by myself of a
specimen of a common mole, captured
near Washington, and presented to me
by Mr. Edward S. Schmid of that city.
It was an adult male of the species
found in the eastern part of the United
States, Scalopus a. aquaticus, and its
skeleton now forms a part of my private
cabinet. It will be a surprise to some to
learn that we have so many different
kinds of moles in this country, although
they all belong to the same family, Tal-
pidae. Most naturalists recognize four
genera of them, and these four genera
together contain no fewer than twenty
different species and sub-species of these
interesting little animals We are fairly
well acquainted with the habits of some

dead specimen ; another escaped me af-
ter an exciting chase, while a third I
captured alive on the border of a swamp
near Stamford, Connecticut, and had the
opportunity to study it for a short time.

Brewer's mole has never been seen
alive by me, nor any of the Pacific Coast
forms of the genus Neiirotrichus, or,
indeed, any living examples of the com-
mon mole of Europe, Talpa curopaca;
so the present account may be said to
apply only to the eastern United States
species, and to such other species as
chance to agree in their habits.

All moles belong in the order Inscctiv-
ora. where they are, in this country, as-
sociated with the shrews, of which in-
teresting little animals there are a great
many kinds. Our common mole does not
appear to be particularly abundant in
any locality, though it is fairly so in
many parts of its ranges. Every farmer

MOLES AND THEIR RELATION TO AGRICULTURE

193

and gardener in the Northern and Mid-
dle States are more or less familiar with
them, and, as a rule, they destroy them
whenever opportunity offers. When

asked why they do this, the usual answer
is that moles disfigure the lawns and
grass-plots with their long burrows ;
that they uproot plants and feed upon
garden vegetables. How true all this
may be will be discussed further on in
the present article.

The entire structure of a mole fits it for
the life it leads, that is, underground, in
the long passages it digs, and in the sub-
terranean nest it constructs, as a home in
which to rear its young, these latter rang-
ing in numbers from two to nine. Bur-
rows dug by these animals have often
been found to be upwards of one hundred
and fifty yards in length, and may, in
some instances, even far exceed that, as
it has been so stated by writers on the
subject.

They rarely come out in winter, unless
the weather be very mild, as they do not
endure cold well, notwithstanding the
thick coat of close fur they have. On one
occasion, however, during a thaw in Jan-
uary, I saw a mole scamper over the snow
and disappear into one of its burrows be-
fore I could overtake him. At this sea-
son their passages are much further be-
neath the surface of the ground than
they are during the summer months,
which is the season of their greatest ac-
tivity.

Moles live almost entirely upon vari-
ous kinds of insects and their larvae,
which they come across while making
their burrows. They also partake very
largely of angling worms ; and one that
I had a short time in captivity appeared
to be very fond of raw beef. They are
in no sense of the word vegetable-feed-
ers or seed-eaters, as the agriculturists
usually say they are ; depredations of
that sort are now readily traced to those
field mice which make use of the gal-
leries of the moles in getting about un-
derground.

It is truly astounding what a number
of angling worms a mole will eat in the
course of twenty-four hours, and few
animals are more dependent on their
food than moles. If one be kept in a big
box with a foot of clean earth in it, the
animal will not live over fifty-six hours,
if it is not regularly fed on worms, meat,
or such insects as it feeds upon in nature.
Should another mole be placed in the

box to keep the first one company, the
stronger animal will, if very hungry, kill
and devour the weaker one. In other
words, under certain conditions, moles
are cannibals, killing and eating their
own kind.

Most of the insects which moles con-
sume in great quantities feed upon the
roots, leaves, and other parts of garden

A DETAILED MOLE STUDY.

vegetables, or, in some instances, upon
the vegetables themselves. In this par-
ticular, then, these little animals are of
decided benefit to the gardener, the agri-
culturist, and the farmer. Occasionally,
in their search for food, they will uproot
a plant or two, or rip up the lawn with
a superficial burrow ; but such slight of-
fences are as nothing compared with
their most useful services in destroying
the insect enemies of sfarden and farm.

Throw open the casements and fling wide
the doors,
Let in all the sunshine and air;
'Tis better by far than your potions and
pills.
And the M. D.'s most vigilant care.
— Emma Peirce

194

THE GUIDE rO NATURE

Is This the Largest Elm :

On page 396 of The Guide to Nature
for May we published an article and
illustration borrowed from "American
Forestry," entitled, "Largest Elm in
Connecticut." Since then that mag"a-

for February or the Stirling Elm de-
scribed in 'American Forestry' for
April. Indeed it is so much larger than
either of these two that there appar-
ently is justice in the claim that it is
the largest elm in the entire state."

THE BIG ELM AT WETHERSFIELD, CONNECTICUT.
Cut by courtesy of The American Forestry Magazine^ Washineton, D. C.

zine has published the following, which
we are through their courtesy permit-
ted to reprint :

"Mrs. Mary M. Williamson of Mid-
dletown, Connecticut, furnishes an ad-
dition to the several magnificent elms
for which Connecticut is famous, in the
Wethersfield Elm which she believes
is the largest in the State.

"This elm is at Wethersfield, Hart-
ford County, Connecticut, and when it
was measured in 1912 by Mrs. William-
son's husband, its circumference was
27 feet I inch, its spread 142 feet 8^
inches and its age about 175 years.
This is larger than either the Benedict
Elm mentioned in 'American Forestry'

Does the Gray Squirrel Find Buried
Nuts by Memory or by Smell?

BY DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS, NEW YORK CITY.

The question relating to this caption
has been discussed at considerable
length ; perhaps both faculties are em-
ployed. Here is definite evidence re-
lating to the sense of smell.

On my country place at Stamford,
Connecticut, there is a sand beach at
the swimming pool. Last winter a
large number of acorns of the red oak
were whirled into the eddy of this pool
and buried in the sand. As the water
receded the gray squirrels found these
acorns and dug for them at various
points near the water's edge.

THE LARGEST SHADE TREEE

195

1 was struck by the fact that the
squirrels seemed to go directly to each
nut ; they did not dig about haphazard.
In order to experiment a bit I placed
a number of the acorns an inch or so
beneath the surface of the sand in a
row, and the next morning they were
all gone.

Wishing to determine the depth at
which the squirrels detect the presence
of these acorns beneath the surface of
wet sand, I buried a row of acorns at a
depth of 2.y2 inches. The following
morning it was found that the squirrel
which found this row had apparently
not been unerring. He had found some
of the nuts and left some of the others.
This gave the impression that perhaps
a limit for him was not far from 2^
inches' depth.

Yesterday morning on going quietly
to the pool I saw a gray squirrel indus-
triously digging in the sand near the
water's edge. He had scooped out a
hole about as big as an ordinary teacup
saucer and which was full of water — he
kept on digging in the water. When
he espied me he ran olT. I went to his
little pool and scooped out a handful
of the sand but there was no nut there.
Another handful of sand still more
deeply down was taken, with no nut.
I then made up my mind that the sqttir-
rel had been engaged in some tmusual
procedure at that particular point, not
relating to the question of nuts, but on
second thought decided to make a final
search. At a depth of nearly six inches
three acorns were found lying almost
in contact with each other. The squir-
rel had evidently smelled these acorns
through six inches of wet sand before
he began digging, and the presence of
water in the hole did not change his
determination.

There is no doubt but these acorns
are somewhat "high." I am enclosing
one of them to the editor.

If anyone cares to suggest any par-
ticular experiment in this connection,
I will try and carry it out, for the
acorns and the squirrels will both be at
band.

The Largest Shade Tree.
_A sycamore near Worthington, In-
diana, has been declared by the American
Genetic Association of Washington. D.C..
to be the largest shade tree in the United

States. The measurements and other
details of interest are given by "The
Journal of Heredity" as follows :

"I ft. above the ground. . .45 ft. 3 in.

5 ft. aljove the ground. . .42 ft. 3 in.

East branch 27 ft. 8 in.

West branch 23 ft. 2 in.

"The height is said to have been re-
duced considerably in recent years by
wind and lightning; it is now estimated
at 150 feet, while the spread is about lOO
feet. As far as is known, these are the
largest authentic measurements of a syca-
more now living.

"The American sycamore (Plat anus
occidentalis) is more correctly called the
plane tree ; is is not related to the Biblical
sycamore (Ficits sycamoris) , a species of
fig), mentioned particularly in connec-
tion with Zaccheus who, as the old
Primer put it, 'did climb a tree, his Lord
to see.' The American sycamore is also
knowai in some parts of the country as
the buttonwood or buttonball, in allu-
sion to its large seed-balls, which hang
on the tree all winter.

"The tree here illustrated is located in
the rich alluvial loam of the White River
bottom. As this stream frequently over-
flows its banks, it periodically deposits a
layer of silt around the tree; but the
floods appear to have done no damage to
it, although on one occasion it is said the
water reached as high as the fork, 15 feet
from the ground. It may be believed that
this frequent deposit of alluvium is one
of the factors which has caused the great
growth of the tree. Many other large
sycamores, beech and walnut trees have
been produced in the same locality, but
most of them have been long since felled
for lumber. One of the sycamores which
met this fate was so large that it could
not be hauled to the mill, but was floated
down the river; another, cut in the last
few years within 500 yards of 'the big
tree,' as the prize winner has been known
in the region since the first settlers ar-
rived, made five lo-foot logs, the largest
of them 60 inches in diameter and measur-
ing 1, 960 board feet. The tap log was
about 43 inches in diameter. These figures
give some idea of the amount of lumber
that a single one of these giants will
yield.

"As are most large sycamores, the base
of this tree is hollow, the opening being
on the opposite side from that shown in
the photograph. Fire has recently dam-
aged it."

THE oriDE TO XATURE

THE LARGEST SHADE TREE

198

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

All communications for this department
should be sent to the Department Editor,
Mr. Harry G. Higbee, 13 Austin Street,
Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Items, articles
and photographs in this department not
otherwise credited are by the Department
Editor,

Young Bald Eagles.

BY F. J. HAYDEN, VENICE, FLORIDA.

The interesting article in the September
number with description of the Great
American eagle by the department editor
prompts the writer to offer a little supple-

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&*L*fc*C^

mm

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THE NEST WITH THE TWO YOUNG EAGLES.

mentary data taken in the same locality
one year after Mr. Higbee's visit to our
home in Venice, Fla.

Early in December, 19 14, we discov-
ered a new nest on the shore of Dona
P)ay. It was occupied by a pair of splen-
did birds which we daily observed cir-
cling over the bay in front of our home,
robbing gulls, cormorants, pelicans and
ospreys with cheerful indiscrimination,
carrying the captured fish away to their
tree-top nest.

One fine day in January while passing
in our launch we saw two young birds
standing on the edge of the nest. We
were, of course, delighted with the dis-
covery and immediately the edict went
forth — we must rival Mr. Higbee's ex-
]:)loit, climb the tree and secure pictures
of the young eagles.

The tree was a long leaf pine of stupen-
dous girth and height and the longer we
looked at the nest the higher it seemed
to be.

Our sole outfit consisted of a ladder,
a piece of string and a little Goerz vest-
]x~)cket camera. The ladder enabled us
to reach the first horizontal limb, my com-
panion insisting on going up with me as
a body guard. After half an hour's diffi-
cult and laborious climb we reached the
bottom of the nest only to find that our
troubles had just begun. Over our heads
in the top crotch of the tree was a huge
mass of seemingly impassable sticks eight
feet high by seven feet in diameter. For
nearly two hours we studied and worked
on the baffling problem of how to get past
this huge mass in order to reach the top
of the nest. By dint of much patience I
finally succeeded in digging sufficient
sticks from the nest to give hand hold and
footing with which to ptill myself up on
a limb that overlooked the nest.

During all this time the old birds cir-
cled over our heads uttering their pecul-
iar sharp whistles and, although threaten-
ing, they did not at any time come near
enough for attack.

They were beautiful specimens, their
white heads and tails and wonderful ex-
panse of wing showing to splendid advan-
tage directly over our heads.

Upon arriving at the top of the nest

ORNITHOLOGY

199

my greatest surprise was the size of the
young birds. They stood eighteen inches
high, were fully feathered and were ap-
parently as large and able to fly as the
adults.

Their plumage was a dusty brownish
black which is said to undergo three
changes before they appear at the close
of the third year with white heads and
tails. They did not resent my intrusion,
in fact the picture shows the utter uncon-
cern with which they regarded both the
camera and myself.

One picture shows the birds quite close
together. This view gives a very good
idea of the hawk-like beak, the marvellous
eyes, the beautiful plumage and majestic
bearing.

In the next picture the birds were sep-
arated with the idea of showing the width
and character of the nest and giviug some
idea of the commanding view from the
tree-top nest.

To the north and east the view is an
Arabian Night's dream of tropical splen •
dor. To the south (showing in the pic-
ture) are the placid waters of beautiful
Dona Bay along whose shores stand giant
pines and majestic palms hung with
flowering ivy and festooned with Spanish
moss.

To the west is the roar of the open sea.
and probably nowhere on the rim of any
ocean is to be found such a wealth of land
and water birds. It would be hard to
conceive of a location better adapted for
the home of the Great American eagle.

A CLOSE VIEW OF THE YOUNG BIRDS.

We are indebted to Air. Higbee for the
first eagles' pictures ever attempted in
this locality. At the time he made his
perilous climb, with every prospect of
being attacked by these powerful birds,
It made each particular hair of our heads
stand on end until we resembled the fret-
ful porcupine.

Since then a somewhat similar ex-
perience has proven to my entire satisfac-
tion that any one looking for adventure
(who wishes to be thrilled until their
nerves twang like harp strings) will find
no sport like hunting eagles with a camera.

i

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iHii^SiH^S

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THE AERIE OF THE BALD EAGLE.

200

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Belted Kingfisher.

BY EDWIN L. JACK, PORTLAND, MAINE.
[Photograph by the Author.]

There are few people, indeed, who are
imfamiHar with this Izaak W'ahon
among birds which inhabit the regions
of lakes, rivers and streams in the more
remote districts of our northern states.

glossy white eggs on a little heap of
rejected fish bones and scales which in
her opinion serves as a nest for the
young.

In recent years, especially in the
more remote regions, kingfishers have
become very nitmerous and complaints
are arising from the fish hatcheries to
which the bird frecpiently finds its way.

YOUNG KINGFISHERS TWELN'E D

As the kingfisher's diet consists en-
tirely of fish, — chiefly chubs, perch and
frequently trout, — it is not at all un-
common to come upon him perched
motionless on an old dead snag over-
hanging the water, watching the crystal
depths below for his unsuspecting prey.
Suddenly, as an unwary fish swims
within range of the bird's vision, there
is a flash of blue as the kingfisher dives,
striking the water with a resounding
splash. Immediately he returns to his
favorite perch to devour the prize,
which if it be a small fish is swallowed
head first.

A peculiarity of the kingfisher is the
fact that following a meal the bird re-
jects all indigestible matter, such as
bones, fish scales, etc.

Like the bank swallow, this bird
places its nest at the end of a tunnel in
a bank, which is of clay or gravel and
near the water. A pair of kingfishers
will sometimes w^ork on an excavation
for three weeks before the desired
length is attained, tunneling their wav
into a solid embankment by the use of
their strong, sharp bills. At the end
of this tunnel, which is usually six feet
in length, is an enlarged chamber.
Here the female lays from five to seven

AYS BEFORE LEAVING THEIR NEST.

I once visited a state hatchery in the
interior of Maine, which was situated
near a large lake. The inen in charge
told me they were obliged to shoot over
forty kingfishers in less than one
month. The birds had discovered that
hunting in the shallow pools about the
hatchery, which were swarming with
trout, was much more easy than wait-
ing by the hotir in their nattiral environ-
ments for a meal.

That the kingfisher is a bird worthy
of protection in its wild state, is gener-
ally acknowledged, as it is known to
subsist principally upon fish which are
of little or no value as food, but which
live upon the eggs and young of other
more valuable species. It is therefore
to be regretted that it should become
necessary to shoot or trap these birds
in such instances as above mentioned.

While there is no doubt that the
kingfisher at times may do serious dam-
age in destroying yotmg trout, it seems
as though ways might be devised for
protecting the fish without destroying
these birds in any such numbers.

Many hatcheries now have the pools
which contain the young trout screened
although this is rather expensive.

ORNITHOLOGY

20 1

The Superintendent of the Govern-
ment Station at Nashua, N. H., writes
me that he has a setter dog which has
learned to know that the kingfishers
are not wanted, and so keeps after them
until they are driven away from the
ponds. His suggestion that other dogs
might be similarly trained is a good
one, and seems worthy of a trial in
places where these birds are trouble-
some.— H. G. H.

With the Audubon Societies.

SUiMMER COURSES IN BIRD STUDY.

The arrangement made by The Na-
tional Association of Audubon Societies
for conducting summer courses in bird
study in New York, Vermont, Virginia,
Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Mon-
tana and California seems to have be-
come very popular, and will give to
teachers and others a much needed
opportunity for a definite, practical
course in applied ornithology under the
leadership of experts. These courses
will doubtless be enlarged and arrange-
ments made to cover many of the other
states another season. The Massachu-
setts Agricultural College has included
in its summer classes a four-weeks'
course in Bird Life which provides a
similar opportunity to all residents of
that state.

ILLEGAL SALE OF AIGRETTES.

For the recent seizure of Ten Thous-
and Dollars' worth of "aigrettes" from
five millinery dealers in New York
much credit is due the agents of the
National Association, who have been
untiring in their efforts to bring to jus-
tice importers of wild bird plumage in
violation of the laws.

The secrecy and underhand methods
of handling these "forbidden goods'' pur-
sued by the firms mentioned, together
with certain facts learned in regard to
the collecting of the aigrettes in the
Florida rookeries, show that there is
still considerable traffic in such goods
going on behind our backs, despite the
stringent laws enacted to stop this ne-
farious work.

As long as dealers ofifer fabulous
prices for the aigrettes there will
always be plenty of uneducated and un-
principled men ready to defy the laws :
collecting the birds even at the risk of
their own lives, and finding wavs to

ship them undetected, and as long as
women demand the aigrettes to wear,
so long will unscrupulous dealers con-
tinue to offer the fabulous prices to
meet their demands. The ceasing of the
demand would, of itself, stop the
supply.

War Scares Birds Away,

The war is having a great influence
on the birds throughout Europe, espe-
cially on the birds of passage.

Last Autumn the storks left Russia
and Galicia a month earlier than usual :
they were noticed in flocks of 30 to 100
on their way through Austria, where
they alighted on the roofs and chim-
neys of the houses, to rest before con-
tinuing their journey south.

Other birds of passage have deserted
their old routes of flight and have chos-
en new air roads along less disturbed
regions. Both going and returning,
these birds were observed in places
where they were never seen before,
and were missed in the localities where
battles were raging.

In Luxemburg, where otherwise mil-
lions of birds congregate in leafy for-
ests, there are now scarcely any to be
seen or heard.

As an instance how the birds have
deserted Luxemburg, a nature lover
writes that "whole oat fields have
sprung up along the roads and in the
market squares of the little towns and
villages where the horses have been fed
as the cavalry passed through."

This would never have been possible
in other years, for then the birds would
soon have picked up every grain that
fell to the ground. — Scientific Ameri-
can.

Observation on Fall Migration.

BY MRS. F. J. HAYDEN, SIOUX CITY, IOWA.

For some reason the migrating war-
blers, etc., are not in evidence this fall
in the vicinity of Sioux City, la. It may
be that the unusual weather we have had
this summer and fall has influenced ihem
to take a dififerent route or to go through
by night without stopping.

September 19th we saw a scarlet tana-
ger in the transition stage. The breast
was yellow with a few small patches of
scarlet. It was silent and shy, seeming to
avoid observation as if ashamed of its
strange appearance.

20^

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Nesting Habits of the Nighthawk

Upon city roofs and house-tops would
not generally be supposed a profitable
place to look for birds' nests, yet such
a location is not uncommonly chosen by

While both young and adult were
colored remarkably like the gravel and
tar of the roof, the blotched, gray down
of the young especially resembled the
stones upon which they squatted, and

ADULT NIGHTHAWK ON WALL.

the nighthawk ; perhaps not for its nest,
properly speaking, — for there is abso-
lutely no trace of such, — but to deposit
its eggs and rear its young.

It was high up on the flat, gravel roof
of a business block, along one of the
busiest streets of Nashua, N. H., that I
first made a visit to such a home on the
twenty-sixth of June. As we stepped
out from the skylight onto the roof and
looked about, there seemed to be nothing
visible but the coarse, gravelly floor, en-
closed on all sides by a three-foot coping.

It was several minutes before we dis-
covered the parent bird brooding two
downy young, — near the end of the roof,
under a beam which had been placed
across, as a support for a sign. Although
in plain sight, they were practically con-
cealed by their remarkable "protective
coloring," which was much more apparent
in life than the pictures would indicate.
The eggs, I learned, had been hatched out
in the middle of the roof; the young
birds having evidently been transferred
to this position for shade.

When within ten or twelve feet, the
brooding bird, — which we supposed to be
the mother, — fluttered along the roof as
if injured, to lure us away from her help-
less young. A few yards away she would
He with her wings spread and mouth
open, uttering a faint twitter and seem-
ingly unable to fly. When followed she
flew to the coping, repeating this perfor-
mance until closely approached, when she
flew ofif, but soon returned and remained
silently watching us.

THE FLUTTERING ANTICS OF THE ADULT
BIRD.

they were quite invisible a few yards
away. They were apparently not many
days old and huddled closely together
with half-closed eyes.

Four days later we again visited these
young, securing several more pictures,
and their growth and development in this
short period seemed remarkable. They
appeared nearly twice their former size
and were now covered with pin- feathers.
We noticed that the blotched markings
extended even to their bills, making their
belonging with the surroundings almost
perfect. On our approach at this visit,
the adult bird, which had been brooding
one of the young in the same location as
previously, left its charge and repeated
its fluttering antics almost at our feet.
Curiously enough, our picture of this bird
shows a broken, white band near the end
of the tail. This is supposed to be a dis-
tinguishing mark of the male bird, and
would therefore indicate that he shares
in the brooding of the young, — a trait
which I have been unable to find pre-
viously mentioned by any writer. The
other young was alone, several yards
away, and after photographing them sep-
arately the two were placed together
as shown in the picture. In neither case,
although we made a thorough search,
did we see any sign of the other parent
bird.

A third visit to this little family, on the
tenth of July, disclosed both the young
and adult squatted under the shade of
the big cross beam, the old bird being be-
tween the other two, which were now
about two-thirds its size and showing

ORNITHOLOGY

203

signs of the mature markings, though still
downy in appearance. When I approach-
ed within six feet of them both young
suddenly flew out, sailing across the roof,
up over the casement wall and away,
without alighting. The old bird then
fluttered out onto the roof, going through
its ruse of feigned lameness to distract
attention from the young, as before.

The nighthawk, or "bull-bat," is with-
out doubt one of the most useful of all
birds to the farmer and agriculturist, as
it feeds entirely upon insects, of which
it destroys large quantities. Stomachs of
these birds examined have been found to
contain over five hundred mosquitos ;
others even a greater number of flying
ants, while grass-hoppers, cucumber
beetles, potato beetles, cotton-boll w^ee-
vils, June-bugs and various other de-
structive insects form part of their daily
food. These insects are all captured by
the birds while on the wing. They are
very adept fliers, with a quick zigzag-
ing flight, and as they come forth about
dusk they may often be seen making
great swoops downward through the air,
seemingly as if they would dash into the
ground or the top of some building, sud-
denly swerving just before they strike.

On a wall or ridge of a house they
usually alight length-wise, — instead of
cross-wise, as do most of the perching
birds, — and it is in this position^ squatted
upon the limb of a tree, that the night-
hawk spends the day in the woods. Here
in some open spot it deposits its two eggs
— which are blotched similar to the young
birds — either upon the ground or a bare
rock.

Chapman, in his "Handbook of Birds
of Eastern N. A.," states that "the night-
hawk is one of our few truly nocturnal
birds," while Forbush, in his "Useful
Birds and their Protection," remarks that
"It flies chiefly at evening but is seldom
heard to cry after dark, and often may be
seen flying about during the greater part
of the day." My own experience bears
out the latter statement, and I have fre-
quently heard this bird's sharp, wheezy
note in the middle of the day and looked
up to see them flying about, high above
the city buildings, — although their favor-
ite time for feeding seems to be from sun-
set until dark, and in the early hours of
the morning. The note of these interest-
ing birds, although difficult to describe,
is unlike that made by any other, and
when once heard wall be remembered.

Belonging to the order of goatsuckers,
swifts and humming-birds, the night-
hawk is of the same family as the whip-
poor-will, which it somewhat resembles
and with which it seems to be often con-
founded. The latter, however, has a
rounded tail showing broad white patches
on its outer feathers, and short, rounded
wings wuth no conspicuous markings ;
while the former has long, angular wings
with prominent white bars, and a slightly
forked tail. The difference in plumage
markings is also readily apparent upon a
close examination and comparison. The
whip-poor-will is a bird of the woods,
often heard, but rarely seen, — unless
ocasionally it is flushed from the ground,
where it spends the day, — as it seldom
appears before night-fall.
Nighthawks are birds of the open and

'THEY WERE QUITE I WIST RLE A FEW
YARDS AWAY."

"THE BLOTCHED MARKI.\GS EXTENDED
EVEN TO THEIR BILLS."

204

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

one has frequent opportunities to observe
them about their haunts. They rang^e
over the greater part of North America,
appearing in the latitude of New York
about the first of Ma}', and leaving about
the first of September. They winter south
to Argentina.

Robin Roosts.

BY F. J. HAYDEN, SIOUX CITY, IOWA.

Autumnal ornithology brings many
interesting problems. The remarkable
habit of robins roosting together in large
flocks beginning in July and lasting until
migration seems to receive no comment
or attempted explanation in our popular
bird books.

At the Sioux City Morningside College
campus is a robins' roost toward which
every evening these birds may be seen
flying from all directions over the city.
Upon arriving at the grounds a few eve-
nings ago at 5.30 P.M. only a few robins
were in evidence. Soon however we
observed them coming in twos and threes
and dozens from all directions.

It was out of the question to keep count
or make sure of them all but judging that
the influx was equally great on all sides
there must have been between one and
two thov:sand birds. The trees were soon
filled with a loud cackling, scores were
bathing in roadside pools and the ground
and grass seemed literally alive with
robins.

By day these birds scatter over the
entire city and country. They make no
attempt to live in commimities in the
summer but any one who will keep a
sharp lookout on the robins in their local-
ity will find that beginning in July and
August these birds flock to some general
roosting place at sunset.

It would hardly seem that this gather-
ing could be in any way connected with
the southern migration. Why then should
these birds not sleep upon their respective
nesting and feeding grounds instead of
flying several miles twice a day just for
the privilege of spending the nights at
some particular rendezvous ?

[Have any of our readers noticed simi-
lar roosts in their localities? — H. G. H.l

O Mountains, lift us to your heights,

Let us look down, serene,
On all the pettiness of life,

Which distance serves to screen.

— Emma Peirce.

The Junior Audubon Work.

AUDUBON SOCIETY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

BY THE REV. MANLEY B. TOWNSEND, SEC

"The child is father to the man." The
rising generation of today are to carry
on the world's work tomorrow. Any
eft'ective educational work must com-
prehend the children. The National
Association of Audubon Societies, real-
izing this and wishing to do something
big for bird conservation and the
spread of knowledge about our feather-
ed songsters, fotu' years ago began in
a modest way the organization of
Jimior Audubon Classes in the public
schools. It was a master stroke.
Everywhere, from Maine to California,
teachers and children seized upon the
idea with enthusiasm.

A good friend of the children and the
birds contributed five thousand dollars
for the work. The next year he gave
seven thousand, and last year he in-
creased the sum to twenty thousand
dollars ! Such is his confidence in this
method. This year he has repeated his
gift, and has placed another twenty
thousand dollars at the disposal of the
Association.

Every child who pays ten cents and
joins a Junior Audubon Class receives
ten bird leaflets (all different) : ten col-
ored plates and ten outline drawings,
besides a bird button, — the Junior Au-
dtibon badge. Every teacher organiz-
ing a class of ten or more receives
"Bird-Lore" free. Educators every-
where endorse the plan and are ready
to help the work. Six years ago Mrs.
Russell Sage gave five thousand dollars
for similar work in the South, and has
maintained her generous gift yearly.
Without these gifts the work could not
be continued. The fees received from
the children are merely nominal.

The results of this work have been
truly astonishing. From its humble
beginning six years ago to the present
day, the total enrollment has grown
from ten thousand enrolled in one year
to one hundred and fifty thousand en-
rolled in 1914-15. One hundred and fifty
thousand children studying lairds,
learningtomake bird-houses, bird-baths
and to attract birds about the house !
One hundred and fifty thousand child-
ren edttcated in bird conservation, their
eyes opened to one of the most fascinat-

ORXITHOLOGY

205

ing- of nature's realms ! Xor does the
good work end with the children, for
every one of them carries home the
knowledge he has gained and educates
his father and mother and the other
members of the family. So there is no
measuring the good that this work is
accomplishing. "A little child shall
lead them."

Bulletins of Interest to Bird Students.

The following bulletins may be obtain-
ed free while the supply lasts from the
Editoi- and Chief, Division of Publica-
tions, and after that at a nominal cost
from the Superintendent of Documents,
U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington.
D. C.

There are constantly new bulletins of
this nature appearing from this depart-
ment, as well as from the various State
r)Oards of Agirculture, and bird students
would do well to keep in touch with
tliem, as nowhere else may so much val-
uable information be obtained at so slight
a cost.

DEPARTMENT BL'LEETINS.

Xo. 107. Birds in relation to the alfalfa

weevil.
X'o. 128. Distribution and migration X.

A. rails and their allies.
X^o. 187. Preliminarv census of birds of

the U. S. '

farmers' bulletins.
X^o. 197. Importation of game birds and

eggs for propagation.
X^o. 390. Pheasant raising in the U. S.
Xo. 456. Our grosbeaks and their value to

agriculture.
X'o. 493. The English sparrow as a pest.
Xo. 497. Some common game, aquatic

and rapacious birds in relation to

man.
Xo. 506. Food of some well-known birds

of forest, farm and garden.
Xo. 513. Fifty common birds of farm and

orchard.
X'^o. 609. Bird houses and how to build

them.
X'o. 621. How to attract birds in north-
eastern U. S.
X'^o. 630. Some common l)irds useful to

the farmer.

C[RCri. ARS.

Xo. 17. liiological Surve_\-. IWrd day in

the schools.
Xo. 77. Biological survey. Xational bird

ant! mammal reservations in Alaska.
Xo. 79. Biological Survey. Onr vanishing

shore-birds.
Xo. 81. Biological Survcv, Three impor-

tant wikl duck foods.

X'o. 84. Biological Survey, Distribution
of the American egrets.

Xo. 87. Biological Survey, Xational re-
servations for the protection of wild
life.

Y. B. SEPARATES.

504. Plants useful to attract birds and
protect fruit.

590. Our meadowlarks in relation to agri-
culture.

601. Relation of birds to grain aphides.

620. The American thrushes valuable
bird neighbors.

642. Our shore-birds and their future.

Reprint Year-book 1904, The relation of
birds to fruit growing in California

Biological Survey, Bulletin 44, Food of
our more important flycatchers.

The cause of bird protection spreads.
With the beginning of this year, impor-
tation of wild bird plumage was prohib-
ited for the entire Dominion of Canada.
Xow comes the report that the law is
on against shooting and exporting
skins even in such unlikely places as
Java and New Guinea. To be sure,
this latter prohibition afifects only some
districts and some species of birds of
paradise ; but prospects are said to be
bright for further extensions.

To Frederick W^ard Putnam, head of
the Peabody Museum at Harvard, who
died last August at the age of seventy-
six, is assigned the credit of inaugura-
ting the modern type of scientific col-
lecting expedition. Before his time, ex-
peditions went out in search of what-
ever they could pick up. Nowadays,
they start out with a particular prob-
lem to solve and bring back to the mu-
seum the evidence for the answer.

Readers of Dr. W. J. Holland's well-
known "Butterfly Book," one of the
most fresh and charming of all natural
history volumes, will welcome his "But-
terfly Guide." The new work, unlike the
old, is distinctly a "guide book," a vast
pocket manual for the identification of
255 common species, largely by means
of some three hundred remarkably well
executed colored pictures. Yet the
price is only one dollar.

The Cardinal.

A flash of color, a hurst of song,
A cardinal has passed along.

— Emma Peirce.

2o6

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Heavens in November.

BY PROF. ERIC DOOLITTLE, OF THE UNIVER-
SITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

With the approach of winter the
eastern heavens are beginning to be
filled with the most brilliant constel-
lations of the entire sky. Already the
most beautiful and striking group of
the Bull, with the lesser groups of the
Pleiades and the Hyades which are in-

Saturn into our evening sky, so that
throughout November both Saturn and
Jupiter, which are the most satisfactory
planets of all for study with a small
telescope, will remain with us in excel-
lent position for observation.

This month also is the month of the
most interesting November shooting
stars, the richest in numbers of all the
shooting star showers of the year, and

morth

South

Fig. 1. The Constellations at 9 P. M., Novcmucr l. (If facing S outh, hold the map upright. If facing
east, hold East below. If facing west_ hold, West below. If facing north, hold the map inverted.)

volved in it, has risen high above the
eastern ground, while below this there
shines out the very brilliant Gemini and
the great constellation of Orion, which
is the most striking star group of the
entire heavens.

The present month is signalized also
by the entrance of the beautiful planet

when we add that we are at this mo-
ment very near to the time when the
spots upon our sun appear in their
greatest number it will be realized that
the present month is one of unusual
interest to those who find pleasure in
watching and studying the revelations
of the sky.

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

207

How to Observe the Sun With a Small

Telescope.

During the last several weeks the

reader may have noticed occasional

newspaper announcements of the dis-

destroy the (Cyesig'ht. Sometimes a
dark paper is placed over the larger
lens, having a small circular hole cut
from its center, but this is a poor plan,
for it greatly increases the blurring of

Fig. 2. Arrangement for viewing the sun with a small telescope.

covery of one or more great sun spots,
the discovery being sometimes credited
to one astronomer and sometimes to
another. As a matter of fact, any sun
spot large enough to be noteworthy
is visible even in the smallest telescope,
and sometimes even without any tele-
scope at all, and therefore it will be sure
to at once be seen by any observer who
happens to look at the sun's disc after
it has appeared. It is thus hardly more
reasonable to speak of the "discoverer"
of a great sun spot than to credit a
single observer with the discovery of a
iull moon or of an equinoctial storm.
At the present time, and for several
months to come, every possessor of a
small telescope will find that a frequent
■examination of the sun's disc will af-
ford a most profitable and interesting
study. For we are now very near to
an epoch of sun-spot maximum, an
•epoch which will not occur again until
II years from the present time.

With even a small telescope one
•cannot look directly at the sun, for were
this done the large lens would act as a
"burning glass and concentrate upon
the eye all of the light and heat rays
which fall upon the area of its surface.
This would injure or even com])letelv

the solar image. A far better arrange-
ment is that shown in Figure 2. The
eyepiece at E is removed and the card-
board screen A. D. is adjusted at the
position of most perfect focus, a clear
image of the sun will appear upon
the screen, especially if a dark cloth
be thrown over the top and farther
sides, ABKD, so as to cut off all out-
side light. (The figure is taken from
Kelvin McKreadv's "A Beginner's
Star Book.")

The amateur should be warned
against looking at the sun directly,
even with the red glasses provided
with small telescopes. If the observa-
tion is prolonged, which is apt to be
the case when an enthusiastic observer
is intently watching the marvelous
changes going on in this wonderful
star, the heat may suddenly crack the
red cover with disastrous results to the
observer's evesight.

' :i: ' ;!: * ^ *

The Sun a Great Ball of Fire.

AX'hen care is used in arranging this
simple apparatus an image of the sun
will appear on the screen which will
have all the sharpness and clearness of
a steel engraving, its appearance re-
sembline more or less that shown in

2o8

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Figure 3. The ol)server will at the pre-
sent time see several spots upon its
surface, and if he will look at these at
intervals of a few days he will plainly
see that our great luminary is steadily
turning around upon it axis, just as the
earth is doing. But our great sun, a
million times larger than our earth, in-
stead of turning about once each day.

Fig. 3. The a|iptavancc ut tlu Mm a^ viewed in a
small telescope.

occupies twenty-five and one-third days
in making one single rotation. If, there-
fore, the observer sees a large spot just
coming around the advancing edge —
that is, just rising to his view — nearly
two weeks will elapse before its steady
onward motion will have carried it en-
tirely across the disc of the sun and
caused it to withdraw from view to
the side of the sun which is ever hid-
den from us.

Our svm is an inconceivably large
body, no less than 866,500 miles in di-
ameter, and it is so excessively hot that
the temperature, even of its cooler out-
er layer, is no less than 12,000 degrees
above zero. This is sufficient not only
to melt but to instantly vaporize any
known substance which occurs upon
the earth. Consequently we believe
that the sun is nothing but a great ball
of intensely heated, gaseous matter.
How inconceivably hot its interior may
be we have no means of ascertaining,
but doubtless great currents o'f super-
heated matter are forever rushing from
the interior to the surface and, becom-
ing cooled there, are sinking to the in-
terior again — currents of vaporized
metals and other substances on which
whole earths like ours would be carried
as easily as small chips are carried up-
on the surface of a swiftly flowing mill
stream.

The whole enormous ball is in a
state of inconceivably violent agitation.
It is no wonder that great disturbances
appear upon its surface, known to us
as sun spots, and that these are some-
times of forty or even fifty thousand
miles in diameter. We do not know
their exact nature, nor do we know
why, every 11 years, they reappear in
very unusual numbers. But long-con-
tinued observations have shown that
the inconceivably violent agitations to
which this great ball is subjected at-
tain their maximum regularly at times
separated by this constant interval. It
is certain that these disturbances will
thus be the greatest from toward the
end of the present year until nearly the
middle of 1916. It is during these
months that our sun will be an object
of the highest interest for study to
those who are so fortunate as to have
access to a small telescope.

The Planets in November.

Mercury, which passed to the west of
the sun and became a morning star on
October 22, will reach its greatest wes-
tern elongation on November 7, and at
this time may be seen in the early dawn
for nearly two hours before sunrise.
It must be looked for very near the
ground, a little south of the east point,
where it will be seen shining with three
times the brightness of a standard first-
magnitude star. In the telescope dur-
ing the last days of October it will ap-
i:)ear as a beautiful, thin, silvery cres-
cent, becoming half full on November
7, and from then on rapidly increasing
its phase.

Venus is destined soon to be the
most conspicuous object of the evening
skies, but it is still too near the sun to
be easily observed. On November i it
sets but 50 minutes after svmset, and
this time is increased to only i hour
and 10 minutes by November 30. The
planet is now moving very rapidly
southward over the sky and by the lat-
ter date is almost 25 degrees below the
equator. Soon after the end of the
month, however, it will begin to move
rapidly northward and will thus soon
be seen high in the evening sky. At
present it must be looked for far south
of the west point of the horizon, shin-
ing in the twilight for about an hour
after the sun has set.

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

209

Mars, tliough destined soon to enter
the borders of our evening star map,
is still a little too far east to be shown
in Figure i. During November it
moves from Cancer well into the con-
stellation Leo. On November i it is a
little above and to the east of the re-
markable cluster of stars known as the
Praesepe, while by November 30 it has
reached a position only slightly to the
right of Regulus. On the former date
it rises about 10 o'clock, and on the
latter half an hour earlier. This planet
is still drawing steadily nearer to us.
its distance decreasing during the pre-
sent month from 122 to 99 millions of
miles. It will not, however, be in its
best position for observation and be-
come a striking object in the evening
heavens until next spring.

Jupiter, which is seen shining bril-
liantly in the south, a little to the west
of the meridian, is now the most beauti-
ful and conspicuous object in the even-
ing sky. This planet is always a most
satisfying object for examination in a
small telescope. If the air is reason-
ably steady its beautiful rose-colored
bands and its four bright moons can
always be seen, and if the observer
has the patience to watch this world
for only a few hours he can see clearly
that it is turning around under his
telescope. In fact, any marking which
is seen emerging at the right-hand edge
of the planet will pass completely
across the disc and disappear at the
left-hand edge in less than live hours :
and, meanwhile, the bright moons will
be seen to be rapidl}- changing their
positions, some transiting across the
planet's disc, some passing l^ehind it
and some passing into the planet's
shadow and becoming eclipsed, so that
altogether the wonderful system af-
fords perhaps the best study in a small
telescope of any object in the entire
heavens. Eclipses, etc., of the moons
will be seen to occtir in unusual num-
bers on the evenings of November 2.
9, 22 and 27.

The beautiftil planet Saturn will be
seen in almost the center of the constel-
lation Gemini, a short distance up from
the east point of the horizon in the
early evening and by midnight it will
have risen high in the heavens. The
rings of this planet are now widely
opened and it forms a beautiful object
in a small telescope. The planet is now

between the bright stars A and B of
Figure i. It is at present retrograding,
or moving westward over the sky, and
will pass the star at A on December 27.
This westward motion of Saturn will
continue until March 11, when it will
have reached the position C. After this
it will run rapidly eastward, nc^t, how-
ever, finally passing the star at B until
June 21. The eastward motion of Sat-
urn carries it entirely arotmd the sphere
in about 30 years, but in the course of
this motion it retrogrades no less than
29 times, so that its actual path among
the stars is a very complicated one.

The November Shooting Stars.
If the observer will go out of doors
toward midnight about the middle of
the month and face northeast he will
see an occasional shooting star dart
outward from the constellation Leo.
move very swiftly across the sky and
disappear. These are the November
shooting stars. Each one is a little
meteoric body which is moving with
a high velocity about the sun and
which, colliding with the upper regions
of our air, is rendered luminous and
speedily consumed by the great fric-
tion to which it is stibjected. The
earth happens to run into this stream
of particles, consequently they plow
through our air with a speed of about
40 miles a second and are hence very
cpiickly consumed. The stream of
August meteors on the contrary over-
take the earth, and therefore enter our
air with a velocity of only about eight
miles a second ; these shooting stars are
hence consumed but slowly, and travel
in long paths across the sky. For these
reasons also the light of the November
meteors is of a deep bluish color, while
that of the August meteors is yellow-
ish or red. The former meteoric swarm
is following about the sun the exact
path of a comet known as Tempel's
Comet : it is indeed believed to be noth-
ing less than the remains of this com-
et, which has been drawn out along its
orbit for a great distance owing to the
tidal action of the stin. Each year in
November our earth runs into this
swarm of meteroic particles and there
results what we observe as the Novem-
ber shower of shooting stars.

No star seemed less than what science
has taught us that it is. — Cooper.

2IO

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

An Interesting "Ten" at the Sound
Beach Observatory.

1. The Moon. This is generally re-
garded as the most spectacular object
in the sky. The new telescope may be
used to advantage along about the first
quarter of the moon, perhaps a few-
days before or a few days after. Then
may be clearly seen the mighty Apen-
nines— a long mountain range, the huge
volcanoes — Copernicus and Gassendi,
the streaks radiating from Tycho, and
other spectacular appearances. A
view of the moon is impressive to most
persons because it shows that the fami-
liar object has not been known as it
really is. The six inch telescope shows
all of the more prominent details with
probably fully as much satisfaction to
the amateur astronomer as does any
other telescope in the United States.
This is true of nearly all the most in-
teresting objects. A popular but er-
roneous impression is that huge tele-
scopes and big buildings are required
for observation. These huge equip-
ments are used mostly in technical re-
search, especially in photography.
When the moon is shining in the sky,
it is not only in itself an interesting-
object, but it overpowers everything
else and monopolizes our attention. On
moonlight nights we see the moon but
on moonless nights we may readily see
all the other nine objects here listed.

2. Jupiter. This may now be viewed
at its best in the southern sky. Even
the naked eye is attracted by its marvel-
ous splendor. It is larger than all the
other planets put together ; it is thir-
teen hundred times as large as the
earth. Most astronomers agree that
nothing in the heavens is more impres-
sive than the disappearance and the
return of Jupiter's moons. The planet
and its wonderful train of circling satel-
lities that gleam like diamond sparks
cannot be adequately described in
words ; they can be appreciated only
when seen. Both the moons and the
planet can easily be seen to be moving
in a small telescope. Jupiter actually
turns around under the telescope as
one looks at it — an interesting sight.

3. Hercules 13M Star Cluster. On a
still moonless evening the sight of this
sun cluster in Hercules captivates the
mind of even the most thoughtless and
uncontemplative observer. Here the

imagination will unavoidably let itself
loose on its wings and fly away to that
wonderful collection of suns which was
estimated by Sir William Herschel to
contain fourteen thousand stars, and in
which at the great observatory on
Mount Wilson sixty thousand were
counted, but whose true number may
even be far more. It can be seen even
with an opera glass as a small nebulous
body between Eta and Beta Herculis. It
it one of the few objects that a large
telescope will exhibit to a little better
advantage than will one of six inches'
aperture, but the difference is not great.
It would probably not be noticeable to
any but the professional astronomer.
The spectacular appearance in the six
inch is surely fully up to the wonders
of this far famed cluster which is prac-
tically unknown to those that are not
especially interested in astronomy. I
once spent an evening in a large ob-
servatory and had the big telescope
placed at my disposal. "What are you
going to try it on?" asked the astrono-
mer. "Try it on ! I intend to travel in
13M. That is a dreamland I long have
wanted to see." For more than an hour
I gazed at those myriad suns, first with
one eye, then with the other, first with
one eyepiece and then with another. I
could not tire of looking. It is marvel-
ous. It is more. It is awe-inspiring.

4. Andromeda Nebula. This great
nebula, famous in itself, is easily distin-
guishable with a good opera glass ; in-
deed, a person with acute eyesight may
on a very clear and cloudless evening
see it as a nebulous body, but it does
not usually attract much public atten-
tion. In August, 1885, a new star sud-
denly made its appearance in this neb-
ula, but in a year it disappeared. Not
even the largest telescope in the United
States can now find it. This astonish-
ing phenomenon gives one the same
feeling as looking at a so-called haunted
house only in this case the mysterious
appearance and disappearance are
proven beyond the shadow of a doubt.
Where did that star come from?
Where did it go? No human being in
all this world can answer these ques-
tions.

5. Epsilon Lyrae. This is near Vega,
the third brightest star in the skv and
the brightest north of the celestial
equator. It emits one hundred times
more light than our sun. Epsilon Lyrae

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

211

is a fourth magnitude star but on ac-
count of its intrinsic interest even out-
rivals Vega, the third brightest star
of the sky. With it and with one other
star it forms a small equal-sided tri-
angle. It is not only a good example of
a double but of a double double. Even
with the unaided eye, if acute, it may
be seen as a double star. A small opera
glass readily separates the two doubles,
but the six inch at the Sound Beach
Observatory shows not only the double
but splits each component, making a
double double. Between the two com-
ponents appear two faint spots of light
that Sir John Herschel made famous by
naming debillissima. If we may call
the new star in Andromeda, The
Ghost, then we may call this The Will-
o'-the-Wisp, because now you see it
and now you don't. It demands care-
ful scrutiny with the most sensitive
part of the retina. About ten degrees
east of Vega, within this constellation,
appears the famous Ring Nebula of
Lyra. This is considered by some to
be as interesting as the Andromeda
Nebula.

6. The famous colored star, Albireo.
This is Beta Cygni and if one thinks of
the beautiful constellation in the Milky
Way as a swan flying southward, then
this is the bill of the swan. If one
thinks of it, as is commonly done, as a
cross, then Albireo is to be regarded as
the base of a cross leaning toward the
north. Perhaps this is the most charm-
ing of all double stars. During Novem-
ber a number of beautiful colored stars
will be easily accessible. For those
that best like these objects a list of
some half dozen will be provided. The
components of Albireo are in sharp and
beautiful contrast — light yellow and
deep blue. It is a heavenly sight un-
known to one that has not used a tele-
scope, and to which one may return
again and again with pleasure undimin-
ished.

7. Algol, the Demon Star. Every
starlovershould be able to locate Algol,
and to follow the perfect and regular
changes that occur at intervals of two
days, twenty hours, forty-eight min-
utes and fifty-five seconds ; that is, they
occur on every third day about three
hours and eleven minutes earlier in the
day than at the previous maximum or
minimum. Perhaps there is no other
variable about which so many popular

articles have been written. The story
is as fascinating as any that can be
told. Algol is supposed to have a dark
component about the size of our sun
and slightly smaller than Algol itself ;
it does not totally eclipse Algol, but as
it revolves around the star gradually,
and regularly every three days, reduces
its light from the second to the fourth
magnitude. Can anything be more fas-
cinating than a black sun that circles
around a bright star but never com-
pletely hides it?

8. The Milky Way or The Galaxy.
The telescope shows that here, spinning
together, are unknown millions of stars,
wath others as numerous that the most
powerful telescopes can only faintly
define. Our six inch telescope is turned
on various parts of this amazing collec-
tion of suns, suns as plentiful as are the
sands of the sea, and shows their segre-
gation, or collection, into little groups,
and among them, here and there,
amidst this streaming of dust-like suns,
jet black, apparently empty holes,
places where one might say, in popular
language, "The bottom of everything
has fallen out," and through them we
gaze into vacant space.

9. Mizar. This is the big bear's
principal attraction. Even the naked eye
shows near it a small star named Alcor,
but the telescope will apparently cut
Mizar in two and show that it consists
of two bright stars brilliantly contrast-
ing in color, the larger white, the small-
er blue green. These two with Alcor
form an interesting triangle. Besides
Alcor several fainter stars are seen
clustered together over the field of
view. "Taken all in all," says Mr. Ser-
viss, "there are very few equally beau-
tiful sights in the starry heavens."
Near-bv are several interesting nebulae.

10. The Pivot of the Top. All the
stars and other objects that have been
mentioned move rapidly out of the
field of the telescope, showing that the
earth is whirling rapidly in space, lit-
erally spinning like a top, and carrying
the telescope with it. The telescope
will be turned on Polaris, the pole star,
that is interesting not only in itself but
in the fact that it is the pivot around
which all the others are turning. The
pole star is not exactly the pivot, but is
so near that for practical purposes it
stands still like the pivot of a spinning
top, and will remain long in the field of

212

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

the telescope, while for all other stars
a constant adjustment is needed to
keep the object in sight. Polaris is a
double separable by even a small tele-
scope. The six inch clearly shows it
as a double.

Appointments to view the heavens
through the telescope on clear evenings
should be made by telephone, so as to
prevent overcrowding in the small
(twelve by twelve) observatory. Those
that wish to study popular astronomy
systematically may arrange now for a
series of absolutelv free lessons.

Contributions to the Sound Beach
Observatory.

Mrs. M. Kennerley, Mamaroneck,

N. Y., $ lo.oo

Greenwich Farmers' Club, Green-
wich 5.00

Mr. George Lauder, Jr., Green-
wich (Increase — total $50.00).. 25.00

A Friend, Stamford (Increase —

total $13.00) 10.00

A Friend, Sound Beach 10.00

R. Hertzberg, M.D., Stamford. . 5.00

Mrs. Pauline Agassiz Shaw, Ja-
maica Plains, Mass 50.00

Judge Charles D. Lockwood,

Stamford 5.00

A Friend. Stamford 5.00

Ivcwis W. Barney, Ph.D., Sound
Beach 5.00

Miss May L. Tohnson, Morris

Park, N. Y...; 50

Miss Elizabeth D. Ferguson.

Stamford 20.00

Mr. Stephen I. Clason, Sound

Beach i .00

Mr. R. L. Agassiz, Boston, Mass., 20.00

Mr. Howard H. Cleaves, New

Brighton, N. Y 3.00

Total $174.50

Previously acknowledged $758.08

Grand Total $932.58

5): ^ ^ >!; ^

Mrs. Pauline Agassiz Shaw is the
daughter of Louis Agassiz from whom
The Agassiz Association is named. In
sending her contribution, she writes as
follows :

"I enclose with pleasure $50 for your
telescope and congratulate you on the pur-
chase of Clark's wonderful instrument
which I well know, I am sorry I cannot
send more.

"1 think \our family of students will
have some wonderful revelations by
means of this telescope."

;|: ^ * ;|; ;1:

Mr. Howard H. Cleaves writes us :

"You may thank the quartz-like
clearness of the sky last night for the
inclosure, which is for the Observatory
Fund.

"My bed is so near the window that
I can thrust my head out into the open
the second I hear a screech owl, or the
notes of any migratory birds. This
I did last night and after the bird
sounds had ceased I fell to gazing at
the stars and wondering about them.
The twinkling of the stars reminded
me of the radiant optimism of the Sage
of Sound Beach — and from this it was
perhaps only a natural sequence of
meditation that led me to recall the
need of funds for the Observatory !

"It isn't always that one's night
thoughts are found to be substantial
the next morning ; but in this instance
my faith has boldly held until I have
reached my check-book."

Trained Aircraft Guns on Jupiter.

Paris. — Jupiter, looming up especially
brilliant nowadays, has been frequently
mistaken for the searchlight of an aero-
plane flying over Paris. Gunners at the
front have made the same mistake, and
prepared to train their anti-aircraft
weapons against it. The well known as-
tronomer, Abbe Moreaux, says he has
received a great many letters from them
asking particulars about this great light
in the East, brought to their notice for the
first time by the war. Abbe Moreux
infers from the mass of correspondence
received that thousands of soldiers
oblig-'ed to pass the night under the open
sky, are acquiring an interest in the won-
ders and beauties of nature that other-
wise they would have passed their lives
without. — Newspaper.

Purple and Gold.

The first flower colors are purple and gold.

Behold when crocus buds unfold..
And when the season's latest blooms

Unfurl their brilliant, wayside plumes,
Are purple and gold again abroad.

In aster rays, and golden-rod:
While linking the two the year around,

Are sunset clouds, gold-purple crowned.
— Emma Peirce.

THE GUIDE TO XATURE—ADVERTISEMEXTS

X\

^-n^t

^y*vA

»*^'^

PUBLISHERS NOTICES

Tis not in moitais to COMMAND success, but well do more, Sempronius, we'll DESERVE IT.

— Addison: Cato

Awards for Optical Excellence.
The record made by the Bausch &
Lomb Optical Co. at the Panama-Pa-
cific Exposition is one that is probably
unequalled by any of the other exhibi-
tors at San Francisco. The awards
granted aggregate four Grand Prix, or
highest possible awards, one Aledal of
Honor and one Gold Medal. The award

THE WONDERFUL MIRRORS.

in each case was the highest prize
granted. There is good reason to be-
lieve that no one company in any other
department of the great Exposition
received such high honors as did
Bausch & Lomb. In fact the company's
representative at the Fair writes that
the other exhibitors, regardless of their
product or how they were grouped onlv

received one Grand Prix and in most
cases only a Gold Aledal.

The four classes in which Bausch &
Lomb Optical Co. received the Grand
Prix are Optical Instruments, Balopti-
cons. Engineering Instruments and
Range Finders. The first division,
called Optical Instruments, is com-
prised of seven classes and covers the
company's Opthalmic Lenses,
microscopes, parabolic and
Mangin mirrors. Field Glasses,
microtomes and magnifiers.

Opthalmic lenses, or the len-
ses used in eyeglasses and spec-
tacles, are one of the chief pro-
ducts of the Bausch & Lomb
plant and many million pairs
per year are manufactured.
Notwithstanding this quantity
production, the highest stand-
ard of scientific accuracy and
precision is maintained and
every single lens is subjected to
rigid inspections before leaving
the factory. Within the past
year Bausch & Lomb have in-
troduced in America two new
types of lenses invented by their
associates, the Carl Zeiss
^^'orks. One of these is the
Punktal, which is described as
a perfectly corrected opthalmic
lens and which is rapidly com-
ing into favor in preference to
the ordinary spectacle lenses
heretofore used.
The second t3^pe is the Katral, a lens
which restores nearly normal vision to
persons who have been operated upon
for cataract. The Punktal and Katral
lenses are acclaimed by scientists as
the greatest achievement thus far at-
tained in this branch of optics.

The superior quality of all Bausch
& Lomb optical instruments is gener-

XVI

THE GUIDE TO NATURE— ADJ'ERTISEMENTS

ally recognized. Their microscopes are
found in the laboratories, schools and
colleges throughout the country. Mag-
nifiers of this make have been in use
for sixty years, while it was this com-
pany who introduced in this country
the stereoscopic prism field glass , a
type that is now universally adopted
for the better quality glasses.

Another Grand Prize was awarded
the Balopticons, as the projection appa-
ratus of Bausch & Lomb manufacture
is called. It is believed that this award
was granted not only on the general
excellence and completeness of this
line, but upon the marked improvement
in projection apparatus caused by the
entry of this company into the field
Besides simple stereopticons for lan-
tern slide projection, the Balopticons
include instruments which project
opaque objects direct, that is, solid ob-
jects or actual photographs, pictures,
etc., without the necessity of making
lantern slides. These instruments also
project on the screen objects as seen
through the microscope and include
every other device known in optical
projection.

Bausch & Lomb surveying instru-
ments received a Grand Prix tor "(jen-
eral Design and Excellence of Qual-
ity." These engineering instruments
are known to engineers everywhere for
the excellence of their optical parts and
the number and value of the mechani-
cal improvements which these instru-
ments introduced as innovations in the
field.

The fourth Grand Prize awarded
Bausch & Lomb products was granted
upon Range Finders. These instru-
ments are used in all branches of war-
fare to ascertain the distance of a hos-
tile ship or force, and thus obtain the
firing range. As '^sed in connection
with the big guns of '^""e Toast D'^f*""^'".
''-■p range finders may be stationed a
mile nwav fror^ ■'' ' '^'-o-•^' O s

^nd the range of '^ ^nronching ship^,
the various farto'-= r^'-e calculated and
the position of the enemy plotted on a
chart. Exact directions are telephoned
to the ofificer in charge of the firing
squad, who may never see what they
are shooting at.

The optical parts of the Bausch &

Lomb range finders are mounted in a
way original with this make. They are
suspended upon nickel-steel wires
stretched between the ends of the tube
under a tension of 10,000 pounds.
Bausch & Lomb are now making two of
the largest instruments ever built. They
are forty feet in length and will be used
in the fortifications on the Panama
Canal.

When, in the early days of photog-
raphy, Bausch & Lomb began to man-
ufacture piiotographic lenses they pro-
duced them so cheaply that camera
manufacturers were enabled to offer
their products at popular prices. The
invention of the iris diaphragm shutter
helped still further in making picture-
taking popular and paved the way for
the modern high-speed lens. Hence,
when Dr. Rudolph, of the Zeiss Works,
invented the modern anastigmat pho-
tographic lens, the Zeiss company now
collaborators of the Bausch & Lomb
Optical Co., designated these manufac-
turers as the sole producers for Amer-
ica. As a result of the experience and
skill gained in this way, the Gold Medal
has been awarded to Bausch & Lomb-
Zeiss photographic lenses.

The Photomicrographic Apparatus of
Bausch & Lomb make has been granted
the Medal of Honor. This apparatus
consists of a special camera with appli-
ances for using it in connection with
a microscope to make photographs of
specimens as seen in the microscope.
Considerable accuracy and rigidity are
required in the mechanical parts and
high quality in the optics — for the im-
age as received on the photographic
plate is magnified a thousand or more
times and the slightest tremor of the
apparatus or other defect would result
in a failure.

Minerals for Working Collections.

Ward's Natural Science Establish-
ment, 84-102 College Avenue, Roches-
ter, New York, has recently issued an
attractive pamphlet that gives a list of
their minerals and prices. It contains
many suggestions in regard to a selec-
tion for private cabinets and for school
use. We advise our readers that are
interested in minerals to send for this
pamphlet with a mention of The Guide
TO Nature.

PUBLISHED BY

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

ArcAdiA: sound beach, CONNECTICUT

EDWARD F. BIGELOW. Managing Editor
Subscription, $1.00 a Year. Single Copy, 10 Cents

3^^[f

^^

JK^^tj^

1 oootvoo

D<3

C)O-<30OOl

^^^c

^^

GREENWICH

THE EDITION DE LUXE
OF CONNECTICUT TOWNS

GREENWICH

Are You Protected?

l^ dJ

Give It Consideration

^ The Greenwich Trust Co

ESTABLISHED 1887.

GREENWICH, CONN.

1^

jl^a^i^

^.^■asa^..

ll§Jl

GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT

rr-4 TTAonrtn I inn f i^r i If tii^Q tO

1 have for Sale

Elegant Country Estates, Shore and Inland
Residences, Farms, Acreage, Cottages and
Buildii^ Sites. Also a number of selected
Furnished Residences and Cottages to Rent

in all locatrotts.

".sed to have you call or write

rence Timmons

Tel. 456 Opp. Depot Greenvrich, Conn

^^Sl NURSERY STOCK EVER GROWN

9

rP8^

1^

Evergreens Fruit and Ornamental Trees
Flowering Shrubs Hedge Plants Vines
Roses Hardy Perennials j- ^ ^

Preparing of Plans Laying Out of Grounds Grading
-:- -:- Road Building Tree Work -:- -:-

GREENWICH NURSERIES

DEHN & BERTOLF, Props.

LANDSCAPE GARDENERS AND NURSERYMEN

J

GREENWICH, CONN

oo oo-Oooo

O'

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ooogjoo oo^c

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

V

THE

STAMFORD LUMBER CO-

LUMBER

ISash^^ Doors, Blinds and Window-Fram

ES

— i

[WHOLESALE AND RETAIL

, ,* -., _^^

:iaa^ OFFICE and yard. 297 pacificistreet; .-.ri;.::;;^ ::

.-sizr^

STAMFORD, CONN.

NEW STORE NEW LOCATION

NEW GOODS

COME AND VISIT

AUGUST GARGIULO

Cor. Main and Greyrock Place

8826 {With Basting Line and Added Seam Allowance)
One-Piece Dress for Misses and Small Women, 16 and

18 years.
Here is one of the prettiest, smartest frocks that could
be offered. It combines plaid taffeta with the new crepe
gabardine and it is most charming both in material and
treatment as well as in its lines and cut. It is simple
too and easy to make, especially so because of the seam
allowance and basting line included in the pattern. The
skirt is a simple one, gathered at the upper edge, but the
trimming portion that is applied over it gives it an en-
tirely novel effect.

DELMOMCO RESTAURANT

Good Food Promptly served at popular

prices in neat and tastv manner.

GEORGE PIERRIDES

284 Main Street,
Stamford Connecticut

Xpy

for

IVIen's Xogs

Suits and Overcoats to measure

Cleaning, Repairing and Pressing

a Specialty

Best Hat Values Obtainable in the

Celebrated C & K

Line of Derby and Soft Hats

196 Atlantic St.

Stamford Connecticut

VI

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

A Home Near to Nature

This design is of a popular style, beau-
tiful in appearance with many little points
of taste and convenience. It has a living
room with open fireplace and wide door-
way to dining room. Hall contains pretty
staircase with coat closet under it. The
kitchen is a very large and convenient
one. Pantry contains dresser.

On the second floor are three pleasant

Plastering 1/5

Lumber 45°

Millwork 425

Painting and Glazing 250

Plumbing, etc 250

Hardware lOO

Hot air heating 125

Range 40

Total $2,690

0^.

^^/\V'/t

^»^^

f^iDSTfLOOPPLAH

SLCono Floor Plan-

bedrooms. Each room with closet space.
Linen closet in hall. Bath room with
modern plumbing.

In the following items, cost of con-
struction is given :

Excavation $100

Stonework 1 50

Brickwork 125

Carpenter Work 500

Nature's Knowledge is Expensive.

"Farm products cost more than they
used to." "Yes." replied the farmer :
"when a farmer is supposed to know the
botanical name of what he' raisin', an'
the entomological name of the insect that
eats it, an' the pharmaceutical name of the
chemical that will kill it. somebody's got
to pay."

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

VII

Publishers' Notices

"The Man on the Job."

Blessed is the man that has found his
job and is in harmony with it. Such a
man will do good service for his fellow
men. Occasionally one meets a case so
lacking in adaptation that it seems im-
moral for the workman to continue in it ;
but it is a joy to see a man working with
enthusiasm and with efficient service.

Such thoughts often recur to the
writer's mind as he sits at a table in The
Stamford Lunch and notices how skiU-
fuUy the proprietor, Mr. Fred McDer-
mant, conducts his establishment. Mr.
McDermant is in a class by himself. He
stands distinctly and conspicuously be-
yond and above some of his fellows. He
is efficient. In the writer's opinion Mr.
McDermant is the most efficient restau-
rant manager that he has ever known.
Hundreds of people in Stamford voice
a similar sentiment. Skill, unfailing
courtesy, the menu well selected, the food
w^ell prepared and attractive in appear-
ance, are a few of the features that make
an ideal restaurant. All of these, with
minimum rates, may be found at The
Stamford Lunch. Why do not some
other restaurants elsewhere emulate his
example? To do so would be to their
advantage. Some other restaurants in
other towns seem absolutely immoral in
their slovenly and desultory conduct, with
their lack of neatness and, perhaps still
worse, their lack of courtesy.

We laud a man and build a monument
to his memory wdien he dies in the service
of his fellow men, but we should not
forget to patronize as well as to honor
the man that feeds his fellow men and
does it well, and in these days of the high
cost of living does it for only a moderate
and honest compensation. Air. McDer-
mant is providing fare as good as can be
found in New York City or in any other
city at many times his prices. No one
knows how he does it, but that he does it
is pleasingly evident. Many attempts
have been made to solve the puzzle. The
only possible explanation is that he is
exactly the man for the place.

S. G. aUDD

DEALER IN

House Furnishings, China, Glassware
Jardinieres, Cut Glass, Silverware, Etc-

262 Atlantic St. Stamford, Conn.

THE WM. H. JONES
DRUG STORE

421 to 427 Main Street
Stamford, Conn.
THE SAN-TOX STORE.
Drugs, Books and Stationery.

LAVOY AND SHINE

MEN'S AND BOYS'
CLOTHIERS

403 Main Street, Stamford, Connecticut.

We would be pleased to show the reaaers ot
this magazine our offerings for
men and boys.

The place you will eventually go
to have your

CHIR0PR4CTIC SPINAL ADJUSTMENTS

Latest Painless Methods. Spinal Analysis Free

E. BARTHOL, D. C.

Week Days Only, 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. Phone 1727

w. A. McClelland

OPTOMl=^TRIST OPTICIAN

yburStat/onery
jAfeeds-

whether business or social,
can be supplied here to the
best advantage. Variety,
quality, price, all in your
favor. We would espec-
ially like to show you

345 Atlantic Street

STAMFORD, CONN.

V'll]

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

THE C. 0. MILLER CO.

Established 47 Years

Atlantic Square Stamlord, Conn.

A Store for Particular People where you will find full stock
of reliable merchandise at reasonable prices

THE NEW FALL STOCKS

have been selected with careful discrimination and will be
found most attractive

SPECIAL ATTENTION IS DIRECTED TO

Dress Goods, Laces, Embroideries and Trimmings, Blankets, Comfortables,

etc. Rugs, Draperies, etc. A very large line of Linoleum is no\v on sale

■ — priced 50c square yard and up

THE C. O. MILLER CO.

ESTABLISHED 1855

THEQETMAN&JUDD CO.

Lumber and Timber of ail Kinds

SPECIALTY: High Grade HARDWOOD FLOORING

tkoroughly KilmDiTed and stored in Steam keated kuild
iag until delivered to our customers. Our steadily in-
creasing trade in this specialty proves the fact tha<
tke country home is not complete until fitted out witk
tkis beautiful amd sanitary furnishing. Old resideace!
may be greatly imp»-aved by laying this floors over tke
old omes.

CANAL DOCKS, STAMFORD, CONN.

Telephone 2180.

Homes Near to Nature

Skould be so constructed as to give lasting satisfaction.
Our method of manufacturing dependable Interior aad
Exterior house trim from thoroughly kiln dried material
ov skilled mechanics insures such satisfactiom.

THE ST. JOHN WOODWORKING CO.

Canal Docks, Stamford Conn.

Telephone 781

DIRECTORS
WALTON FERGUSON, Pres. W. W. HEROY.

W. D. DASKAM. Vice Pres. F. H. HOYT.

W. H. TUDD. Sec. and Treas. F. W . BOGARDUS.

J. G. WIGG. General Manager.

<P'

:i:

"«i

The LOCKWOOD & PALMER Co.

Wholesale and Retail
Dealers in

HARDWARE

AGRICULTURAL

IMPLEMENTS

House Furnishings, Etc.

TOOLS
A.11 Kinds

92 PARK PLACE

(Cor. Summer Street)

STAMFORD - CONN

TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS

■■ — -

^

Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA; Sound Beach, Connecticut,

Subscription, $1.00 a year Single copy, 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12. 1909, at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897.

Vol

VIII

DECEMBER

Number 7

BOULDERS

By Professor William North Rice, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut

Probably few readers of this paper
living in New England or in adjacent
parts of the United States and Canada,
have failed to notice the frequent occur-
rence of loose pieces of rock of difTerent
kinds varyingin size from cobble-stones
to masses many tons in weight. These
boulders are often found lying on the
surface of the ground. Sometimes a
boulder is perched upon a ledge of rock
very different from the boulder. Often-
times a boulder rests upon a very small
base, so as to suggest the idea that it
would be easy to rock it and even to
tip it over. Such boulders, in Burling-
ton, Connecticut, are shown in Figures
I and 2. Rarely a huge boulder is
found so nicely balanced that it actually
can be made to rock. While many of
these boulders lie upon the surface,
others are foimd beneath the surface,
buried in a mass of disintegrated rock
material in which coarse and fine stuff
are mixed helter-skelter. The smaller
boulders are often utilized for stone
walls. Thus the fields are cleared of an
incumbrance, and serviceable and pic-
turesque walls are provided at small
expense. Sometimes a boulder may be

recognized as a fragment of some more
or less peculiar kind of rock of which
a ledge is known to occur at some dis-
tance from the present situation of the
boulder. In this part of the country,
when we can recognize the probable
source of a boulder, it is found that
the boulder has moved southward from
its original home, though the direction
of its movement may have been con-
siderably east or west of a meridian
line. While most readers can verify
most of these facts by their own obser-
vation, comparatively few have de-
finitely asked themselves the question,
what is the meaning of the facts. To
answer that question is the purpose of
this article.

Wherever ledges of rock are exposed
to the atmosphere and to rain water
percolating downward through cracks
and crevices, the rocks tend to become
disintegrated. The process is partly
mechanical. Water freezes in the
cracks and so splits the rock. Changes
of temperature, between the blaze of
sunshine and the coldness of night,
produce alternate expansion and con-
traction which tend to shatter the rock

Copyright 1915 by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn.

St4

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

FIG. 1. GI.ALIAL JJi iL l.DER. BURLlXCrfOX COXXECTICL'T.

into fragments. But the process is
partly chemical. Oxygen, carbon di-
oxide, and water decompose many of
the minerals of which the rocks are
made. As rain water penetrates down-
ward in cracks, it carries in solution
the oxygen and carbon dioxide of the
atmosphere, and so this chemical de-
composition or rotting of the rocks may

go on, not only at the surface, but in
cracks many feet below the surface.
Some parts of a rock mass may disin-
tegrate more rapidly than others. So
blocks of comparatively sound rock
may be left, while other portions of the
mass have crumbled into a coarse pow-
der. The rain, especially on slopes
of some degree of steepness, washes

FIG. 2. GLACIAL BOULDER, BURLINGTON, CONNECTICUT.

BOULDERS

215

FIG.

GLACIAL r.OL^LDER. la'RLINGTOX, CONNECTICUT.

awa}' the line material, leaving piles
of the large fragments. The blocks
tend to become rounded, since the
edges and corners decompose more
rapidly than the rest of the block. Thus
are formed boulders of disintegration.
A pile of such boulders near Butte.
]\Iontana, is shown in Fig. 5. Such
boulders remain very near the place
where thev were found, and, in eeneral.

they are of the same material as the
underlying rock. It is evident, how-
ever, that in some way most of the
boulders of New England have been
transported to a greater or less distance
from their original home.

The transportation of these boulders
is due to the series of events which
marked the Glacial period. Some tens
of thousands of years, perhaps a few

FIG. 4. .\NOTHER ^'IEW Ol-' THE ROL'LDER SHOWN IN FIG. 3.

2l6

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

hundreds of thousands of years, ago,
there was a change of cHmate, by which
the mean temperature at least of large
areas of the earth's surface came to be
somewhat lower than it had been in pre-
vious ages, and lower than it is at pre-
sent. The cause of this change of climate
is not certainly known, but the most
probable theory is that it was due to a
diminution in the amount of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere. It would
not require a change of many degrees
in the mean temperature to prevent the
winter snowfall from melting away

St. Lawrence valley. If the mean tem-
perature were reduced a little, a larger
share of the precipitation woidd be
snow, a smaller share would be rain.
In the highlands between the St. Law-
rence and Hudson Bay, the mass of
snow accumulated in the Glacial period
to a thickness of thousands of feet, and
gradually extended itself in all direc-
tions. The weight of the mass of snow
gradually consolidated it into ice, and
produced a slow, creeping movement
of that ice outward from the center of
the area. At the extreme of s^laciation

FIG. 5. BOULDERS OF DISINTEGRATION, NEAR BUTTE. MONTANA.

entirely in the following summer in
considerable areas of Canada and
northern New England. If a little of
the winter's snow remains unmelted
through the following summer, each
winter will add somewhat to the accu-
mulation, and the mass of snow will
increase both in depth and in horizontal
area. The snowfall is now very heavy
in the track of the cyclonic storms
which move northeastward down the

the thin edge of the great ice sheet
had crept southward in the eastern
United States to about the latitude of
40°. Farther west, where the air is
drier and the precipitation less, the
southern boimdary of the ice sheet was
hundreds of miles farther north. Several
times during the long history of the
Glacial period the climate became war-
mer, and the edge of the ice sheet melt-
ed back for scores or hundreds of miles,

BOULDERS

217

and then the cHmate became colder
and the ice again advanced. For a pic-
ture of the northeastern United States and
easterii Canada during the Glacial period
we may look to Greenland and the An-
tarctic continent.

Before this ice invasion, the northeastern
United States and eastern Canada had
been above the sea level for tens of mil-
lions of years. During all those long
ages the rocks had been undergoing
disintegration by the chemical and
mechanical agencies which have been
already referred to. On the lowlands
the bed rocks were covered with a thick
mantle of disintegrated rock, in which

FIG. 6. JUDGES' CAVE, WEST ROCK. NEW
HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

there was a gradual transition from
solid rock at the bottom to fine soil at
the top. On the hill slopes rested
numerous boulders of disintegration,
where the more finely disintegrated
material had been washed away by the
raiub. As the thickening ice sheet
began to creep outward from its center,
it shoved along vast masses of the dis-
integrated material, scouring in most
places down to the fresh and unaltered
bed rock. Hence it is that in these
glaciated regions the mantle of disin-
tegrated rock is almost everywhere
composed of material which has been
transported a greater or less distance
from the place where it was formed.
Rarely do we find in New England the
gradual transition between unaltered
rock and soil which is characteristic
of the regions beyond the boundaries
of the great ice sheets. Such an ice
sheet would shove along in its resist-
less course boulders of disintegration

FIG.

BOULDER NEAR SOUTHINGTON,
CONNECTICUT.

of every size, as well as the finer mate-
rial. Herein lies a very striking difit'er-
ence between transportation by water
and transportation by ice. Water mov-
ing slowly can transport only fine pow-
der. Water plunging in a fierce torrent
can carry boulders a few feet in dia-
meter. In general, the weight of the
largest block which moving water can
carry varies as the sixth power of the
velocity. But there is a limit to the
size of the stones which can be moved
by the fiercest mountain torrents.
There is, on the other hand, no limit to
the size of the rock masses which can
be transported by the slowly creeping
glacier. It carries coarse and fine
material with equal ease.

A part of the material which is trans-
ported by every glacier is shoved along
beneath the ice mass ; and. in the case
of a continental ice sheet, much the
larger part of the material transported
is at the bottom. But some of the mate-

■ic.

.!■: ROCK, XE.VR .MIDDLETOWN,
CONNECTICUT.

2l8

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

FIG.

CUCIIEGAX ROCK, MOXTVILLE, COXXECTICUT.

rial is carried on top of the ice. From
overhanging cliffs, frost and other
agencies continually detach blocks of
rock, large and small, which fall upon
the surface of a glacier. In the case of a
continental ice sheet, the amount of
material on top of the ice is relatively
small ; but here and there sharp, rocky
ridges protrude above the ice, and from
such ridges the blocks detached by
frost may fall upon its surface.

A glacier or a continental ice sheet
carries thus at its bottom or on its sur-

FIG.

10. BOULDER XEAR COBALT, COXXEC-
TICUT

face whatever loose material is fur-
nished to it. But it does more than
this. The ice with the material frozen
into its bottom abrades like a colossal
rasp the surface of bed rock over which
it passes. If the bed rock over which
it moves is intersected by cracks, the
ice penetrates into those cracks. It
freezes around the semi-detached
blocks between the cracks, and so
plucks them from their place and car-
ries them forward. If the ice moves
over a hummock in its path, it tears
off blocks of rock from the top of the
hummock, and the more rapid motion
of the superlicial ice carries these
blocks forward over the stagnant ice
in the lee of the hummock. Thus the
rock material transported by a glacier
is partly beneath the ice, partly on top
of the ice, and partly within the ice.

When the ice finally melts, it drops
its load. Coarse material and tine are
left indiscriminately wherever they
happen to be when released from the
icy grip. Thus we see how it is that
the bed rocks of New England are gen-
erally covered, not with material result-
ing from the decomi^iosition and disin-
tegration of the underlying rock, but
with material of various origins trans-
ported by the glacier and dropped by

BOULDERS

219

the melting of the ice. Thus we can
understand how it is that the scattered
boulders are apt to be of entirely differ-
ent material from the bed rock underly-
ing them, and how the boulders are
sometimes perched in apparently inse-
cure positions.

Some of the boulders are sufficiently
large and conspicuous to have attracted
general attention and to have received
special names. Fig. 6 represents an in-
teresting boulder on West Rock, near
New Haven, known as the Judges'
Cave, from a tradition that Edward
Whalley and William Goft'e, two of the
members of the English Parliament
who signed the death warrant of King
Charles I., found shelter here from
their pursuers. The separate blocks
which now form the so-called Cave, or
rather rock shelter, are all probably
fragments of one huge boulder which
has been shivered by frost since it found
its resting place. The party represented
in our picture are a group of professors
and students who were visiting the
locality on a geological excursion. Fig.
7 shows one of the largest boulders
which I have ever seen in Connecticut.

The locality is west of the village of
Southington, near where the road crosses
Eight Mile River. Fi.g. 8 represents
a rather picturesque boulder in the
southeastern part of Middletown, local-
ly known as Bible Rock. The appear-
ance of a half-opened book is due to the
fact that the boulder of gneiss hap-
pened to be lodged with its planes of
foliation nearly vertical, and frost work
has spread the leaves of the book apart.

Figs. I, 2, 3 and 4 show a group of
picturesque boulders on the estate of the
late ^Ir. James Terry, Burlington, Con-
necticut. The beautiful photographs
from which these pictures were made
were a gift to the writer from Mr. Terry.
Fig. 10 shows rather oddly perched boul-
der near Cobalt, Connecticut. Fig. 11
shows an interesting' boulder near the
home of ]\Ir. ^Mitchell Kennerley, Mamar-
oneck. New York.

Prof. W. O. Crosby, of the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, has
shown that Cochegan Rock is not a
boulder at all. It is simply a portion of
the underlying rock which has resisted
the erosive agencies that have carried
away the surrounding part of the mass.

IG. 11. BOULDER, MAM ARO.XECK. (WITJI THE EL)]T()R Ol' THIS MAGAZIXEh NEW YORK.

220

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

AH communications for this department
should be sent to the Department Editor,
Mr. Harry G. Higbee, 13 Austin Street,
Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Items, articles
and photographs in this department not
otherwise credited are by the Department
Editor.

The Birds' Christmas.

Let us not forget the birds in our Christ-
mas plans. There are several ways in
which we may be able to help them, chiefly
in providing food and shelter.

About the house we may put out extra
bits of suet, tying them to the trees or
bushes where our guests mav be easily ob-

A DOWNY WOODPECKER AT LUN'CH. '

served from the windows, thus affording
an added amount of pleasure to those in-
doors who may be interested to watch
them. The picture of the downy wood-
pecker here shown was taken from a

sitting-room window, while the bird fed
contentedly from a strawberry basket at-
tached to some shrubs, close beside the
walk and but a yard or two away from the
window. Blue jays, chickadees and nut-
hatches also fed from the scraps placed in
this basket.

Birds soon learn to know their friends
and are quick to show their confidence in
this way. As suggested in the October
number, if we started putting out food
early in the season we should be more
likely now to have daily visitors among
the birds. Bread crumbs and grain are
good for the tree sparrows and juncoes,
and nuthatches and woodpeckers seem to
delight in picking at a bone containing
dried bits of meat, hung from the trees or
wedged in the branches. This gives a
variety from the suet.

Window boxes have special advantages
in being easily cared for and the food sup-
ply kept up from within, besides being
ideally situated for studying the birds at
their feeding, and they may be varied in
many ways. Small evergreen trees may
be fastened upon them and bits of food
attached to these, or the scraps simply
scattered on the floor of the box.

The "food stands," some of which are
quite elaborately made, are well suited for
keeping the food protected from the
weather, and at the same time allowing
of free access. Seeds and crumbs should
l^e kept dry.

Shelter and protection from severe
weather and storms are also much appre-
ciated by the birds. Evergreen trees and
thickets of shrubs offer protection to
many about the houses, while brush heaps,
stacks of corn, etc., are made use of by
quail and pheasants in the fields and pas-
tures. In severe winters, especially when
the ground is covered with snow, pheas-
ants and bobwhites have a hard time in
procuring- food and will often come up
into the door-yards in search of it. Mixed
grain should be scattered in places kept
clear for this purpose. When ice covers
the twi<2rs and berries the ruff'ed grouse

ORNITHOLOGY

221

cannot procure food in the woods, and
goldfinches, siskins and other seed eaters
are unable to get at the weed-seeds,
birches and cones. In severe cases even
the crows, jays and woodpeckers are
affected, being deprived of their iisual
sources of food su])ply.

Probably many birds each winter die
of starvation. They seem capable of with-
standing almost any amount of cold if
they can onl\- secure food enough to keep
up the bodily functions. This is shown by
the occasional wintering over of birds
Avhich usually go south, in localities where
they find food in plenty.

The ground feeders are of course more
seriously affected by the deep snows, and
excursions into the woods to scatter grain
for them may be the means of saving
many and it should bring us pleasure to
do it. The snow should be trampled
down, or preferably cleared to the groimd,
and such places ought to be visited fre-
quently to keep the patches open and sup-
plied with grain. Oats, chaff, buckwheat
and cracked corn may be used. A mix-
ture is good. It is also desirable to scatter
sand or fine gravel among the grain, as
birds need this to aid in digesting their
food. Piling up brush or making tem-
porary wind-breaks along the most ex-
posed sides of such clearfngs will assist
in keeping them clear of drifting snows

\ CHICKADEE OX TOP OF THE WINDOW
BOX.

and at the same time offer shelter for
the birds.

Snow-shoes make excellent shovels in
lieu of wooden or steel ones, and pockets
may be readily filled with grain, so there
is no excuse for our not sharing w'ith the
birds some of the good things in our
winter tramps afield.

SCATTERING GRAIN IN A CLEARING MADE IX IIIE DEEP SNOW.

222

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Versatility of the Mockingbirds' Song.

Within the past two or three years
mockingbirds have been reported from
several localities in eastern Massachusetts,
these birds usually wintering in the vicin-
ity where they have made their appear-
ance. The Arnold Arboretum at Forest
Hills has been one of these favored locali-
ties, having harbored one of the versatile
songsters during the winter of 1914. It
was here also during several weeks in
October just past that a mocker has been
observed, which in all probability will
make this spot its winter home.

Probably no bird has a more remark-
able song in its power of mimicry and
variation, although there appears to be
a great difference shown by individuals
in this respect and many display no more
mimicry than a catbird in their son;gs.
Though loved by the inhabitants of the
southern states where it abounds, few
who have not visited that section have had
the pleasure of listening to the mocking-
bird's sweet chorus, — for chorus it seems,
appearing to be made by many birds
rather than the performance of an indi-
vidual songster, especially when the indi-
vidual is of the mimicing type.

Listening to such an outburst one fine
October morning in the Arboretum, I
seated myself under the edge of a large
clump of forsythias while the bird sang
from the thicket within a few yards of my
head. The performer's repertoire was in
this instance a somewhat remarkable one,
and I noted the succession of its imitative
songs and calls. This out-pouring of
melody lasted between fifteen and twenty
minutes, during which time I recognized
exact imitations of the following, which
were given in the order named.

Red-shouldered hawk, call ; robin,
song; red-eyed vireo, song; chewink, call ;
phoebe, call; blue jay, call; robin, song;
downy woodpecker, call ; chewnnk, call ;
blue jay, agitated call; chicadee, (day,
day, day call) ; bobwhite, call ; catbird, cat
call ; barn swallow, twittering song ;
cat-bird, song ; robin, song and calls :
English sparrow, chattering: blue jav.
call ; wood pew^ee, call ; brown
thrasher, song; robin, song; chickadee,
call; catbird, song; English soarrow,
scolding; American goldfinch, call; cat-
bird, call; robin, song; blue jav, call:
flicker, short call ; bobwhite, call : blue

jay, several calls: robin, various calls;
red-breasted nuthatch, "yank" ; robin,
call; flicker, call; brown thrasher, song;
bobwhite, called twice ; phoebe, called
three times ; flicker, ( wicker, wicker,
wicker call) ; song^ sparrow, song and
call ; chewink, call ; bobwhite, both calls ;
robin, several calls ; blue jay, several calls ;
kingfisher, rattle (twice) ; chickadee, call;
blue jay, call (five times) ; flicker, various
calls ; robin, son,g and calls ; chickadee,
calls ; swallows, twittering ; red-winged
blackbird, nest call ; warbling vireo, full
song; blackbird "chip"; white-breasted
nuthatch, calls.

Interspersed between many of the above
were various bits of melody which I did
not know — perhaps memories of the
sunny south-land. The common calls and
songs of nineteen different species were
here given in as many minutes, in addition
to several less familiar calls of some of
these same birds, which I distinctly recog-
nized.

A northern race of these energetic and
hardy songsters would certainly be a valu-
able addition to our avi-fauna. May
their tribe increase. .

With the Audubon Societies.

Under the title "Birding with Colonel
Roosevelt" the Rev. Herbert K. Job, Pro-
fessor of Applied Ornithology for the
Audubon Societies, is bringing forward
a new illustrated lecture for the benefit of
the Audubon work. Air. Job, in his
recent trip with Col. Roosevelt to some of
the southern bird rookeries and protected
areas, took oz'er three miles of motion pic-
ture film in addition to many photographs,
showing the bird life of these sections.

The campaign against the cat as a bird-
destroyer is being pushed vigorously, and
the matter thoroughly investigated. It is
hoped that the time may soon come when
sentiment ceases to interfere with this im-
portant action. Regulations and "cat ordi-
nances" are already enforced in some
places, but until they become more general
the destruction will go on.

The wandering cat is a serious problem.
Last year the S\ P. C. A. put to death
nearly one hundred and seventy-five
thousand of these unfortunates in New
York City alone. It is stated that five cats
on the New York state game farm killed
and ate $5000.00 worth of young pheas-
ants before the marauders were finally
rounded up and killed.

ORNITHOLOGY

223

Some Notes on the Passenger Pigeon
and Its Recent Reported Occurrence
in Minnesota.

What was generally believed to be the
last survivor of that great army of pas-
senger pigeons which swarmed in almost
unbelievable numbers over our continent
in the days of Audubon, died in the Zoolo-
gical Gardens at Cincinnati. Ohio, on the
first day of September. IQ[4. This bird —
a female — was born in captivity, and was
twent\-nine vears old. Since that time

that the\' had ])en'>hed in storms or had
been wiped out by disease, though as the
seasons went by and no birds reappeared
the former theory soon died out, and from
the best obtainable reports it appears now
conclusive that destruction by man has
been the ultimate factor in causing the
disappearance of the wild pigeon.

That there may yet remain a few of
these birds alive s^ems not altogether im-
possible, and a report coming from the
Rev. Dr. Francis L. Palmer,, of Stillwater,
Minnesota, that he believes he has seen a

PASSENGER PIGEONS AT ONE TIME IN CAPTIVITY IN HYDE PARK, MASSACHUSETTS.

large rewards have been otlered for the
finding of a nest of a wild pigeon, and
occasionally reports of one or more of
these birds having been seen would be
brought to the attention of ornithologists,
only to find that the observer had been
mistaken and that the birds in question
were mourning doves, band-tailed pigeons
or some other species resembling the true
"wild"' or "passenger" pigeon.

Notwithstanding the relentless persecu-
tion and slaughter of these birds through-
out their range, their disappearance took
place so suddenly and the annihilation of
the species was apparently so complete
that it has called forth considerable specu-
lation as to the direct cause of this catas-
trophe. Manv believed that it was but a
temporary disappearance and that for
some unknown reason the diminishing
flocks had migrated to new fields ; others.

passenger in the vicinity seems to be a
well-authenticated record of its recent
appearance, wdiich, he states, occurred on
the thirty-first of May, 191 5. Noting this
occurrence mentioned in "Bird-Lore" I
wrote Dr. Palmer for further particulars
and previous records in his locality.

In the instance mentioned. Dr. Palmer,
who has studied the birds of Minnesota
for fifteen years, was accompanied by his
daughter and two other observers and had
a g-ood opportunity of observing the bird
and noting its call. \\'hile skepticism
always pushes to the front in such cases,
reasonable testimony must be accepted
and there appears very little chance of the
parties being mistaken in this instance.
That the mourning dove is common in the
vicinity and was well known to the ob-
servers ; that the band-tailed [n'geon has
never been known to occur in that part

224

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

of the country, and that the calls of the
bird which they saw and heard were
totally different from those of either of
the above species and exactly coincided
with the calls attributed to the passenger
pigeon, are convincing facts which point
almost to a positive identity. Dr. Palmer
also states that they were familiar with
a stuffed specimen of the wild pigeon in
their school collection, and its comparison
only served to strengthen their belief in
the identification of the bird which they
saw.

Regarding recent previous records, he
writes as follows : "A retired lumberman
thinks he saw one a year ago when riding
in his automobile in the vicinity. Dr. E.
S. Boleyn, a trained observer, four years
ago saw a pair of great wild pigeons
which he was sure were passenger
pigeons."

It is difficult to comprehend the extent
of the flocks of these beautiful birds, as
recorded by the early observers. Even a
comparatively few years ago they were
r^ot deemed especially valuable and not-
withstanding their former abundance
many of the museums have but a few
specimens to represent this vanished mul-
titude. Even those familiar with their
habits did not seem to realize their danger
of extinction. I well remember a market-
man friend tellin:g of their receiving the
pigeons minus their wings, that they
might get more of them packed into a
barrel, and of his being ridiculed by his
fellows when he ventured to prophesy
that they would see the day when there
would be no more wild pigeons in the
market.

My own observation of these birds was
limited to a flock of about fifteen kept in
a large enclosure at the Webster Public
Museum at Hyde Park, Mass. The ac-
companying photograph, taken through
the cage, while not very distinct, is inter-
esting to show the characteristic attitudes
of these birds and their constantly alert,
half-wild appearance which they always
seemed to preserve. For the use of this
picture we are indebted to the Frank
Blake Webster Co., proprietors of the
museum. These pigeons, which were
brought from Indian Territory, were acci-
dentally liberated by some workmen in the
spring of 1894, and for about two years
thereafter occasional reports of wild
pigeons being seen in this vicinity were
brought to the attention of the ^luseum.

about the last report coming from Sharon,
some fifteen miles southward.

The following paragraph from "The
Story of my Boyhood and Youth" gives
us a delightful bit of insight into the
habits of these noble birds, as observed by
the master mind of John Muir, during the
early days of his life on the Wisconsin
farm.

'Tt was a great memorable day when
the first flock of passenger pigeons came
to our farm, calling to mind the story we
had read about them when we were at
school in Scotland. Of all God's feathered
people that sailed the Wisconsin sky, no
other bird seemed to us so wonderful. The
beautiful wanderers flew like the winds in
flocks of millions from climate to climate
in accord with the weather, finding their
food — acorns, beechnttts, pine-nuts, cran-
berries, strawberries, huckleberries, jtini-
per berries, hackberries, buckwheat, rice,
Avheat, oats, corn — in fields and forests
thousands of miles apart. I have seen
flocks streaming south in the fall so large
that they were flying over from horizon
to horizon in an almost continuous stream
all day long, at the rate of forty or fifty
miles an hour, like a mighty river in the
sky, widening, contracting, descending like
falls and cataracts, and rising suddenly
here and there in huge ragged masses like
high-plashing spray. How wonderful the
distances they flew in a day — in a year —
in a lifetime ! They arrived in Wisconsin
in the spring just after the sun had
cleared away the snow, and alighted in
the woods to feed on the fallen acorns that
they had missed the previous autumn. A
comparatively small flock swept thousands
of acres perfectly clean of acorns in a few
mintites, by moving straight ahead with
a broad front. All got their share, for the
rear constantly became the van by flying
over the flock and alighting in front, the
entire flock constantly changing from rear
to front, revolving something like a wheel
with a low buzzing wing roar that could
be heard a long way off. In summer they
feasted on wheat and oats and were easilv
anoroached as they rested on the trees
?ilong the sides of the field after a good
full meal, displaying beautiftfl iridescent
colors as they moved their necks back-
ward and forward when we went verv
near them. Every shotgtm was aimed at
tliem and everybody feasted on pigeon
pies, and not a few of the settlers feasted
also on the beautv of the wonderful
birds."

ORNITHOLOGY

225

Nesting of a Bullock Oriole.

BV I*. II. VAX IIISE, SL'.MMEKLAXD, H. C,

CANADA.

On June 7th, 191 5, noticing a Bullock
Oriole (Icterus hullocki) trying- to pull
strings from a piece of carpet that was
hanging- on the clothesline, I put the car-
pet on a wire running along the front of
the porch and placed upon it short pieces
of string.

The bird, which was a female, would
come and get the string while I was on the
porch, being gone only two and a half
to three minutes at a time when she would

BULLOCK ORIOLE WITH STRING.

return for more. The nest was about a
hundred feet from the house.

The male did not help with the nest-
building but the female worked all day on
the seventh and eighth and until eleven-
thirty on the ninth, taking fifty strings,
each about a foot long, on the latter day.
The nest was then finished except for
lining.

Early on the morning of the eleventh
she came aagin and called to me. I
thought perhaps she was after more string-
but that was not what she wanted, so I
combed some hair out of my collie and
put that up for her. She soon came and
took several big mouthfuls, with which
she lined the nest.

The voung left the nest on the twelfth
of Tulv.

BULLOCK ORIOLE NEbT COMPOSED MOSTLY
OF STRING.

The 1916 Audubon Bird Calendar has
been issued and may be secured at the
various state departments of the society.

Starry blossoms and blossomy stars
Bedeck the earth and the sky;

Let us not go about with unseeing eyes,
That pass these -beauties by.

— Emma Peirce.

INTERIOR OF NEST, LINED WITH HAIR
FROM COLLIE DOG.

226

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

"ANYBODY HERE."

"DID SOME ONE CALL.

"OH THERE YOU ARE."

The Flicker at Home.

BY CLARENCE BUXDY, T.\C()^L\, OHIO. ,

It was the middle of April. Birds
were everywhere. The flickers were
beginning to remodel their summer
home — located in a dead cherry tree by
the yard fence.

For several days they worked at the
digging and the cleaning until the hol<"
was five inches in diameter and

After a week or so all became quiet.
Had the birds gone to find a more suit-
able abode? Investigation proved that
they were at home, for a tap on the
tree brought the female bird to the
front door. About the middle of ^lay,
things began to happen around the old
cherry. The days of patient brooding
were over, and the duties of hunting
for food and training the young were
added to the ordinar^' routine. One

"YES, rVE RETURNED.

•DO YOU LO\E ME YET

"YUM, YUM, YUM.'

eighteen inches deep, a more spacious
apartment than the former occupants,
also flickers, had owned during the pre-
vious year.

Occasionally they took resting spells,
on a nearby trellis, there going through
the craziest performances, bowing,
scraping, spreading wings and tail, and
sounding their rolling wheet-ur, wheet-
ur, wheet-ur. It was curious love-mak-
ing when viewed from a human stand-
point.

morning when the male bird flew to
the hole he was met by one of his
greedy offspring whose energy had
brought him to the edge of a new
world. Before giving up the morsel of
food, the male flicker often sat prop-
ped on his tail at one side of the hole
just out of reach presumably giving a
lesson in patience, though I should say
that the vocal apparatus was most
benefitted.

And how they grew. So fast that the

ORNITHOLOGY

227

home soon became too small, and one
morning, one little savage, spreading
his over confident wings, landed igno-
miniously in a crestfallen heap amongst
the weeds, and got scolded for his
pains.

In passing the old cherry a few days
later, I could but mark the silence that
brooded about the tree, lately so full
of life. The old birds paid it an occa-
sional visit, but for the rest of the year
their interest in it was over.

Birds seem to thrive best in human
society in spite of the fact that their ex-
perience has not been entirely reassur-
ing. The great crested flycatcher, na-
turalists say, "is a shy, solitary bird
seldom seen beyond the deep forest."
Yet this summer I found a pair nesting
in the hollow limb of an apple tree in
a neighbor's yard.

Let the birds come back. Let us
help them to come, realizing that our
existence depends in large measure on
their companionship and continuance.

Nature Interest Rewarded.

BY CLARENCE BUNDY, TACOMA^ OHIO.

The student of nature that shares his
interest and knowledge with the youths
of the neighborhood receives his re-
ward quickly and repeatedly. So do
they.

If every community could have as
one of its members an earnest nature
student, well might that community
rejoice for he is or inay become a
mighty factor in elevating the ideals of
the boys and girls.

I know a boy whose companionship
is dear to me. He accompanies me on
rambles through the woods and the by-
ways, sharing every observation and
showing a lively interest in things per-
taining to birds and insects. It was not
always so. His parents moved from
the city to the country to remove him
from the evil influences that were fast
making him a little ruffian.

It has been my privilege to watch
his mental and moral outlook rise and
broaden, influenced by his glimpses of
the wonderful things in the great out-
doors. I also have a Sunday school
class and some other young friends
whom I have interested in this subject.
A quail's nest was discovered one dav
in the lane that leads to the main road,
and not many rods from the home of

the boy that found it. I was called by
telephone to photograph the nest.

It was a wonderful affair of soft
grasses woven into a deep round struc-
ture and roofed over with similar mate-
rial, and with a hole in the side only
large enough for the plump little body
to slip in and out. The boy told me
that he would never have found it had
not the mother bird flown from the
nest at his feet. In this snug little home
were nineteen eggs.

Ten days later the telephone rang
again. A voice, eager and full of ex-
citement responded and bade me come
as "quick as you can get here." The
boy had been working in an adjoining
field and as he passed the nest he saw
a sight few are ever fortunate enough

'•THE QUAILS WERE HATCHING."

to see. The quails were hatching. Tiny
brown heads were sticking out around
the mother's breast, and taxing her
spreading capacity to the utmost. We
cautiously proceeded to record this un-
usual sight, making the first exposure
with a nine inch lens, fearing to go
close enough to use the seven inch An-
astigmat.

A few leaves and blades of grass inter-
fered with the view, so my friend took
the tripod and carefully pulled them
aside (note the tripod in the corner
holding down the grass), after which I
made another exposure within three
feet of the subject. I was not yet satis-

228

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

fied. The boy then took the tripod and
pulled away the grass from within
three inches of the mother's bill and she
showed no sign of fear or nervousness.
Her young birds were too precious to
be deserted for any such ordinary dis-
turbance.

I made No. 3, and left the patient
little creature to rear her brood in
peace.

The March of the Penguins.

We are indebted to Robert Cushman
Murphy, Acting Curator of Natural

beaches that separate various arms of
the bays, or which lead from the sea to
the snow-water ponds in which the
penguins delight to play, they follow
regular, well-tramped avenues. When
bent on a definite journey across the
land, they trudge along very steadily
and unconcernedly, and for the time
seem to take no notice of their fellows.
When in great haste, they fall upon
the belly and run on all fours. By this
well-known mode of progTession, called
"tobogganing," they lead a man a very
creditable chase. Their most curious
attitude is assumed when they walk

,11.-.-^ MARCH TO THE SEA.

Sciences of the Brooklyn Museum for
the accompanying illustration of the
marching penguins of which he has
made extended studies in South Geor-
gia. He makes the following interest-
ing statements regarding these curious
birds :

"The johnnies walk in a deliberate
manner, raising their feet high at each
step, carrying their tails well above the
ground, thrusting their wings behind
them as balances, and poking the head
forward into the accustomed near-
sighted attitude. Their near-sighted-
ness is probably no less real than ap-
parent, because of the specialization of
their eyes for vision through a medium
of water.

"In crossing the stony or hummocky

down an incline, such as a snow-bank
or a steep beach. The head is then
thrust so far forward that the straight
neck and the spine form a right angle ;
the wings are held stiffly back as far as
possible, and the round belly projects
as the bird proceeds with gingerly
steps. On rare occasions they hop in-
stead of walking, springing with both
feet from one beach pebble to another,
in the manner of the true "rock-hopper"
penguins Eudyptes. Their fat bodies
seem to be able to stand hard knocks,
for not only do they tumble over fre-
quently wherever the walking is rough
on shore, but they also suffer fearful
batterings on the shingle when they
come out of the surf, sometimes being
bowled over bv four or five successive

ORXITHOLOGY

229

breakers before they can scramble out
of the undertow.

"When wading into the w^ater, the
johnny penguins invariably round their
shoulders, bend down their heads
almost to their feet, and scoop beneath
the surface as soon as there is depth
enough to float them. Once under way,
all their terrestrial awkwardness van-
ishes. They swim with well-nigh
incredible speed, remaining below the
surface except when they leap out por-
poiselike, giving an audible gasp for
air — to be gone again within the twink-
ling of an eye.

"As long as young penguins were on
this nesting ground, processions of
adults might at all times be seen com-
ing and going between the high land
and the sea. The birds met and passed
each other without a visible sign of
recognition, each trundling graveh'
along on its own business. A broad
thoroughfare had been stamped across
the moraine, worn down doubtles.'-
through generations of the pattering
of little leathery feet, and deeph'
grooved, sinuous avenues extending up
the long snowbanks to the highest por-
tions of the colony two kilometers from
the shore.

"The antiquity of the hill-climbing
instinct among the johnny penguins of
South Georgia is attested by a strange
and romantic phenomenon, namely
that the penguins go back to the
heights to die. In a hollow at the sum-
mit of the coast range south of the Bay
of Isles lies a clear lake on a bed of
ice-cracked stones. This transparent pool,
with a maximum depth of three or four
meters, is a penguin graveyard. In
January, 1913, I found its bottom thick-
ly strewn with the bodies of penguins
which had outlived the perils of the
sea and had apparently accomplished
the rare feat among wild animals of
dying a natural death. They lay by
scores all over the stony bed of the
pool, mostly on their backs with pin-
ions outstretched, their breasts reflect-
ing gleams of white from the deeper
water. Safe from sea leopards in the
ocean and from skuas ashore, thev took
their last rest."

Two Skillful Fishermen, the Heron
and the Kingfisher.

BY THK RKV. MAXLKY B. TOWNSEND,
NASHUA, N. H.

(Photograph by H. G. Higbee).
Long' before the white man invaded the
wilds of America and began to exter-
minate the fish and game with rod and
gun, those fine old fishermen, the herons

An English naturalist reports a wea-
sel feeding on frogs.

Till i.RKAT BLUE HERGX.

These beautiful birds add much to the life of our

streams and marshes.

and king-fishers, fished our lakes and
streams. Indigenous to our soil, like the
red man they took what necessit}' re-
quired, making no appreciable impression
upon the teeming waters. Then came the
white man and began his dread work.
Once the trout swarmed everywhere —
now one must seek the remote wilds to
find these speckled beauties in any con-
siderable numbers.

Yet every once in a while some group
of fishermen breaks out in stupid antago-
nism to the feathered native anglers,
denouncing them as destroyers of fish,
and seeking legislation to allow their
destruction. Most states have seen such
attempts, — attempts that are frustrated
only by concerted action on the part of
bird conservationists.

An instance of this sort occurred last
winter in New Hampshire. Some fisher-
men, with more zeal than wisdom, intro-
duced a bill into the legislature to remove

230

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

protection from the great bine heron and
the kingfisher on the plea that they de-
stroyed fish. Only prompt and energetic
action by the Audubon people killed the
pernicious measure and saved these fine
birds to the landscape of the state.

Undoubtedly herons and kingfishers do
catch fish. But who has a better right?
Who was here first? To whom do the
lakes and streams belong? It is true that
these t)irds sometimes work havoc at fish-
hatcheries, but my friend, the Superin-
tendent of the United States Fish Hatch-
ery at Nashua, N. H., keeps a dog that
drives off all such poachers. He has no
trouble.

Everybody knows or should know, that
the heron is a wading bird and subsists
ordinarily not upon game fishes, but upon
frogs, minnows, chubs, suckers and fishes
that frequent shallow water; but even if
these birds did feed upon game fishes,
would that warrant their destruction ? As
a matter of fact there are a dozen persons
who enjoy watching the heron at his frog-
ging and fishing and whose hearts leap un
when they behold him winging his wav
across the sky on great, strong. wiM
wings, to one person who pursues the pis-
catorial art. These people have rights in
the wild life of the land as well as fisher-
men in the fish of the waters. I have done
much fishing in my day. It is a healthful
and invigorating pastime, — ^but when I go
fishing I go for more than the mere catch-
ing of fisii. I go to get out into the great
wonder-world. I go to get into touch
with nature. I go to see the trees and the
wild flowers, and the ferns and the birds.
I go to see the herons and the kingfishers
at their fishing. I like to catch fish, but
even if I catch no fish, I go home en-
riched. I carry back something in my
mind and soul better than fish in a basket.
Old Mother Nature has placed her hand
upon my head with healing power.

Herons and kingfishers destroy the fish,
do thev ? The boot is really on the other
foot ! Man has reduced our fish and game
almost to the vanishing point. Let justice
be done. Let the feathered bipeds alone
and let featherless bipeds remember that
"people who live in glass houses should
not throw stones." Our streams can be
re-stocked with fishes, but our feathered
friends once destroyed can never be re-
placed.

^t * * * *

Our friend is right. We should be

broad enough to look upon these matters-
with an unbiased mind. Neither the blue
heron nor the kingfisher are destroyers of
edible fish in general. There may be in-
stances where they do damage and these
cases should be regulated accordingly. We
should see something besides fish when
we go a-fishing, and we should not make
laws to favor and satisfy a few, that will
restrict and deprive many of the legiti-
mate pleasure of enjoying our wild life.
— H. G. H.

A Barn Owl's Remarkable Attitude.

North Salem, Indiana.
To the Editor :

Can you or any of your readers guess
at first' glance what is the thing shown
in the accompanying illustration? It
is a barn owl that had been frightened

A liAKX OWl. I'RlGllTEXEl) KV A DOC.

by a dog that passed near him just as
I was going to take his photograph.
In his terror the owl assumed this posi-
tion, with bill and tail on the ground,
body raised as high as possible, wings
spread like fans and hiding his body.

It is amusing to hear the guesses as
to what the photograph represents.
Some call it a stump, some a stone.

Frank B. Hopkins.

Steamship St. Louis, of the American
Line, reports encountering a swallow
almost in mid-Atlantic, .s6o miles from
the nearest land. The bird, though evi-
dently tired, was by no means alto-
gether spent.

ORXITHOLOGY

231

Gods ReLpeR

Whei\ ir\tKe orchard patK

I fo\ii\d you,
Where Kurt and treiphliiig

in the 0rass yo\i lay,
Itrvily thought God had

forgotten.
To note your falling this

hot sumnier day

V-^c^

PV^

V*

Bvt Guntie said twas God who sent n>e to you,

And Birdie dear, I truly think Re did;
I had TDade plans to Qo beside the n^aples,
Then chose this path wher^ sooi\Ifoui\dyojJ

To thir\K I'm helping God maKe#^;^^^^J^4L^'

me so happy,
So ^lad that I caiv make you
^ well and free; 4^^rj^

-v'f^' P^T\d when once more \ip in the

t-

•u ^^' ^'^

sKies you're flyinQ

/k"^^^-Q gjj^^ loud praises both for
^^L ^ yo\j and me.

f^ V. vv -^i JS%^1^ Sophia R. RGi+lett:^,i?

o Y-::??^

4'ivt'r

232

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Contributions to the Sound Beach
Observatory.

Miss A. P. Cobb, Sound Beach. . .$ i.oo
Frederick H. Getman, Ph.D.,

Stamford 5-Oo

Mr. Charles B. Allyn, Riverside,

Conn 5-00

Mr. Arthur F. Estabrook, Boston,

Mass 25.00

Mr. L. S. Miller, Sound Beach. . . . 2.85
Mr, Mason Parker, Greenwich. . . 5.00
Mr. Alfred Gilbert Smith.

Greenwich 25.00

Total $ 68.85

Previously acknowledged $932.58

Grand Total $1,001.43

Only $150 more needed. Please
clear that up before the Holidays.

;;; H: * * *

The Heavens in November.

BY PROF. ERIC DOOLITTLE, OF THE UNIVER-
SITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

THE whole eastern half of our even-
ing heavens now appears a most
beautiful spectacle. The great
group Taurus has mounted more than
half way to the zenith ; the very beautiful,
bright Gemini covers a large part of the
sky toward the east, while above this last
constellation we see the very brilliant,
golden Capella and below it there shines
the bright, bluish Procyon, a most beauti-
ful double-sun system known as the Les-
ser Dog Star.

Below Gemini, in the northeast, there
has again appeared that strange, faint
little group of the Crab, within whose
borders is the misty little patch of light
known as the Little Cloud to the ancients
and which even the smallest telescope will
show to be a loose cluster of about 150
suns. When, in a clear sky, this little
cloud grew more and more indistinct, and
perhaps finally entirely disappeared, it
was regarded as a certain sign of rain.
Thus it was employed as a sort of
weather-glass, though it would apnear
that the wonderfully delicate, filmy haze

of stars forming the constellation known
as the Maiden's Hair should have been
still more useful for this purpose.

^; ;)c ;]; >)! sj;

A New Attendant to the Dog Star.

Following along the horizon from
Cancer toward the south, we next come
to the wonderful Dog Star, Sirius, the
brightest star of the entire heavens. It
will be remembered that so early as 1844
it was known that this great sun must
have a companion sun revolving around
it, for a mathematical investigation show-
ed conclusively that Sirius was continu-
ally being disturbed by the gravitational
pull of some unseen body. It was not
until the year 1862, however, that the
companion was ac- tally seen in the tele-
scope.

Within the last two months another
excessively faint little star has been dis-
covered near Sirius. The new body is
31 seconds south of the bright star and
of only the fourteenth magnitude ; that
is, it is only one one-hundredth part as
bright as the old companion.

It is probable that this very minute
body is not physically connected with the
bright star but that it is almost infinitely
far away and only happens to lie in the
same direction and hence to be seen ap-
parently near Sirius in the sky. As the
latter star is, however, drifting so very
rapidly through space that it is displaced
in its apparent position on the sky by
no less than one three-tenths seconds
every year, it will require the measures
of but a few years to decide whether it
is carrying the new companion along
with it or not.

The Constellation Orion.

But most interesting of all the star
grouDs which have recently entered the
sky is the very brilliant Orion, that most
wonderful midwinter constellation which
is brighter and more striking than any
other star grouo of the heavens. The
head of this mightv hunter is marked

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAA'ENS

233

by the naked-eye cluster of stars at A
(Figure i), the shoulders being at B and
C; the (bent) right knee is at E and the
left foot at D. The stream of stars from
H to K represents the Lion's Skin, held
on the left hand and arm, while the right
hand is at L. The orange-reddish star
at B is the brightest star of the constella-

but how much solid matter there may also
be involved in it we do not know. The
spectra of certain of its stars are so iden-
tical with its own that it is practically
certain that these are immersed in and
are a part of the cloud itself.

As to the true size of this great cloud,
it is so great as to be entirely inconceiv-

HOTZTH.

SOUTH.

Figure 1. The Heavens at 9 P. M.. December 1. (If facing south, hold the map
upright. If facing east hold East below". If facing west, hold West below. If facing
north, hold map inverted.)

tion, while the bluish sun at D is next
in brilliance. The former is irregularly
variable, so much so that in December,
1852, it was actually for a short time the
brightest star of the entire heavens ; the
latter is a triple star.

New Discoveries in the Nebula of
Orion.

It is, however, in the position X that
there is found what is by far the most
wonderful object in this constellation.
This is the very well-known nebula in
Orion, the greatest nebula of the sky and
a beautiful object of wonderful complex-
ity. This is one of the purely gaseous
nebulas ; that is, the light with which we
view it emanates from luminous gases,

able. If we can imagine a great globe
formed about our sun, and so large that
it will always contain our moving earth
within it — that is, if we imagine the dis-
tance through this globe to be about two
hundred millions of miles, then it is cer-
tain that it would require more than one
million of these globes to equal in bulk
this great nebulous cloud.

Very recently the announcement of cer-
tain results from wonderfully delicate
measurements has attracted the attention
of astronomers anew to this extraordi-
nary object. By two quite different pro-
cesses it has been found possible to meas-
ure in miles per second the velocity with
which any selected portion of the nebula
is moving toward us or awav from us,

234

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Figure 2. The great Nebula of Orion.

and when this was done the results found
were most surprising.. For it then ap-
peared that all the little portions were
moving with different speeds : of two re-
gions very near together, one might be
moving' toward or away from us eight or
ten miles per second faster than the other.
In other words, instead of the nebula
being a great, still mass of nearly quies-
cent gases, the entire cloud is violently
sursing; and streaming in a most com-

plicated manner. Without doubt observa-
tions upon this wonderful object will be
industriously continued and multiplied
during the next few years. Possibly our
at present very imperfect, knowledge of
the true nature of g'laseous nebulas may
soon be very greatly extended. If so, a
new light may be thrown, nut only upon
these objects, but also on the nature of
new stars, and ui:)on many other diffictdt
r.T.tters in astronomy.

T(^ KXOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

235

The Planets in December.

Mercury passes behind the sun on
December 15. and will therefore be
wholly invisible throughout the month.

Venus is steadily withdrawing from
the sun's rays and coming into better posi-
tion for observation. On December i it

It is so near the stars R and S (Figure i)
that from even only a few nights' watch-
ing its westward motion may be clearly
seen. It will pass to the west of R on
December 27, though toward the begin-
ning of the month it will be seen far to
the east of this star. The rings of Saturn

Figure 3. Two recent drawings of the Planet Jupiter. The borders of the faintly
colored bands and all of the markings are, however constantly changing.

sets I hour and 20 minutes after sunset,
and this time is increased to two hours
by December 31. The planet must be
looked for far toward the south of the
west point of the horizon, when it may
he seen but a short distance above the
ground, shining in the twilight glow.

During the last month Venus has been
moving very rapidly southward among
the stars. By December 5 it will be nc
less than 24V2 degrees below the celestial
■equator, but on that date it will begin to
move northward again, and its northern
and eastward motions will conspire to
Turing it high into the evening heavens
and make it a conspicuous object during
the early months of 1916.

Mars, though high in the northeast by
midnight, does not rise until 9 :30 o'clock
on December i and is therefore just be-
yond the borders of our evening map. It
is moving slowly eastward through Leo
and will be seen crossing the handle of
the Sickle just above the bright star Reg-
ulus. These two bright, reddish objects
so near together will form an interesting
star figure in the northeastern sky.

Jupiter still shines brightly in the south-
west, in excellent position for observa-
tion.

Saturn is slowly retrograding through
the middle of the constellation Gemini.

are now very widely opened out and it
will be found a most beautiful object for
study even with a moderately large tele-
scope.

The sun will reach the lowest point of
its yearly apparent path on December 22
at 5 hours 16 minutes 16 seconds P. AI.
(Eastern standard time) ; this is the in-
stant of winter solstice, after which its
northern motion will again begin. De-
cember 22 will thus be the shortest day
of the present year, this day (in our Cen-
tral States) being 5 hours 34 minutes
shorter than the ensuing night.

Then, too, how wondrous must be
the colouring observed by the planet-
beings, if such exist, in any one of the
not improbable planets revolving
roimd sitch glorious suns ! How grand
the fairy spectacle in those belonging to
the compound S3'stems, one sun setting
it may be in golden yellow, or in purest
green, and another rising in amethyst
blue or in richest purple Moreover,
fancy can sketch better than words
can describe, or an artist portray, the
richness, beauty, and variety, of the
hues presented, when such charming-
ly coloiu'ed suns, mingling their flash-
ing rays, happen together in the sky. —
"The Call of the Stars," (Kippax).

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Some Insects Need Protection.

BY ESTHER M. CUNNINGHAM, WORCESTER,
MASSACHUSETTS.

There is a need for insect protection
as well as for bird protection. Butterflies
and moths are becoming- scarcer each
year. The milkweed butterfly, once our
commonest large butterfly, is now rare.
It is entirely harmless, its food plant being
the milkweed for which we do not care.
Other butterflies and moths are disappear-
ing. There are several reasons for this.
The first is the brown-tail spray. While
trying to kill the pests, I fear that we are
destroying the harmless and useful in-
sects. To kill the brown-tailed moths the
trees are sprayed with poison. The cater-
pillar eats this poison and dies. The
brown-tailed and gypsy moths are fast
disappearing. We hear pleasing stories
of their decrease, but are not our harmless
insects going at the same time ? Another
cause for the decrease is ignorance. Many
of us, when we see a cocoon or a caterpil-
lar, say: "There is one of those dreadful
creatures ; kill it !" Every cocoon and
caterpillar should not be destroyed in the
belief that it contains a gypsy moth, a
brown-tailed moth or other nuisance.
Butterflies and moths have natural ene-
mies. Ichneumon flies attack many spe-
cies. Birds devour great numbers. These
enemies tend to keep insects within rea-
sonable limits, but with our enmity added
these creatures have little chance. Many
insects are entirely harmless, and some
are lovely. We Americans should not be-
come so practical that we shall lose these
beautiful and inspiring creatures. Our
beautiful night moths are often consid-
ered a nuisance ; they are especially sub-
ject to attack from the ichneumon fly.
They are so large, too, that they are con-
spicuous and so are subject to the attack
of birds. For these reasons, they can
never become dangerous. Their food is
the foliage of the forest trees. The loss

of a few of these leaves cannot harm us.
Many persons beheve that all moths are
clothes moths; the clothes moth is indeed
a nuisance, but other moths will not eat
woolen cloth. Numberless flowers are
fertilized by the aid of moths and butter-
flies. Many flowers depend upon one
kind of moth for their life; if the moth
disappears the flower will disappear. Hawk
moths are especially adapted to the work
of fertilization on account of their long
tongue. The tomato worm moth is the
commonest of this group. Although this
is considered a nuisance, it is rare and
does little harm. It too is subject to attack
from the ichneumon fly. There are other
kinds of flies that scatter pollen. The
chief of such insects, however, are bees.
Many of us do not realize how much de-
pends on these insects. Take an example
from Australia. Red clover was planted
for the use of the cattle. The first year
it grew abundantly, but the next year it
failed. The people blamed the climate. A
naturalist solved the problem by planting
more red clover and at the same time in-
troducing numerous bumblebees. After
this, the clover crop was immense. Our
farmers in America would regret to lose
their clover, but they would lose it if the
bumblebees should disappear. These
creatures are becoming less numerous.
Dragon flies are useful, because their
chief food is mosquitoes. Our common
ladybugs make way with plant lice ;
spiders eat flies ; many insects help us in
their individual ways. As President
Lincoln once said : "Let us give the bug
a chance."

The New York Agricvdtural Experi-
ment Station at Geneva is paying spec-
ial attention to the study of grapes. Its
vineyards now contain 350 native var-
ieties, 50 foreign, and 800 crosses, all
in bearing. In addition about 1,600
self-seedlings and 3,500 crosses have
not yet come to fruit.

THE IXTEREST IX IXSECTS

^y>

Henri Fabre.

Henri Fabre, whose portrait appears
on another page, is dead, at the fine old
age of ninety-tuo years. It is fortunate
that he could live so long, for until
nearly eighty years old the man whom

illiterate parents. When only five year^
old, his special bent was indicated in an
attempt to find out how the cricket
chirped. But he could not take up the
investigation of natural history as he
wanted to do : he had to earn his living-.

11 1 S- I

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3 a.--
o u a

10 C 1 3 ,

•lip. ;

2 — '"' •'
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°no " -'

QJ «-!' "^ W

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S-«o-

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•" - 2

a § o

\'ictor Hugo described as "the insects'
Homer'' remained almost unknown to the
world. His life had been one of povertv,
sacrifice, and struggle, but of superb per-
severance. He was born of humble and

and became a teacher of mathematics.
This, however, did not prevent him from
being a tireless and wonderfully success-
ful observer of insects. He discovered
many facts regarding them, and solved

238

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

not a few mysteries. He married early
in life, and the responsibility of a large
family made it imperative for him to work
harder than ever at teaching, thus ])ost-
poning his dream of becoming a natural-
ist with nothing to do but to study insect
life. He was able, however, to make
great use of his studies near Avignon,
where he lived, because the sun-baked,
wind-swept wastes about that town were,
if worthless agriculturally, an insect para-
dise. Here it was that Fabre wrote his
greatest work, "Souvenirs Entomologi-
ques,'' which has now gone into many
editions. It was crowned by the French
Academy.

Fabre became the friend of Darwin,
Maeterlinck, and Mistral. Maeterlinck
has said : "He is one of the most profound
scholars, purest writers, and finest poets
of the century just passed." Through talks
with Fabre, Maeterlinck was inspired to
write "The Life of the Bee.'' The poet
Mistral rescued Fabre from poverty and
obscurity by begging aid from all inter-
ested in science.

A recent remark by Fabre illustrates
his simplicity and humility :

"Because I have stirred a few grains
of sand on the shore am I in a position
to know the depths of the ocean? Life
has unfathomable secrets. Human knowl-
edge will be erased from the archives of
the world before we possess the last word
that the gnat has to say to us. Scientifi-
callv, nature is a riddle without a definite
solution to satisfy man's curiosity. Hy-
pothesis follows hypothesis ; the theoreti-
cal rubbish heap accumulates and truth
ever eludes us. To know how not to know
might well be the last word of wisdom."
—"The Outlook."

Where to Obtain Living Pupae

Many of our readers desire to watch the
transformation of pupae into moths or but-
terflies. Suchof course know that a butter-
fly passes through a chrysalis pupa, a moth
through a cocoon pupa. We are glad to
announce that both kinds may be obtained
from Ward's Natural Science Establish-
ment, 82-104 College Avenue, Rochester,
New York. Send for their price list and
refer to this magazine.

The Lament of the Drones.

BY GRACE ALLEN IN "GLEANINGS IN BEK
CULTURE.''

Xo JHOl-e?

Not ever ever more within the hive

No more to feel its friendly shelter

'round ?

Xo more to share its pulsing peace, alive

With vibrant hum of motion and of

sound ?

And we so powerful-winged and light of

heart ?
( )f all this life we love are we a part
Xo more ?

The Harvard College Observatory
was founded in 1840 with a total en-
dowment of $3000. Now, it spends
$50,000 each year.

"NO MORE."

No more.

Not ever ever more within the hive.

An unimaginable end has come.
The things are turning dead that were
alive

And all the singing voices turning dumb
And Life herself, who one time bade us be,
Has turned away her eyes, which we shall

see
No more.

And this the end ?

No end but this for those uncounted days

Of banqueting, or those mad hours of

bliss

We went careening, careless, through the

ways

Of miracle and light? No end but this?

No end but this. No proud sustaining

thought
Of deed with rapture or with patience

wrought — ■
No end but this.

More and more

The dripping night that stalks without the
hive

THE INTEREST IN INSECTS

239

Draws round us, dread and ghostly,
grim and stark ;
Within, tlie deepest shadows are alive
With warmth and fragrance, and the
very dark
Dreams day to come. But though the

great sun burns
A million dawns awake, the day returns
To us. no more — no more.

A Remarkable Honeycomb.

It seems as if honeybees at times work
purely as a matter of pleasure and for
their own education. They then abandon
every regular method and become amaz-
ingly irregular, as was recently shown in
certain tests made to ascertain what they
would do on sheets of pure smooth bees-
wax. When a block of such wax was
placed in a hive, the bees probably
thought, "As you are doing such an un-
usual thing, Mr. Reekeeier, \Ae will meet
you halfway."

Here is shown th?ir astonishing pro-
duction. It is unique. The two down-

wardly projecting portions stand out
clearly from the sheet of plain beeswax.
Around these suspended parts the bees
could go freely, as a careful study of the
dainty projections makes clearly evident,
since they are so transparent that the
cells of the other side are visible through
them.

Come Forth

Come forth from your roofs and walls.

Into the woods and fields;
Find out for yourself the delight
A day in the open yields.

Eacli sunbeam, every flower.

An influence for your good;
But better than all, the cool

Enchantment of the wood.

Therein is balm for your soul,
Therein is rest for your nerves.

Therein the elixir of life.

That bodily health conserves.

Then shatter your prison bars.
And live in God's-out-of-doors;

Put awaj' life's carking cares,

Fill 3^our soul with nature's stores.

— Emma Peirce.

HIE REMARKABLE HOXEYCOMB.

240

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

g«««<g««CC«C«C«gg<Cg€C«gC<«gg«<C«C<CC«C<CC<C<C<C<«CC^

AQASSIZ ASSOCIATION'

^ © ^ @ ^ @ ^

Established 1875 Incorporatpd, Maesachusetts. 18H-.> Incorporated, Connecticut, 1910

Additions to our Membership Since
Last Publication.

Corresponding :

Miss Edna H. Danielson, Goodhue,
Minnesota.

Mr. T. R. Moss, Louisville, Ken-
tucky.

Mrs. Kate Lockwood Nevins, Anti-
och, California.

Charles C. Adams, Ph. D., Syracuse,
New York.

Mr. Edmund J. Sawyer, Watertown,
New York.

Mrs. John Hofmeyer, Williamsburg,
Virginia.

Mr. W. C. Gray, Tama, Iowa.

Mr. William D. Richardson, Rich-
mond, Virginia.

Dr. George F. Kunz, New York City.

Miss Frances M. Tollett, New Brigh-
ton, Staten Island, New York.

L. H. Pammel, Ph. D., Ames, Iowa.

Mr. Lemont Barbour, New York
City.

Miss Frances M. Staples, Stockton,
California.

Mrs. Estelle Darrah Dyke, Green-
wich, Connecticut.

Mr. Osmar Falls Wright, New York
City.

Mr. John Franklin Johnson, Green-
wich, Connecticut.

Mrs. O. H. Stevens, Marlboro, Mas-
sachusetts.

Mr. William Howlett Gardner, Port
Washington, Long Island, New
York.

Master Charles Casimir Wade,
Sound Beach, Connecticut.

Miss M. Inez Lee, Plainfield, Iowa.

Mr. W. W. Lathrop, Warren, Ohio.

Albert Elmer Austin, M. D., Sound

Beach, Connecticut.

Mr. Will Webb Tuttle, Muncie, In-
diana.
Sustaining :

Mr. Frank La Manna, Brooklyn,
New York.

Mr. George Lauder, Jr., Greenwich,
Connecticut.

Mr. A. Ramsey, Surrey, England.

Mr. Herbert W. Faulkner, Washing-
ton, Connecticut.

Mr. Chas. P. Shoffner, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.

Mr. Frederic Webster, Darien, Con-
necticut.
Life:

Mr. Charles A. Bruun, Kansas City,
Missouri.

With Our Chapters.

Under the leadership of Mr. Halbert
C. Phillips our Glenbr-ook Chapter has
been reorganized and the following of-
ficers elected : President, C. S. Hemp-
stead ; Vice-President, Alan Arthur;
Recording Secretary, Carl Mix ; Cor-
responding Secretary, Arthur Sylves-
ter ; Treasurer, Abbot Andrews.

We have added to our list the Seeley
Chapter of Stamford and Springdale,
and the Ernest Thompson Seton Chap-
ter of the Woodcraft School in Green-
wich. The officers of the Seeley Chap-
ter are: President, Mrs. Bertha Gallup
Dailey; Vice-President, Miss Sarah A,
Ward ; Recording and Corresponding
Secretary, Miss Sara Crissy Brown ;
Treasurer, Miss Margaret J. Hutch-
ings.

Of the Ernest Thompson Seton
Chapter the President, Treasurer and
Corresponding Secretary is Virginia
Beresford ; V ice-President, Richard
Beresford ; Recording Secretary, Cecile
Dudley; Curator, Wade Dudley.

Events in the Welcome Reception
Room,

November 6th : Organization of the
Seely Chapter.

November I2th: Camo Fire Girls.

November r3th : Boy Scouts.

November i6th: Organization (^f the
Ernest Thompson Seton Chapter.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATIOX

241

Talks by Dr. Bigelow Elsewhere.

November 4tli : Waterside School,
Stamford.

November 8th : Greenwich Farmer's
Club, Greenwich.

November 9th: Woodcraft School,
Greenwich.

Miscellaneous Contributions to

ArcAdiA.

Air. Stephen I. Clason, Sound Beach:
poker for mineralogical fireplace in the
Welcome Reception Room.

Mr. John R. Gordon, New York City :
block of sulphur from Louisiana mines.

Mr. Arthur Munson, Panama City,
Florida: shells from Florida.

Mr. H. E. Beats, Flemington, New
Jersey : two pieces of coral and flicker
nest.

Airs. \\'illiam Siegrist, Sound Beach:
portrait of Eouis Agassiz for the Wel-
come Reception Room.

Mr. W\ Scott Lewis, Los Angeles, Cal-
ifornia : three slides for projection by
stereopticon.

Aliss A. P. Cobb, Sound Beach : ter-
minal bud and stem through center of
rose.

Miss Linda \¥orrell, Sound Beach:
large jack-in-the-pulpit.

Airs. Frederick Gotthold, Cos Cob,
Connecticut : unusually large fasciated
stem of asparagus — flattened stem three
inches in diameter and five feet long ; egg
with peculiar markings.

Aliss Poloma Engle, Sound Beach :
Actios luna moth.

Air. Thomas O'Connor, Sound Beach :
large mourning horsefly, Tahanus atra-
tus.

Aliss Natalie Roeth, Stamford : double
leaf of wild cherry.

James Byrnes, Sound Beach : specimen
of Corydalis cornuta.

Mr. Ellis B. Noyes, Portsmouth, Vir-
ginia : large herbarium.

Mrs. Charles Engle, Sound Beach : bat
from Porto Rico.

John Drenckhalm, Riverside, Connec-
ticut: larva of moth (Sibine stimulea).

Air. Wm. J. Blackburn. Jr., Adena.
Ohio : specimen of Calamite or "horse-
tail."

Aliss Helene Edmonds, Sound Beach:
string of egg cases of whelk {Fulg^ur
canaliculata).

Aliss Winifred Stoner, Jr., Wilming-
ton, North Carolina: living specimens

of carnivorous plants — Venus flytrap
pitcher plant and trumpet plants and
their bloom.

Excelsior Hardware Company, Stam-
ford : burnishing and lacquering candle-
sticks for the fireplace in the Welcome
Reception Room.

Reverend Lewis W. Barney, Ph. D.,
Sound Beach : decorative drawing of
Biblical texts (God's Works).

Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay,
Wisconsin : eighteen astronomical trans-
parencies.

Lick Observatory, Alount Hamilton,
California: illustrated volumes of star
fields, nebulae, comets, etc.

United States Coast Survey, Washing-
ton, D. C. : large chart showing details
from Shippan Point to Captain's Island
and northward to the railroad,

LInited States Naval Observatory,
Washington, D. C. : "The American
Ephemeris" for 1915-1916.

"Everyone to Her Taste"

Heading, of Leading Editorial of Stamford
Evening Star.

As the sweet young thing said when
she kissed her Boston brindle pup.

The visitors wished to see the aver-
age life of Connecticut folks so we took
the Post Road to Bridgeport.

Cove Pond and Percy's — hospitality,
rest, geniality. Then onward through
bright, lively, pretty Norwalk ; onward,
across the bridge (at your own risk) —
on to Bridgeport, brilliant in every
way ; stylish girls and fellows, firm and
vigorous movement, vibrant life.

Let us see all of Bridgeport; so the
six-cylinder Haynes pauses at the
cabaret.

Don't abandon hope, ye who enter,
but get on while you are still normal !

Noise ! Noise ! ! Noise ! ! !

Noisy sounds from the piano ; noisy
sounds by a good voice that knows
nothing of the art of singing, noisy talk,
noisy laughter, exceedingly noisy cos-
tumes, noisome air and fortissimo
marks on the thermometer.

How poor the things that cost so
dear ! Fresh air is free, stale air costs
by the minute. The genial family with
its handsome sons and pretty daugh-
ters, has the latch string out ; the un-
clean cabaret with its stench and rouge
taxes you at the door. Pure water and
delicious viands bestow^ed without

242

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

stint by the head of the family ; drug-
ged waters and food flavored with
sweat at the cabaret, plus the fragrance
of stale tobacco, stale alcohol, very
stale alcoholics, stale strategems all
around.

Oh yes, the people like to be hum-
bugged ! For the tables were filled, so
were the come-ons — ears, eyes, noses,
bellies — with poison, and their pockets
rapidly emptying.

Yet neither the poor, pretty, panited
girls, nor the gluttonous drinkers were
as poor as the man who taxed all for
his poor stuff.

Enough. We have seen poverty of
soul, poverty of mind, poverty of taste ;
to-morrow we shall see riches. Back
to Stamford.

Up and out into the fresh morning
air, past prosperous homesteads and
fragrant gardens, glimpses of the spark-
ling Sound, and we apply brakes at
ArcAdiA.

"Welcome," says the bright blue sky ;
"Welcome," say the trees : "come, enjoy
our shade ;" "Welcome," from the leaf-
embowered cottages ; "Welcome," say
the whole God-blessed clan of Bige-
lows.

Take your ease, breathe ozone, walk
with God, feast your soul.

Forget the poor cabaret, for here is
wealth. Strength, love, normality —
these are yours without condition or
price at ArCz^diA.

Stamfordians, you can get the price-
less for nothing, or you can buy the
worthless by paying out your all.

Everyone to his taste.

But taste can be acquired.

Has Established a Conchological
Museum.

Y. Hirase, one of the members of The
Agassiz Association, has been a faithful
worker among shells for thirty years. He
labors for a new ideal along the line of
nature study but in the meritorious pur-
suit he has met with many financial trials.
Recently he issued a circular in which he
appeals to his American friends, telling
the story of his struggles, the great ex-
pense for books, papers, magazines and
the time that he has devoted to the work.
He states that he has consumed half his
property and that necessarily hi? family
has lived sparingly. But, good for him,
he has been sticking to it and now expres-

ses his determination as follows : "I was
determined 'not to look back, as J had put
my hand to the plough' nor to leave it
off until I should fall down dead."

Every lover of shells wili be interested
in his circular. Add'-ess : V. Hirase,
President, The Hirase Conchological
Aluseum, Okazaki, Kyoto, Jai)aii.

The Astonishingly Powerful Stump
Pulling Machine.

That Mr. Seton aided by one or two
workmen has been able to uproot such
enormous trees, as was explained in
our November number, has attracted much
attention and elicited many inquiries.
At the time of publication of that num-
ber we did not know the manufactur-
er's address, but have obtained it and
are glad to present it to our many in-
quiring friends. Full particulars may
he obtained from Walter J. Fitzpatrick,
182 Fifth Street, San Francisco, Cali-
fornia.

A man at the handle of this machine
can lift forty-eight tons. This is more
than can be accomplished by sixteen
horses. Is there any^thing more aston-
ishing in all the realm of mechanical
power? The editor, watching the
operation of the little machine, realized
that it is entitled to its name of the
"Wonder Worker."

It will pull any stump that a one
inch wire cable will hold. It is built
of first-class material, it will last a life-
time, and it is not expensive. Think
how convenient this is for any farmer
or, perhaps even better, for some local
contractor that could easily secure one
and do a thriving business among the
farmers and others that have need of
so powerful a machine. A few farmers
could club together and own it in a
company and each have the benefit of
it. Where in all the world can another
machine be found capable of pulling
as much as sixteen horses, and needing
onlv one man to control it?

Of Interest to Parents.

"Child Life," published by the Amer-
ican Institute of Child Life, of Phila-
delphia, Pennsylvania, has been dou-
bled in size and so improved that it is
now in true harmony^ with its name.
It publishes much material of interest
to parents, and reprints from a large
number of magazines suggestions in-
tended to inspire interest among the
young folks themselves.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATIOX

243

Tragic Death of a Young Naturalist.

On September 21st. only a few days
after his eighth birthday, little Robert
Walker of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was
struck by an automobile as he was cross-
ing the street to visit a candy store, and
almost instantly killed. His father is the
representative of The Agassiz Associa-

was Robert and his brother Wendell who
at the dinner table said: 'Tell Mr. Bige-
low to come ; Wendell and I have $50 in
the bank ; we will bear his expenses. We
want to see him and hear him tell some
stories." I intended to allow him to carry
out his wishes, and you will remember
that when I wrote you I stated, 'You will
be amused when you learn who it is that
is putting up the guarantee fund.'

"HE HAS THE MAGAZINES UNDER HIS
ARM."

"SHOWS HIM FEEDING HIS PET KID."

tion for Tennessee and for a long time
has taken active interest in the work. He,
his son and the other members of his
family are good naturalists. The editor
■expected to visit the family last autumn.
but was unavoidably prevented. Under
date of October 7th ^Ir. Walker writes
as follows :

'T am sorry that you did not know
Robert personally. He was a born natur-
alist, and the most affable, and genial
child that ever lived. He never failed
to •enjoy a beautiful sunset, or a glorious
sunrise, nor to try to show others the
beauty that was in nature. The plants,
the birds, the flowers, everything in
nature had a peculiar charm for him.
Three hours before the occurrence of the
terrible accident that took away his life
he was caressing his butterflies, feeding
his garden spider, and showing me the
spines on the back of an lo moth larva.

"Last fall when we were anticipating
a visit from you and when the organiza-
tion here failed to keep its pledge to sup-
ply the funds that were to bring you. it

"T enclose a photograph that I made
of him last winter when the snow was
on the ground, and as he was starting
out to solicit subscriptions for The Guide
TO Nature. He has the magazines tnider
his arm. The other photograph shows
him feeding his pet kid. This was taken
a few weeks before his death.''

Fill the Mind with Roadsides.
For, if we can fill the plastic minds of
growing children with thotights of the
beautiful world of nature, with the fas-
cination of the myriads of wee beati-
ties, more wonderfttl than a circus, we
can so saturate them with the good,
that no room remains for the morbid,
the inidesirable, the vicious. Let us
teach them to read roadsides, as well
as books. — "The Nature-Study Re-
view."

Nature is so prodigal,

She heaps her treasures up:

If to her we look for joy,
Full will be our cup.

— Emma Peirce.

244

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

°®«®®SS<B<S®'

LITERAM© e NOTICES

Natural Education. By Winifred Sackville
Stoner. Indianapolis, Indiana: The
Bobbs-Merrill Company.

The author tells in a simple and direct man-
ner just how she educated her daughter, Wini-
fred Sackville Stoner, Jr., from the cradle up
to her tenth year. In her choice of topics she has

with Winifred in an extraordinary way by
following the laws of a natural education.
She contends that there should be schools for
mothers rather than for children, and that
love combined with intelligence and ingenuity
can work wonders in making so-called "dry"
studies interesting and valuable. She de-
scribes games through which children may

Miss Winifred Sackville Stoner
SHE AND HER MOTHER ARE MEMBERS OF THE AGASSIZ SOCIETY

been guided by the many letters received from
mothers and teachers asking how she succeed-
ed in training her little girl so she could speak
several languages and write for periodicals
at the age of five years, and yet retain all the
characteristics of a healthy, playful child.
Mrs. Stoner shows that she has succeeded

learn to read, write, spell, acquire different
languages, and gain a general knowledge of
history, geography, physiology and mathemat-
ics. And she attributes the remarkable re-
sults she has achieved to the help of the "good
giants. Observation and Concentration," and
the "little fairy. Intense Interest," led by "Im-

LITERARY NOTES

IX

agination, mortals' greatest gift," which can
"make the pathway of Knowledge one of joy
for all children."

Facts in Jingles. By Winifred Sackville,

Stoner, Jr. Indianapolis, Indiana : The

Bobbs-Merrill Company.

From the educational point of view amid

natural methods, one hardly knows which to

admire most — the mother that has used plain

common sense in her efficient teaching, or the

daughter that has profited by the teaching of
so wise and skilled a mother. We are espe-
cially glad that both mother and daughter are
Members of The Agassiz Association and that
they are carrying on their nature work in
connection with ArcAdiA. ]Many specimens
collected by Winifred are on exhibition in our
laboratory. These include living pitcher
plants and Venus's-flytraps. These flytraps
are found onlv in Wilmington, North Caro-

Winifred, age three

lina, so far as has been reported to ArcAdiA.
Of this remarkable girl, the publishers say in
their announcement of her books :

The best developed child in America, Wini-
fred Sackville Stoner, Jr., could speak several
languages and wrote for newspapers and mag-
azines at the age of five, and yet retained all
of the characteristics of a healthv, plavful
child.

At the age of nine she passed the college
entrance examinations, and now at twelve,
she has mastered eight languages, has written
nine books, is a teacher of Esperanto, an ac-
complished musician, and is stronger physi-

cally than the average child of her age.

She is not a genius nor a wonder child, but
simply a normal child well developed through
a svstem of Natural education invented by her
mother, Mrs. Winifred Sackville Stoner,
from whom she has received her training.

Any mother can do for her child what Mrs.
Stoner has done for her daughter, if she
employs Mrs. Stoner's methods.

Any mother can learn Mrs. Stoner's sys-
tem from her book, in which she analyzes,
outlines and describes her entire plan as car-
ried out during the education of her
daughter from the cradle to her tenth year.

X

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Bird Lore for October is a Bird-Club
number, with articles on the forming and
conducting of bird clubs by Frank M.
Chapman, Ernest Harold Baynes, and
others. Reports from the leading bird clubs
of the country show that some of these
purely local organizations have as many as
500 members, and the interest they arouse in
Citizen Bird indicates that the bird-club
movement is possessed of a far-reaching
importance.

Industrial and Vocational Education. By
S. H. Comings. 1140 Columbus Avenue,
Boston, Massachusetts : Christopher Pub-
lishing House.

The scope of this interesting book is well
expressed in the dedication to all that desire
to see the supreme ambition of our civiliza-
tion turned from the effort to develop
things to the development of thehighestpos-
sible average type of manhood and woman-
hood; and to all who would see labor
spiritualized, and man's creative attribute
changed from the ideal of degradation to
that of communion with each other, and
with the infinite.

The book is of especial local interest since
it devotes much attention to Mrs. Johnson's
School of Organic Education at Fairhope,
Alabama. Mrs. Johnson has a summer
school at Greenwich, Connecticut. In the
introduction, C. Hanford Henderson says:

"There is a wholesome compromise be-
tween this extreme and the other extreme
represented by child labor. It lies, I think,
in having children do everything they pos-
sibly can for themselves, and then every
day something of real service for the gen-
eral good of the household."

obtainable from a farm, the man adapted by
taste or natural inclination to a rural life
can be happy in the country, can there give
his children proper training and there make
them happy. The book is good to look at
and, perhaps better than this, it is good to
read. Its topics cover a wide range, and
are pleasingly treated.

Connecticut and some other states would
do well if they should adopt some of New
York's methods. The trouble with many of
our rural schools in Connecticut is that they
follow too closely the methods of city
schools and turn the children's attention
toward the city. They are too well com-
mercialized and not well enough naturalized.

Cornell Rural School Leaflet. An Issue
for Teachers. Ithaca. New York: The
Department of Rural Education, New
York State College of Agriculture at
Cornell LTniversity.
Here are nature study and agriculture in
delightful combination. "Nature study,"
the editors say, "is the study of nature.
Every boy and girl should be encouraged to
find education and resources in the out-of-
doors. They should know the wild life
about them — the birds, the trees, the flowers,
and wood. They should take interest in the
the weds, the insects, the animals of field
soils, the rocks, the brooks, the hills, the
woodlot, the forest. They should learn to
love the music of the wind, the soughing of
the pines, the clear, true starlights, the rest-
fulness of rains, and the magic of the snows.
Love of nature is a valuable asset in the
lives of farm folk."

The publication of such a plain, attractive,
common sense book on nature study in its
relation to farm life is encouraging. There
is the absence of that popular and foolish
teaching, that a city man can without pre-
vious experience remove to a farm and in
a few months make a fortune. The book
suggests nothing of the kind but does show
that in addition to any pecuniary returns

How to Attract Wild Birds about the Home.
By Niel Morrow Ladd, President of the
Greenwich Bird Protective Society, Inc.,
with an Introduction by Charles D. Lanier,
Greenwich, Connecticut : The Greenwich
Bird Protective Society, Inc.
This book, which includes the First An-
nual Report of the Greenwich Bird Protec-
tive Society, Inc., is extremely convenient
and attractive. Its literary form is good,
the illustrations are beautiful, meritorious,
mechanically perfect, and tell the story in
a manner not only instructive but inspiring.
Mr. Ladd is doing wonderful work. He de-
serves and will doubtless receive the hearty
support of bird lovers. He is an enthusias-
tice ornithologist and possessor of the busi-
ness ability to make that enthusiasm prac-
tical. We advise our readers to send
thirty-five cents for a copy of this unique
and attractive book.

Nature Study Review

Official Journal American Nature Study
Society

The numbers for the coming school year
will be filled with special art'cles from
practical teachers dealing with actual work,
methods and suggestions for School Gar-
dening, Elementary Agriculture, and Nature
Study.

DO NOT MISS ANY OF THEM.
$100 per year 15c per copy

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Add for Canadian Postage 10c. Foreign

Postage 20c. With "Guide to Nature"

one year $1.50.

Address all orders to

The Nature Study Review

ITHACA, N. Y.

JANUARY, 1916

THE GUID
TO NATUR

VOL. VUI /

hDVVAKD F. BIGELOW, Managing Editor

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY

iTHE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION. ARCAoi A: Sound Beach, Conn.

Subscription, $1.00 a Year; Single Copy, 10c

"G.A.r\|iJG

GREENWICH

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THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

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A New System of Banking by Mail

A unique svstem of Banking by mail has been in-
stituted by The Putnam Trust Co. of Green\yich
Conn., intended to afford a simple and safe method
bv which people living at a distance can carry on
interest accounts through the mails. Ihe tirst and
sub'^equent deposits can be sent by check or a
money order with the depositor's signature and ad-
dress The company sends a certificate which looks
a good deal like a coupon bond. A number of siiiaU
coupons are attached, and when the depositor wish-
es to withdraw he can do so by simply filling out a
coupon, and mail certificate, with the coupon at-
tached, to the company. These certificates are non-
negotiable and cannot be used except by the person
who has the account. In return, a check is sent by
The Putnam Trust drawn on the Guaranty 1 rust
Company of New York, which can be cashed m any
place where there is a bank. Deposits and with-
drawals are noted on the certificates, showing tne
exact balance. For depositors in foreign countries
a bill of exchange is sent payable in the currency
of the country. The company pays the usual four
per cent, interest and its operations are safeguarded
by the laws of the State of Connecticut

SEND $5.00 FOR TRIAL ACCOUNT

4 Banking By Mail

A CERTIFICATE

original with

The Putnam Trust Co.
of Greenwich, Conn.

Best and Safest Method
Deposits of $1 to $10,000 draw interest from the

first of every month

TO DEPOSIT fill out the blank below and mail

with deposit

Signature

Address

Amount of Deposit

Fresh New Crop Vegetable and Flower
SEEDS

Bird Houses and Bird Foods Ask for Catalogue

J. B. McARDlE, Florist and Seedsman

Merritt Building

Greenwich, Conn.

Robert Stewart
choice groceries

FLOUR AND FEED

SOTTND BEACH. CT.

Telephone Connection

Nature Needs More Words.

The weather Bureau has sprung a new
one. It is the word "smog" and it means
smoke and fog. The bureau explains
that very frequently there are times when
this mixture is apparent in the atmos-
phere, and it considers the new word a
great little idea.

Very well, "smog" let it be, says the
Kokomo Tribune. But why end there?
Let's call a mixture of snow and mud
"smud." A mixture of snow and soot
"snoot," and a mixture of snow and hail
"snail." Thus we might have a weather
forecast :

"Snail today, turning to snoot tonight ;
tomorrow smoggy with smud." — Coun-
try Gentleman.

When Two Fools Met.

Dr. P. S. Henson once delivered his
lecture on "Fools" at the New York
Chautauqua. Introducing him, Bishop
Vincent said: "Ladies and gentlemen,
we are now to listen to a lecture on 'Fools'
by one — (and the audience broke into a
roar of laughter, and, after it had died
away, Bishop Vincent added) — "of the
most brilliant men in America." Dr.
Henson rose, and with a genial smile,
said: "Ladies and gentlemen, I am not
so great a fool as Bishop Vincent" — (an-
other roar of laughter, after which the
speaker added) — "would have you be-
lieve."

D. MAHER & SONS

LEHIGH COAL, HYGEIA ICE

BUILDING MATERIAL, LIME, LATH,
BRICK, SAND, CEHENT, DRAIN PIPE

Tel. 1582-2 Sound Beach, Conn.

FT

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

Stamford Business Directory

WE SELL
LEHIGH VALLEY ANTHRACITE

"The Coal That Satisfies'

GRAVES AND
STRANG

Tel ^
1046.

COAL

INC

556 Canal St. STAMFORD, CONN.

JOHN PHILLIPS

Dealer in
BOOTS AND SHOES

463 Main St. Stamford, Conn.

FOR FINE MILLINERY
NEWSTAD'S

200 ATLANTIC STREET, STAMFORD, CONN

THE STAMFORD LUNCH

276 MAIN STREET STAMFORD, CONN

FRED McDERMANT, Proprietor
We cater to Parties, Clubs, Stags and Outings 45-47 Bank St.

VOSKA &L OXTO

TAILORS

Suits and Ovei coats to Order Twenty-five dollars up
We mean of better kinds

Stamford, Conn.

W. H. ARTHUR

CONTRACTOR

Sewers, Pavements, Macadam Roads, Concrete
Walls, Excavating Rock, Railroads

Dealer in Sand and Gravel
P. O. Box 88 Telephone Connection

Room 306, 1 Bank St.. Stamford. (Jonn.

REMOVAL NOTICE

Drs. W. H. and E. W. Pomeroy

DENTISTS

are now located in the Gurley Building,
324 Main St., opposite City Hall.

THE STAMFORD HAT MFG. CO. ''°%*lK-speciaiir°°'

Gold and Silver Platins
Engraving

PRACTICAL HATTERS

Panama Bleaching and Renovating of
all Kinds

20 WORTH STREET

•ITAMFORD

SAMUEL PHILLIPS

Jeweler and Optician
Diamonds and Watches

232 Atlantic Street - STAMFORD, CONN.
CONN. TELEPHONE 516-2

THE GUIDE TO MATURE— ADVERTISEMENTS.

THE STAMFORD LUMBER CO-

LUMBER

Sash- Doors. Blinds and Window-Frames

WHOLESALE AND RETAIL

OFFICE AND YARD. 297 PACIFIC STREET
STAMFORD, CONN.

O-H

8876 {With Basting Line and Added

Seam Allowance) Child's Dress, i,

^, 4 and 6 years.

Here is a frock that can be made from flouncing and
from material with equal success It is a very charming
little model, eminently childlike, yet essentially smart
and it can be made with a high or square neck and with
either short or long sleeves, so that it seems adapted to
many occasions as well as to many materials. When
flouncing is used, the hem and tucks are of necessity
omitted. Here, the fulness at the upper edge is laid in
tiny tucks, but it would be quite possible to substitute
smocking and smocking is exceedingly smart and also
gives a very pretty effect. On the figure, the frock is
made of embroidered flouncing with plain lawn for the
sleeves and lace banding used as trimming. In the small
front view, it is made of rose colored challis with lace
and it makes a very pretty frock suited to the girls of six
years of age.

For the 4 years size will be needed, 2 yds. of material
27 or 36 in. wide, 1 3-4 yds. 44, or 1 1-2 yds. of flouncing,
27 in. wide, with 1-2 yd. of plain material 36 in. wide
and 2 1-4 yds. of banding.

NEW STORE NEW LOCATION

NEW GOODS

COME AND VISIT

AUGUST GARGIULO

Cor. Main and Greyrock Place

DELMONICO RESTAURANT

Good Food Promptly served at popular

prices in neat and tasty manner.

GEORGE PIERRIDES

284 Main Street,
Stamford Connecticut

Xpy

for

IVIen's Xogs

Suits and Overcoats to measure

Gleaning, Repairing and Pressing

a Specialty

Best Hat Values Obtainable in the

Celebrated C & K

Line of Derby and Soft Hats

196 Atlantic St.

Stamford Connecticut

VT

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Full Plans and Specifications May be Obtained from
THE GUIDE TO NATURE.

Attractive and Convenient.

The house shown here is a roomy, attractive group of rooms. Kitchen is
comfortable one, with wide porches. The l)rig"ht and convenienth- arranged. Rear
reception hall, living room and dining porch. On the second floor are four bed-
room with bay AvindoAV are a pleasant, rooms and a bath. . An unusually large

Second tlooc

TiRST Tlooq

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

VII

amount of closet s]

)ace is

pr

ovided.

The cost of this

house

IS

given in th

items below :

Excavation

$ 90

Stonework

175

1') rick work

60

Carpenter work

525

Plastering-

200

Lumber

550

Aiillwork

500

Painting and Gk

izmg

250

Plumbing, etc

225

Hardware

100

Hot air heating

125

Range

40

Total

?2,840

Mail for the Murphys.

A freckle-faced girl stopped at the
post-ofifice and yelled out: "Anything
for the Murphys?"

"No, there is not," said the postmas-
ter.

"Anything for Jane Murphy?"

"Nothing."

"Anvthing for Ann Murphv?"

"No?'

"Anything for Tom Murphy?"

"No."

"Anything for Bob Murphv?"

"Not a bit."

"Anything for Jerry Murphy?"

"Nothing at all."

"Anything for Lize Murphy?"

"No, nor Pat Murphy, nor Dennis
Murphy, nor for Pete Murphy, nor
Paul Murphy, nor, John, Jack nor Jim
Murphy, nor any Murphy, dead, living,
unborn, native or foreign, civilized,
savage or barbarous, male or female,
black or white, franchised or disfran-
chised, natural or otherwise. No !
there is positively nothing individually,
jointly, severally, now and forever."

The girl looked at the postmaster in
astonishment and said: "Please see if
there is anvthing for Clarence ^Murphv."
—Truth.

Protest Answered. — "Hang it, Jones,
I've just been stung by one of your
confounded bees ! I demand repara-
tion !"

"Certainly, Bilson. You just show
me which bee it was and I'll punish the
horrid thing severely !" — Philadelphia
Evening Ledger.

Difficulties of Physiology.

Young Arthur had the study of anat-
omy at school, and had shown interest-
in the course. (Jne morning at breakfast
he asked his mother in grave perplexity,
"Mother, I know where my liver is, but
where is my bacon?"

Passed. — The excellence of the Crea-
tor's work is officially established, as
evidenced by the following from a
motion picture screen :

"As God Made It."

"Approved by the Ohio State Board
of Censors," — Boston Herald.

The Best Firm.

A pretty good firm is Watch & Waite
And another is Attit, Early & Layte;
And still another is Doo & Dairet ;
But the best is probablv Grinn & Barret.

Walter G. Doty in "Woman's Home Com-
panion."

The place you will eventually go
to have your

CHIROPRACTIC SPINAL ADJUSTMENTS

Latest Painless Methods. Spinal Analysis Free

E. BARTHOL, D. C.

Week Days Only, 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. Phone 1727

w. A. McClelland

OPTOMFTRIST OPTICIAN

yburStatwnery
J\keds-

whether business or social,
can be supplied here to the
best advantage. Variety,
quality, price, all in your
favor. We would espec-
ially like to show you

345 Atlantic Street

STAMFORD, CONN.

VIIj

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

THE C. 0. MILLER CO.

January is the Month of Bargains

In this month we undertake to clear our stock of all remaining lots and
oddments of winter goods. To accomplish this we CUT PRICES deeply,
realizing that to interest you sufficiently in this merchandise to enable us to
quickly dispose of it, we must offer extraordinary bargains.

THE SALE AFFECTS

Dress Goods — Silks — Coats — Furs — Curtains and Cur-
tain Materials — Balance of Holiday Merchandise — China
and Various Things from all Departments

Buy Now at Positive Savings.

The — Trolley — Brings — You — to — Our — Door.

Established 48 Years.

Atlantic Square Stamtord, Conn.

ESTABLISHED iSsi

THEQETMAN&JUDD CO.

Lumber and Timber of all Kinds

SPECIALTY: High Grade HARDWOOD FLOORING

thoroughly Kil«Ditcd amd stored ia Steam heated huild
iag until delivered to our customers. Our steadily in-
creasing trade in this specialty proves the fact thai
the country home is not complete until fitted out with
this beautiful and sanitary furnishing. Old residence!
may be greatly imp'-oved hy laying thin floors over the
old ones.

CANAL DOCKS, STAMFORD, CONN.
Telephone 2180.

Homes Near to Nature

Should be so constructed as to give lasting satisfaction.
Our method of manufacturing dependable Interior and
Exterior house trim from thoroughly kiln dried materia)

Dy skilled mechanics insures such satisfaction.

THE 5T. JOHN WOODWORKING CO.

Canal docks, Stamford Conn.

Telephone 78 1

DIRECTORS
WALTON FERGUSON, Pres. W. W. HEROY,

W. D. DASKAM, Vice Pres. F. H. HOYT.

W. H. JUDD, Sec. and Treas. F. VV. BOGARDUS.

J. G. WIGG, General Manager.

The LOCKWOOD & PALMER Co.

Wholesale and Retail
Dealers in

HARDWARE

AGRICULTURAL

IMPLEMENTS

House Furnishings, Etc.

TOOLS
A.11 Kinds

92 PARK PLACE

(Cor. Summer Street)

STAMFORD - CONN

TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS

:ii:

II

Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Connecticut,

Subscription, $1.00 a year Single copy, 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12. 1909, at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897.

Vol

VIII

JANUARY, 1916

Number 8

An Adjoining Institution of Outdoor Interests.

By EDWARD F. BIGELOW, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Connecticut.

THE Agassiz Association's ArcAdiA
and the Sound Beach Golf Links lie
side by side. The history of the locat-
ing of both organizations in this pictur-
esque spot and as next door neighbors
has much in common. The reasons for
the removal of the organizations to this
part of the town are likewise similar. The
purpose of each is to afford healthful
occupation and to incite an interest in "all
out of doors." The real intent of a ram-
ble in the fields and the woods with cam-
era or collecting case, with eyes wide open
and mind alert is, in the end, precisely
the same as that of knocking a ball across
similar fields and artificial obstacles.
When we consider prime purposes, we
discover that we differ only in methods
and not in fundamental principles. Both
occupations seek similar results, both de-
mand muscular exercise, and require
considerable skill. The joy of photo-
graphing a bird or of finding a rare speci-
men of plant is about the same, I judge,
as that of making a certain number of
strokes carry a ball to a certain point on
the links.

The Sound Beach Golf Links and The
Agassiz Association's ArcAdiA are ex-
changing contributors in that each fur-

nishes the other with reciprocal pictur-
esqueness. We recently published in this
magazine an account of a land owner in
New York that possesses the right of
view across the fields in front of his prop-
erty. In his deed is the restriction that
the view from his territory shall never be
disturbed, and a pecuniary value is, for
perhaps the first time, placed upon a land-
scape. The Sound Beach Golf Club is
contributing definite pleasure to the AA,
and is increasing ArcAdiA's value. We
are trying to reciprocate by improving
the appearance of our territory, so as to
increase the Golf Club's pleasure in the
landscape.

Do these golfers know how really beau-
tiful they are ? I am not referring to their
personal pulchritude, but to the charm
and grace that they add to the landscape.
If they were engaged by the day to pose
in picturesque attitudes on the rolling
green for our satisfaction, they could do
no better than they now do without money
and without price. Every visitor at
ArcAdiA, especially those who visit
Nymphalia, admires the strong, healthful
strides, the graceful poses, the alluring
aspect of the golfers as they march over
the links, following a ball that leaps in

Copyright 1915 by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn.

244

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

AN ADJOINING INSTITUTION OF OUTDOOR INTERESTS 245

ON HOLIDAYS ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE GOLF CLUB.

mathematical curves before their dexter-
ous blows. Little of this world's beauty
is self-conscious ; for this it is all the more
charming. Do the golfers in their gay
costumes on holidays and Saturdays real-
ize how greatly they enhance the beauty
of ArcAdiA Road as they pass to and
fro in their pursuit of a few hours exhil-
arating exercise? They often look to-
ward ArcAdiA — we have been happy to
see them do it — as if it were hallowed
ground — something admirable, enviable,

desirable next after, perhaps next before,
their adorable links, not tangible, only
visible, but far beyond their reach.

Once we tried to break the icy barrier
by sending a circular of invitation to each
of the club members, offering them the
nature study facilities of this Institution.
\\'e received a prompt reply. Two men,
one woman and two boys visited our In-
stitution, expressed great delight with it,
and wondered why we had neglected to
invite the club members and to let them

NOW WE ARE READY TO SHOW^ YOU HOW^ WE KEEP YOUNG AND \T:G0R0US.

246

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

know what we are doing'. It is consoling
to know that some faults have been cor-
rected. We are hoping for frequent visits
in the future.

Once a golfer, always a golfer, with no
leisure time for anything but golf. I
admire this club and these enthusiastic
people. A thing that is worth doing at
all is worth doing whole-heartedly. A
golfer would so act if he should take an
interest in nature study. We know that
such will understand why we at ArcAdiA
have no time to play golf. I must content
mvself with a distant view of the links.

presents golf links to people financially
less favored. There are thousands of
dollars given to keep people indoors, to
provide institutions for the care of con-
sumptives, but where is the wise philan-
thropist that will make golf links available
to those less successful in financial mat-
ters ; A sanatorium for the alleviation
or the cure of consumption is a good
thing. It is perhaps better to provide
spacious and palatial buildings for libra-
ries. Young Men's Christian Associations,
Rescue Homes, settlements, hospitals,
but whv does not some lover of golf who

THE GOLF PROFESSOR GIVING A PRACTICAL LECTURE ON

ING OUTDOOR EXERCISE."

'THE BENEFITS OF INTEREST-

and an occasional visit to these cordial
and hospitable people, and I must try not
to be disappointed if they do not honor
us by rushing to become members, nor
by such frequent visits as we should like
them to make. There is a zest in the golf-
er's manner of occupying his spare time
in his favorite field, but what shall we
say of the astonishing indifference of so
many people who make no efi^ort to get
into God's outdoors, but confine them-
selves in stuffy rooms devoted to "the
movies" or some other form of entertain-
ment that deprives them of the joys of
the fresh air and of the open country ?

Exclusiveness is the one criticism that
may be made of golfing. This will prob-
ably continue until some philanthropist

possesses millions of dollars provide golf
grounds for clerks, factory workers,
sales people and school teachers? These
would enjoy the swinging of golf sticks
and the exhilarating walk across the links.

I realize that some people will never
take an intellectual interest in nature.
They may go a-fishing or fill a basket
with mushrooms, under the delicious
hypocrisy that they are seeking" something
for the table when in reality their own
heart is, maybe unconsciously, seeking
contact with the heart of Nature. They
need not be ashamed to confess it. The
things that touch the inner life are often
reluctantly admitted. They need not be.
So to confess is an honor.

The Sound Beach Golf Club may have

AN ADJOINING INSTITUTION OF OUTDOOR INTERESTS 247

STUDENTS IX THE GREAT COLLEGE OF MOTHER NATURE.

full credit for developing' muscles, per-
haps even for developing" the links more
successfully than The Agassiz Associa-
tion accomplishes its chosen labor, yet
ArcAdiA cannot but feel a superiority
because it is at least trying to reach and
to help all classes while the club is neces-
sarily restricted, and perhaps reluctantly
exclusive. The average golf club says,
"Keep off the .grounds ; the heels of your
shoes cut into the turf." They also must
necessarily say, "You can't join our club;
vou are not rich enough." Thev sav

these things regretfully, and we are dis-
posed to refrain from what may be con-
sidered intrusive. We should like to be
better acquainted with our golfing neigh-
bors, and to have them get better ac-
quainted with the fundamental principles
of the A A. We do not expect that they
will come bodily into our field any more
than we expect to go bodily into theirs.
They run over into Nymphalia at times,
and into the Agassiz Grove occasionally,
to get a ball. When they do that, can't
they stop and investigate the fundamental

'e4 1 W

■^^k

E?

IPIvw^^w 1 ii^^^^^^^^ ^ ^/ I ^■^B^^H ^SK^^H

pTll

mm

•FOR THKV ARK .KM.IA' GOOD FELLOWS, WHICPI NOBODY CAN DENY."

248

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

principles of our Association that they
may extend their activities, and ours, too,
stili further, and so reach all classes of
people? Take this thought, Mr. Golfer,
and knock it around for a while, and
travel with it up hill and down as you
travel there with your golf ball. We beg
for money to extend our work, so that
the poorest child, the most uncultured
man, the most ignorant human being,
may have the benefit of it as well as our
members in private schools and in tech-
nical universities. ArcAdiA is happy to
have you next door. As an institution
you do well, but as an Institution we are
doing better. Please do not keep all your
joy to yourselves. We do not keep all
of ours to ourselves. Some millionaire
golfer who desires to leave a monument
to himself and for the benefit of humanity
may set a good example to others by
taking the lead and establishing a golf
club that shall be as open to membership
as is a Young Men's Christian Associa-
tion or a public library, and as general
in scattering benefits as are hospitals and
settlement houses.

I have heard that some members of the
golf club think The Agassiz Association
is a little too persistent in its efforts to
secure money, and in expecting everybody
to be interested in its work. The criticism
may be just. Good Mr. Golfer, here and
elsewhere extend your own fields in your
own wav, but burn this fact into your

memory, learn this one truth — we extend
our interests, we shall continue to labor by
day and by night to extend our interests
so as to bring the joys of nature to every-
body, old or young, rich or poor, black
or white. We are not exclusive. We
cannot be. We would not be if we could.
You are so because the nature of your
favorite pursuit compels. You have no
choice. It is that or nothing. All those
that I have mentioned would enjoy golf,
but they cannot. This is not their fault
neither is it yours. We have carried
Nature to the slums of New York, and
you could carry your interests to thous-
ands, along precisely the same lines, by
purchasing grounds somewhere in the
country to which the boys of New York
City might go to play their childish golf,
as your caddies play theirs in your ab-
sence, and on your grounds. There are
boys and girls, men and women innumer-
able who would like golfing as well as
you like it, and I am sure that you would
enjoy your golfing better if you will pro-
vide free golf grounds for those that can-
not afford to pay for them. A golfer is
a royal good fellow, and his female com-
panion too is a royal good fellow. She
is as full of zeal as the other good fellow.
She follows the ball with as much zest,
and she appears to be as fond of the exer-
cise, the out-of-doors movements and the
application of her skill as is the more ro-
bust player of the other sex.

DO THESE GOLFERS REALIZE HOW MrCII OF CHARM AND GRACE THEY AUU TO THE

LANDSCAPE?

AN ADJOINING INSTITUTION OF OUTDOOR INTERESTS 249

AT HEART THEY ARE REAL ARCADIANS AND LOVE CORNFIELD DECORATIONS.

We are learning from the Sound Beach
Golf Club. We enjoy their presence as
next door neighbors. We hope that this
benefit may be reciprocal. We have re-
ceived good things from them. We ac-
knowledge that they are doing much in
the outdoor air of this Arcadian territory.
We acknowledge that they are representa-
tive of good principles. We should like
to have these golf players run over the
walls out of their fields and into our
fields occasionally, to examine some of the
fundamental missionary principles of The
Agassiz Association that may be applied
as well to golfing.

Lightning Kills Fish in a Creek.

BY FRANK B. HOPKINS, NORTH SALEM,
INDIANA.

In a recent thunderstorm, a dead elm
about fifty or sixty feet high and over-
hanging a long pool in Eel River, here
only a rod or two rods wide, and about
a mile and three-quarters north of this
place, was struck by a tremendous bolt.
The current followed the tree to the
"elbow" where it turns to grow erect,-
and there left it for the river after con-
siderably shattering the trunk. The
pool is some rods in length and is a
favorite spot in which to fish for carp
and crappie, which, with black bass,
calico bass and white suckers, are plen-
tiful here. After the storm two fami-
lies that live nearest the pool went to
see the stream and, noticing the dead

fish, began to gather them, as they
seemed but recently dead. Investiga-
tion showed the riven tree and the
point where the bolt had left it. The
fish were found on the bars and in
patches of saw grass and water willow
for a distance of more than half a mile.
One family gathered a bushel of them.

"How to Make an Eugenical Family
Study" is the title of one of the latest
bulletins of the Record Office at Cold
Spring Harbor, Long Island, New
York. It should interest not only per-
sons concerned with family genealogy,
but also all who take the naturalist's
attitude toward problems of human
nature.

Heed the Call.

The out-of-doors is calling you

Give heed unto its voice,
And ever after you will have

Good reason to rejoice.

For energy, vitality,

Sound health are in its keep,
Abounding spirits through the day,

At night refreshing sleep.

If these were held for ransom high,
Far sought would be the gain,

Yet they come knocking at your doors,
And often knock in vain.

Let wisdom guide you through the year,

To spurn would be a sin.
And when you cannot get outdoors

Why, let the outdoors in!

— Emma Pcirce.

2^0

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Vegetable Sheep of Peru.

A very curious plant growing in Peru
is known by the natives as "Yareta" or
"vegetable sheep."

"The plant grows abundantly among
rocks at high altitudes along the Andes
of Bolivia and Peru, where it constitutes
a conspicuous feature in the landscape
because of its peculiar manner of growth
in developing the so-called 'polster' or
cushion formation. Similar compact
masses of plant growth are frequently
found on high mountains, as well as in
arctic and antarctic regions."

The size and general appearance of
this big plant are shown in the illustra-
tions borrowed from the "Missouri
Botanical Garden Bulletin." Plate i

being made from a photograph taken by
Professor Bailey on Mount Chachani,
near Arequipa, at an elevation of fully
17,000 feet above sea-level.

"It forms hillocks or small mounds
often becoming three feet high and some-
times several feet in diameter. More-
over, the entire mound is made up of a
single plant, not of a colony of individ-
uals, and it attains this enormous size
and extreme compactness by a process
of repeated branching (Plate 2), so that
the ultimate branches are closely crowded
and the outer surface is continuous
(Plate 2). The flowers of the Yareta
are very tiny, only about two millimeters,
or less than one-eighth of an inch long,
and are borne in small sessile, axillary,
involucrate clusters near the tips of the

''0

TWO MOUNDS OF YARETA GROWING ON MT. CHACHAXI, NEAR AREQUIPA, PERU.

THE VEGETABLE SHEEP OF PERU

251

FRAGMENT OF YARETA. ABOUT NATURAL SIZE.
This cut and the one on the preceding page are lent to us by the "Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin."

branches ; and the fruit is somewhat hke
a miniature caraway seed."

A correspondent says that it is
"brought down to Arequipa by the car
load and forms the principal fuel of that
town."

The Dangers of Vulgarity.

The chief peril to which American
children are exposed is not immorality
but vulgarity. The Outlook has al-
ready painted out the various ways in
■which sound taste and healthful views

of life in children are assailed bv the

so-called "Comic Supplement," many
of the movies, and a good deal of the
current literature written especially
for them. Americans are extremely
alert in some ways and extremely dull-
minded in others. One of the most
severe comments ever made upon the
country was the statement that it has
ruthlessly cut down its noblest forests
to furnish the material on which the
sensational newspapers are published.
It has felled its forests to spread vul-
garity, exaggeration, and cheapness
throughout the whole country. — The
Outlook.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Seeds of Potatoes.

BY EDWARD F. BIGIiLOW.

Thirteen years ago I originated the
annnal summer school of nature study
at the Connecticut Agricultural Col-
lege, Storrs, Connecticut, and was the
director of the first session. One of
the members of the staff at that session
was Professor Gully, the horticultur-

five dollars, but I wanted the satisfac-
tion of proving that the professor was
in error. Potato balls? It seemed
only yesterday that I saw them lying
on the ground by the quart, the peck,
the half bushel! Potato balls? I re-
member hurling them from the end of
a sharp stick with almost the accuracy
of a catapult.

AN ATTRACTIX'E CLUSTER OF POTATO BALLS. "LOOK LIKE GREEN TOMATOES."
Photograph by courtesy of Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, California.

ist of the college. This expert in gar-
den products made one day an aston-
ishing statement that I thought was in-
tended to be oratorical rather than lit-
erally financial. When discoursing in
regard to the fruiting berries of the
common potato, he exclaimed, "All
these berries have disappeared from
the state. I will give twenty-five dol-
lars for one found within Connecticut."
No more of that lesson that day for
me. I did not expect to receive twenty-

I slipped out of the classroom and
hastened to the nearest potato patch.
Over an acre of ground, up and down
between the rows I traveled, but if the
prize had been one hundred dollars I
should have received it not. No pota-
to l^alls were there. Still, I was deter-
mined to show Professor Gully that
he was wrong. When I returned
home I hunted in my garden and in
the gardens of other people. I haunt-
ed potato fields and searched acres. I

THE PLANT WORLD UNDER CARE

253

AN ENLARGED VIEW OF A THIMBLEFUL OF POTATO SEED, NOW AT ARCADIA, THAT

COST OVER SIX DOLLARS.

invited others into the work. I talked
about it from the lecture platform in
various parts of the state. At last
came a letter and a package. "Here,
Air. Bigelow," said the letter, "are
fifty dollars' worth. I found these
two in hunting over an acre of potato
patch and I send them to you. Collect
fifty dollars from the professor. You
keep twenty-five. That will be fair to
both." With high anticipations I un-
wound the fastenings and removed the
cover of that box, but how dissimilar
to those great, round, smooth, tomato-
like forms so familiar to me, just a few
days ago, as it seemed, in boyhood's
familiarity with the potato patch !
These were vestigial berries no larger
than peas ! So for thirteen years I
have searched in vain to prove that
Professor Gully is wrong, but he must
still limit that claim to Connecticut,
although it would not cost him a for-
tune should he extend to the United
States in general.

From the lecture platform in Teach-
ers' Institutes in Ohio, Indiana and
Pennsylvania I have told the story of
that startling announcement, and in
most places I have offered a year's
subscription to this magazine for a
box of well-developed specimens. Last
August I made the offer before more
than two thousand teachers of Alle-
gheny County at Pittsburgh, Pennsyl-
vania, and again in one of the countr\-
districts of southern Indiana. The
announcement was received with eren--

eral surprise and the remark, "W^e can
send them to \ou by the bushel. We
will bankrupt you on subscriptions."
But of the thousands of teachers that
promised to search the fields only
about a dozen have responded, and
no package contained more than eight
or ten balls. Nearly all have been

rilE POTATO SEED STILL FURTHER ENLARGED.

254

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

vestigial. In the thirteen years not
more than thirty large, smooth, round,
perfect specimens have reached me. As
a result of my efforts during the past
summer, I have obtained at a cost of
six dollars less than a thimbleful of
the seed.

Now the question is, "What is go-
ing to happen to the potato crop when
no more seed is obtainable?" Most
readers know that what we call the
planting of seed potatoes is the plant-
ing of pieces of potato to raise a new
crop ; it is really but a sort of cutting
as one might cut twigs of willow and
set them in the ground to produce
new trees. Like grafting it produces
its own kind.

But when we plant potato seed it is
like planting apple seeds for we do
not know what will happen. The seeds
seem to become insane and trv to pro-
duce a little of everything. Fortunate
is the experimenter that finds in the
varied potato seedlings some particu-
lar form that may be better than the
original. I long ago gave up all at-
tempt to attain fame and fortune by
originating an Early Rose or some-
thing equally epoch-making, but I
find it interesting to experiment with
the seeds and I get kaleidoscopic effects
that most conspicuously manifest them-
selves about the second or third year.

These investigations have led to
efforts to ascertain where in the Unit-
ed States the seed may yet be obtained.
T have found a few in western Penn-
sylvania and a few more in West Vir-
ginia, but perhaps the best in the
vicinity of Jefferson. Ohio.

We request the reader to inquire
among the farmers and ascertain to
what extent these balls may now be
obtained. Here is an extremely in-
teresting nature topic, and the interest
of which is not lessened by the fact that
it is utilitarian.

Gray's "Field, Forest, and Garden
Botany" merely says' under Solan urn
tiiherosiiin, "Berries round. . green."
Much of interest remains unuttered in
those three words. The history of the
potato itself is of great interest. The
most extensive research leads to the
conclusion that the i^otato was not
found anywhere on the North Ameri-
can Continent before the arrival of
Europeans. Dr. Asa Gray and other
prominent investigators have reached

that conclusion. The potato was
known to the aborigines and was
found under cidtivation in the eastern
part of South America, on the heights
of Guiana and Brazil and in Chile.

A number of correspondents have
told me that Luther Burbank of Santa
Rosa, California, "has plenty." Mr.
Burbank throws the will-o'-tbe-wisp
clear across the continent to Maine
and writes :

"The reason for the scarcity of potato
seed is that the potatoes have been
grown from cuttings so long that it
has given up its habit of going to seed.

"It is somewhat difficult to obtain
potato seed, but you can probably ob-
tain it from some of the nurseries or
seed houses in Maine."

Many other correspondents explain
that the matter is very simple and
wonder why any one should even raise
the question. "You can get all you
want away 'down in Maine.' " So, up
on the map but "down" in common
parlance, to Maine we go. Here is
what the Department of Agriculture
of the State of Maine says :

"I do not know of anyone at present
who is experimenting in growing pota-
toes from seed. The season has been so
bad here in southern Maine that I have
not seen any mature seed bolls. I have
some at home in a little vial, probably
several himdred. These are several years
old and I do not know whether they
would germinate or not. They are either
from the Norcross or Clyde both of the
Green Mountain type and both very fine
potatoes. I have used them for that
reason in my own breeding work. I can
send these to you, if you desire, and will
make no charge for them as I am not
certain they will germinate."

W't have accepted the offer of a few
of these "scz'cral years old" seeds. You
see how plentiful they are away "down
in Maine.''

The more extensive the correspon-
dence the more one is inclined to agree
with the great Dreer seed house of
Philadelphia when it writes :

"We regret to say that we are im-
able to furnish you with the potato
balls and do not know any source of
supply for seeds."

Readers, this is an alarm cry ! Potato
seed is going from this country. There
is vet a little to be obtained. All that

THE PLANT WORLD UNDER CARE

^:)D

can be obtained should be put at once
into the hands of competent experi-
menters.

What are we going to do when the
present varieties of potatoes have "run
out," and no more seed can be ob-
tained?

United States Department of Agriculture,
Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, D.C.

Potato seed balls are frequently de-
veloped on potato plants grown in
northern latitudes. It is not at all un-
common to find a considerable number
of seed balls on potato vines in Aroos-
took County, Maine. Neither is it un-
common to find them in northern
Michigan and Wisconsin. I have also
seen them in a fair degree of abundance
in Greeley and Carbondale, Colorado.
Occasionally on certain varieties, they
may be developed quite abundantly in
this section of the country. We have a
collection of South American varieties
growing at Highlands, North Carolina,
which I hope to harvest this coming-
week that I am sure will supply us with
a considerable quantity of seed balls
of which I shall save a few for your
special use. On our seedlings of some
of our variety collection grown at Pres-
que Isle, Maine, this season, it would
have been possible to collect them by
the half-bushel. Unfortunately, I did
not have your letter at that time and
so did not save any.

The reason that seedballs are devel-
oped more frequently in northern lati-
tudes is that in a colder and moister
climate the potato plant reaches its
optimum development and, under these
conditions they more frequentlv pro-
duce seed than under more imfavorable
ones.

The reason why more seed balls are
not developed is due to the fact that
the plant fails to produce viable pollen.
— that is, pollen that is capable of ger-
mination. Whenever a variety is
grown that normally produces good
pollen in abundance one is almost sure
to obtain seed balls — Wm. Stuart, Hor-
ticulturist.

The meeting last September, at Gen-
eva, of the Swiss Society of the Natural
Sciences, which corresponds in that
country to our own A.A.A.S., was the
hundredth anniversary of the Society's
foundation.

The Shooting of the Pigweed.

A purple specimen from the Amaranth
family in which are included our green
pigweeds as well as the tumbleweeds was
left at ArcAoiA by ]\Irs. G. Fred Farn-
ham, Sound Ijeach, Connecticut, who
found it in her garden in the autumn. A
lady in the office at the time said : "Isn't
that beautiful! I know what it is. It
is some member of the Celosia family.'"
The name Celosia brings to mind the old-

A SECTION OF THE PURPLE PIGWEED.

fashioned coxcomb of variegated colors,
more commonly purple. This sudden
identification would not seem so far out
of the way if one were to depend on a
casual glance at the beautiful color. But
the botanies as well as a little careful
observation classify the specimen far
from Celosia and list the plant asAmaran-
fliits paniculatns. Britton and Brown's
botany describes the seeds as follows :
"Fruit an ovoid or oblong utricle, cir-
cumscissile, bursting irregularly." The
seeds are tiny, shiny and black and are
shot out to an astonishing distance. The
specimen was placed on the table in the
laboratory and allowed to remain there
for three or four days. While examining
it. the seeds were seen to shoot out, some
of them to a distance of nearly a foot,

256

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

but the plant failed to do its long distance
work under human observation. In a day
or two a large number of the seeds were
found at much greater distances — some
even forty inches away.

The seeds are almost as large as the
thin walled pods, but what pent up power
must be in these tiny fragile capsules that
throws these little cannon balls to such a
distance.

I have read of an enthusiastic botanist
who says that even a garden weed may be
extremely interesting. In many cases
weeds are more interesting than rarer
plants. They have a persistence and a
perseverance that are commendable when
we look only at those characteristics but
annoying when we try to displace them
l)y other and more desirable plants. Any
plant that grows where we do not want
it to grow becomes a weed. It is not the
plant's fault.

We commend, especially to our younger
readers, this purple pigweed and other
members of the family, though I must
confess that the purple plant is rather
more aristocratic and more beautiful than
the common green pigweed.

THE SOCKETS AFTER THE liALLS HA\ E IJEEX
FJREU.

Sunbeams and raindrops, the rustle of the

breeze.
Flower-petals, green leaves, the welcome

shade of trees.
Falling water, bird notes, and things such

as these.
.\re in Nature's alphabet the A. B. Cs.
— Emma Peirce.

THE BALLS AND THE CAPS.

THE PLANT WORLD UNDER CARE

257

THE BEEFSTEAK MUSEIROOM IS WELL ^^■ORTH CAREFUL CONSIDERATION.

J 'he Beefsteak Mushroom.

BY H. W. WEISGERBER, SALEM^ OHIO,

Of all the numerous nature subjects
there are none that I more thoroughly
enjo}' photographing than the fungi.
Many of these are difficult subjects.
This is one reason why so many of the
older books upon mushrooms have
such poor pictures.

The beefsteak, Fistulina Hepatica, is
one of the difficult forms, for not only
is it reddish in color, but it is practi-
cally smooth on the top as well as on
the underside, as shown in the upper
left-hand corner of the illustration.

The "flesh" of this fungus is fibrous
and follow's the outline, as shown by
the section in the upper right-hand
corner.

The large specimen at the lower edge
of the picture grew on an old chestnut
stump ; the two smaller forms, as well
as the one "sectioned," and the one
turned bottom side up, w^ere gathered
elsewhere to complete the picture of
the species.

The inside is red. The watery juice
resembles thin blood and has an acid

taste. The gourmand who loves strong
vinegar on his beefsteak would enjoy
this "sour" fungus, which wdien pre-
pared is said to resemble beefsteak in
flavor — but I failed to find it so when
I tried one. But as I have not yet
acquired a liking for the fungi, I am not
a judge. But mushrooms make fine
negatives. For that reason I delight
to study and to photograph them.

Our moment of life costs many hours,
hours not of business, but of preparation
and invitation. Yet the man who does
not betake himself at once and desperate-
ly to sawing is called a loafer, though he
may be knocking at the doors of heaven
all the while, which shall surely be open-
ed to him. That aim in life is highest
which requires the highest and finest dis-
cipline. How much, what infinite leisure
it requires, as of a life-time, to appreciate
a single phenomenon ! You must camp
down beside it as for life, having reached
your land of promise, and give yourself
wholly to it. It must stand for the whole
world to you, symbolical of all things.
— Thoreau.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Heavens in January.

BY PROFESSOR ERIC DOOLITTLE OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

This, the first month of the year, is a
month crowded with matters of interest
to those who watch the skies. It is in this
month that the heautiful Leo, the last of

southeast in the twihght glow after sun-
set ; and also the very brig'ht little Mer-
cury, which attains its farthest entrance
into the evening- heavens toward the end
of the month, it will result that every
one of the five naked eye planets are to be
seen during- the early evenings of the
present month.

NORTH.

South.

Figure 1. The constellations at 9 P. M., January 1. I If facing soutli, hold the map upright. If fac-
ing east, hold East below. If facing west, hold West below. If facing north, hold the map inverted.)

the winter constellations, has entered the
evening heavens, so that the whole south
and southeast are now covered with the
brilliant winter train of stars. And more
than this, we now have the unusual spec-
tacle of no less than three bright planets
— Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, all shining
in our evening sky at one time. Indeed,
if we include the very beautiful Venus,
which is now the most brilliant in the

besides this wealth of interesting ob-
jects presented for our study we will also
in the early morning of January 20, wit-
ness an interesting partial eclipse of the
moon, while, (most interesting of all to
an astronomer) the wonderful variable
star, Mira, is seen shining in the south-
west, and this object will during the pre-
sent month pass through its epoch of
maximum light.

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

259

While so much occurs of special in-
terest we will have but little space to write
of those heavenly objects that are with us
for a longfer time. The possessor of a
small telescope will not fail to remember,
however, that the great nebulas of Orion
and Andromeda, the Praesepe. the Plei-
ades, the Double Cluster in Perseus, and
the stars. Sirius, Regulus. Capella and the
blood-red star in Lepus. are now all in
excellent position for observation.

after attaining its greatest brilliance it
will rapidly fade away, and soon there
will be no trace of any object in this part
of the heavens, unless a telescope is em-
ployed. As with many variable stars of
this kind, it may be continuously followed
with telescopic aid. and as it grows fainter
will be seen to become a deep red color.

Mira is a great sun which is usually
fainter than the ninth magnitude. At an
interval of about every eleven months.

Figure 2. Curve showing the variation in the observed magnitude of Mira through
tvjro periods, or during an interval of about twenty-two months. During recent years the
maximum brightness has been slightly greater than even the first (Ligh) maximum here

The Variable Star, Mira.

This wonderful and interesting object
will be found in the position indicated in
Figure i. If the observer will face to-
ward the southwest in the early evening
he will probably have but little difficulty
in finding the quadrilateral formed by the
four stars, B, C, D and E, which at this
time are past the meridian but are still
well up from the horizon. These four
stars, together with either the star at A
or the two stars. A and H. form the figure
of a small inverted dipper.

If now a straight line be imagined
drawn from E to D. and extended up-
ward, it will almost meet the star at F.
which star is Nodus, the knot in the cord
which binds the two Fishes together. It is
just below this star that there now shines
out the wonderful Mira. A few weeks
ago. had the observer looked at this part
of the heavens, he would have seen no
trace of this star with the naked eye.

All of the stars in this region of the
sky are unfortunately rather faint ones —
it is the extreme eastern border of the
faint, summer heavens, but it is hoped
that from the above directions the reader
will be easily able to locate this variable
star. If he will look at it from time to
time as the weeks go by. he will see that

however- some stupendous disturbance
begins within it and the amount of light
and heat which it pours out begins rapidly
to increase, until within a few weeks it
becomes thousands of times as great as
when the sun was quiescent. Sometimes,
for many years, Mira has only brightened
to a faint star of less than the fourth
magnitude ; in other years it has risen to
nearly the first magnitude, and it is re-
ported that sometimes for many vears
consecutively it has not grown bright
enough to be seen with the naked eye.

The present maxinunn is due to occur
on January 8, but as the interval between
brightenings is for some reason quite
irregular, the date ma\- var\- even so much
as a week or two from this. Nor can we
predict exactly how bright Mira will
grow ; but since, during the past few-
weeks, its brightness has increased an
hundredfold it is probable that the pre-
sent brightening will be a notable one.
The magnitude of the star at B, Figure i,
is ^.6; that of the star at C is 3.8; of D
is 3.9; of E is the 3.6, and of F is 4.0.
Mira will certainly become conspicuously
brighter than any of these stars and it
will probably exceed even the star at H,
whose magnitude is 2.2. It will probably
become when brightest from three to six

26o

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

times as bright as the Pole Star. As to
the cause of this wonderful periodic dis-
turbance in this distant sun, we are as
yet in complete ignorance.

The Partial Eclipse of the Moon.

The interesting- eclipse of January 20
unfortunately occurs at so late an hour
of the night that it will probably only be
seen by those of us who are so interested
in astronomy that they will make a spe-

Figure 3. The partial eclipse of the moon on the
morning of January 20th.

cial effort to observe it. The eclipse is
also a very partial one, only about one-
seventh of the moon's diameter being cov-
ered by the shadow.

The great shadow of the earth, \vhich
always stretches out into space in a direc-
tion exactly away from the sun, has the
form of a great cone whose base is the
earth and whose length is no less than
857,000 miles in diameter.

Figure 3 shows this portion of the
shadow, and also the motion of the full
moon as we will view it on the morning
of January 20. Our satellite will reach
the position A' and the eclipse begin at 2
hrs. 55 min. A.M., (Eastern Standard
Time) ; it will reach B and the eclipse will
be the greatest, at 3 hrs. 39 min. A.M.,
and it will finally reach C and the eclipse
terminate at 4 hrs. 24 min. A.M.

The entire phenomenon will thus last
I hr. 29 min. ; but it will be noticed that
even when the eclipse is greatest it will
only be a small portion of the lower edge
of our satellite which is hidden from us.
Throughout the eclipse the moon will be
seen high in the sky, in the beginning it

will be about three hours past the merid-
ian, and at the end it will be about one-
third the way up from the northwestern
horizon to the zenith.

The Planets in January.

Alercury will attain its greatest distance
east of the sun on January 20 and for a
few evenings before and after this date
it may be seen shining brightly in the twi-
light glow, low in the southwest for a
short time after sunset. It will pass to
the west of the sun and become a morn-
ing star on February 5.

The observer may have noticed how
very brilliantly the beautiful planet Venus
has been shining in the southwest, just
after sunset. For many weeks past, and
also throughout the present month, it con-
tinually moves northward among the
stars, and is therefore seen continually
creeping from the south to the west point
of the horizon. On January I, it sets in
the southwest about two hours after stui-
set ; by January 31, this time is increased
to two and one-half hours, and the planet
sets almost due west, having by this time
become a conspicuous object in the early
evening sky. Venus will remain with us
throughout the winter and spring, in-
creasing in brightness and mounting
higher in the sky on each successive eve-
ning. It will reach its greatest distance
east of the sun on April 23, (when it will
remain in the western sky until nearly
midnight) and it will attain its greatest
brilliance on ]\Iay 27.

Mars will be a most interesting object
for observation during the present month.
Its very rapid, direct motion' which for
so long a time has kept it beyond the
borders of our evening star map, will
cease on January i, at 9 P.M., and from
this time until Alarch 22 it will move west-
ward among the stars. During January
it will be seen in the constellation Leo,
just within the blade of the Sickle. This
most interesting- planet is now in almost
the best position for observation of the
entire year. It reaches its least distance
from the earth on February 9, and
throughoutthe month of January the earth
and Mars are so unusually near together
that the planet can be studied to the great-
est advantage. The reader may remem-
ber how faint the Red Planet looked only
a few months ago. It has now approached

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

261

so near us that on January i it will shine
with three times, and on January 31, with
six times- the brightness of a first magni-
tude star.

Jupiter is still well up in the evening
sky on January i, though by the end of
the month it will have passed beyond the
borders of our map. Saturn is high in

It may of course be that the writer,
a certain Benjamin De Casseres, does
not intend this to be taken seriously
since he says that the name of the new
sun-planet is Nietzsche, but most
readers would accept it as a new dis-
covery. Professor Eric Doolittle
makes this general comment regard-

Figure 4. Drawings of the planet Mars. The planet is now opposite the sun and
therefore now appears fully as in the second drawing.

the southeast in the constellation Gemini,
and dailv approaching nearer the merid-
ian. Both of these planets are now in
excellent position for observation and
study.

On January 2. at 8 A.]\I.. our earth,
in the course of its yearly path, will pass
nearest the sun. Our sun will then be
more than three millions of miles nearer
Us than when the two bodies are farthest
separated in July.

Foolish Astronomy.

It seems easy to deceive the public
along astronomical lines, because the
public has so little general knowledge
of the subject, but it is strange that a
paper of the standing of "The New
York Sun" should print such a letter
as this from an unknown writer :

"]\Iy observatory has recorded the
presence of an eighth planet. It lies
beyond Neptune. It is half sun and
half planet. In one hundred years the
effect of this giant strayling on the
other seven planets will have been so
strong that our sidereal system, as we
know it to-day, will have passed
through tremendous cateclysms. But
it will survive. The name of this new
sim-planet is Nietzsche."

ing such astronomical nonsense :

"There is no foundation for this
article. It is absolute foolishness.
Who De Casseres is I do not know — I
have never heard of him. Many such
articles appear from time to time.
Newspapers will naturally print al-
most any communication in the form
of a letter, disclaiming, of course, all
responsibility for what the letters may
contain. Only yesterday I received a
letter from another 'Astronomer' as-
suring me that he — or rather she, for
it was a woman — had been holding in-
teresting talks with the inhabitants of
Mars, and ofifering (for a considera-
tion) to tell me what they talked about.
Such articles are perhaps amusing, but
they should deceive nobody with the
smallest knowledge of astronomy."

Silently one by one, in the infinite mea-
dows of heaven.

Blossomed the loveh^ stars, the forget-
me-nots of the angels.

— Lonsrfellow.

Earth's crammed with heaven.
And every common bush afire
God. — Mrs. Browning-.

with

262

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Mine of Interests and Pleasures
in Unknown Names.

EDWARD F. BICELOVV.

How seldom does an unknown name
suggest the possibility of a mine of
treasures as valuable as gold, although
such experience is not rare. Every
person has had his pleasure in life ex-
tended by new acquaintances. We may
hear a name and pass it by as mean-
ingless, yet later that person's friend-
ship may mean to us much more than
words can convey.

by which to measure other entertain-
ments. I have never yet found any-
thing that I think is better than the
formerly meaningless Wang. I have
learned that a term absolutely mean-
ingless may finally become an intel-
lectual gold mine.

Dear reader, perhaps you shy
and jump like a skittish horse when
you see or hear a scientific name.
You lean against the fence, your hands
in your pockets, your eyes cast down.
Now listen to these two words, Al-

HOW THE EDITOR OF THIS MAGAZINE BEGAN STUDYING ASIRONOMY TWENTY-FR'E

YEARS AGO.

It is true that a word signifies noth-
ing unless we know what it signifies.
That sounds trite but it is equally
true to say that strange words have
become nuggets of gold to us.

I recall an experience of the kind in
"Wang," the name of a comic opera.
When it was first announced it made
no impression upon me, and when I
heard that tickets were selling rapidly
I thought how silly it is for sensible
people to find pleasure in that meaning-
less Wang. But when a friend induc-
ed me to call on Wang, I experienced
a change of heart. The interview was
the most enjoyable entertainment of
the kind that I have ever had, and
Wang has ever since been a standard

maack and Alesartim. Meaningless to
you. are they? Never heard them be-
fore? The first is Gamma Androme-
dae. the second Gamma Arietis. You
say, "They mean nothing. Go away."
Please recall my experience with
Wang. Come out and share in the
continuous performance now going on
at the Sound Beach Astronomical Ob-
servatory. Your new acquaintances,
Almaack and Mesartim, will give you
i:)leasure not heretofore realized by you,
if you will do a little thinking along
with seeing. You may make an origi-
nal discovery in Mesartim and go back
more than two hundred years to the
time when Sir Isaac Newton was earn-
ing his fame, in those good old davs

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

263

when so many people were making ori-
ginal discoveries. An astronomer,
Hooke, was looking at a comet through
his telescope. Near that comet he made
a startling discover)'. He found Gam-
ma Arieties and the Mesartim. "I
took notice that it consisted of two
small stars ver}- near together, a like
instance to which I have not yet met
with in all the heavens." That was the
first double star ever discovered.
Previously to that no one even imag-
ined such a thing as a double star. You,
my friend, may be in that condition of
mind. Come to the observatory and
change your mind. You may exper-
ience Mr. Hook's surprise and grati-
fication. Gamma Arietis is a little
twin jewel in appearance but in fact
it is two mighty suns millions of miles
apart and each probably as big as our
one. Every astronomer that has ever
seen Gamma Arietis calls it a "fine
double." a white and a pale gray. It
is indeed a "fine double." but Almaack
is a "splendid double." Those that
have access to a large telescope say
that the little star is itself a double
so that the system is really a triple.
Rut if the little twinkler were divided
into four, it would not bring to my
mind so much pleasure as does its glim-
mering orange beside the emerald
green of its brighter companion. There
are other "splendid doubles" in the sky
at the present time, but I think that,
as T keep AA'ang as my standard of
comjiarison for comic operas, so you
will keep Gamma Andromedae, the
Almaack, as the standard of excellence
bv which vou will judge all "fine dou-
bles."

In mv Dcrsonal opinion this is the
finest double in all the heavens. It is
mv favorite. Well, wait a moment.
Tt is difincult to tell which is the best.
Of course you know T had a mental
reservation regarding the astonishing
blue and the dainty little companion
of Rigel in Orion. Almaack and the
bhie Rigel. "I could be happy with
either were t'other dear charmer awav."

The .Stars ! W^ords fail mc here.
They filled my soul with a something
deeper and a w^orship truer and higher
than I had ever known in my three
score -^-ears. — l\Trs. David ^^^ fackson.
Rartville, Pa.

Baseball Diamonds in the Sky.

BV W. B. CL.^RKE, M.D., IXDI.XN AWJMS,
INDIANA.

Professor Doolittle's article, "The
Heavens in November," in your Novem-
ber issue interested me. While not an as-
tronomer nor a student of astronomy,
though perhaps 1 may be accused of some-
times being a stargazer, it is possible that
I have made an astronomical discovery
that may interest the lovers of baseball,
from the President down.

As I gazed at the professor's circular
representation of the constellatitjiis in
their respective places, I thought I saw-
something", and then went out and scan-
ned the sky for verifications, and found
them, just as any other tyro can do these
starlight nights if no strong and discon-
certing electric lights are near. I enclose
a diagram of what I saw, the interpreta-
tions being in red ink.

The aforesaid lovers of baseball,
whether "our" team finished high or low,
should be delighted to learn of my dis-
covery that beautiful baseball diamonds,
full of stars, make nightly appearance in
the heavens at this late season of the year.
It has not been determined what league
these unchanging diamonds belong to, nor
have scores of their games yet been re-
ceived, but it is evident, reasoning from
the popular Martian philosophy of these
war times, that there is such a league. A
little to the east of directly overhead (in
the middle of Indiana) is a plainly out-
lined diamond, the prettiest of the whole
lot ; north of that another nearly as well
defined, and four smaller and less perfect
ones in the west, east and south, but
whose teams are evidently traveling as
their pitchers are not visible.

The plainest, most conspicuous and
most perfect diamond is in the great
Milky \\'ay ( perhaps appropriately, as in
baseball it is the public that is getting
milked ) and belongs, as Astronomer Doo-
little would locate it, a la constellation, to
the Cygnus Club (right in the swim) ;
the next most perfect belong's to the
Pegasus Club (running well) ; two others
to Ursa !Major and Ursa ]\Iinor (continu-
ally growling at tlie umpire), with Cetus
and Draco and ]:)erhaos Lyra trailing
along behind. Any of the "fans" can
easily find Cygnus and Pegasus any fine
evening, and then can have my head for
a football if they can't.

In Cygnus all the players are in almost
perfect position, with the umpire, with a

264

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

base runner and catcher off third, while
in the great square of Pegasus the catcher
is off first and a base runner oft' third.

I will leave for the more imaginative
and descriptive powers of the baseball
editor the first report of a championship
game between the Cygnus and Pegasus
Clubs of the Heavenly League, as well as
the detailing how the heavenly home runs
are made. But may I suggest that, as a
pastor in the East preached an eloquent
sermon in favor of baseball on Sunday,
the aforesaid absolutely indispensable
editor collaborate with this pastor, or at
least borrow from him some appropriate
descriptive phrases illustrating this nota-
ble event?

Another point made plain in the Pro-
fessor Doolittle diagram is the fact that
there are a number of "dippers" in the sky
besides the Great and Little ones. Even
the great square of Pegasus, baseball
diamond that it is, is a dipper with a
handle, the latter being furnished by An-
dromeda, and LTrsa Major and Ursa
Minor are also both dippers, and so is
Draco.

I wall not further encroach upon your
valuable space more than to ask your
readers to get out your November number
and study the diagram for the purpose of
seeing how near they can come to the
conclusions here arrived at. And if they
want to see a picture of the writer it will
be found on page 197 of the same number,
as I nominated the big tree that took the
prize as the largest in the L^nited States.
The other man is Mr. Dixon, owner o'"
the tree.

What is Beyond our Universe?

There is a definite thinning out of
the stars as we penetrate to vast dis-
tances into the star cloud ; evidence
which has convinced us, contrary to
our former belief, that we are reach-
ing or have reached in some directions,
the true limit or boundary of our immense
universe.

Almost infinitely extended though
our wonderful universe is, when we
have reached its boundaries it is im-
possible for our minds to stop there.
Whether beyond is infinite but empty
space, or whether one universe suc-
ceeds another, absolutely without end,
one conception is as utterly beyond the
powers of our little minds as the other.
But if, having seen that our Milky
Way universe is limited, we shall ever

discover that there is another, almost
infinitely distant one, its existence, so
far as we can now see, can only be re-
vealed to us by its disturbing pull upon
our own vast cloud of suns. And this
slight but continuous disturbance of
our system as a whole will, if ever,
only be revealed to us by the exceed-
ingly accurate measures belonging to
the science of astronomy of position.
— Eric Doolittle, C. E., Professor of
Astronomy.

Distance and Number of Stars.

At present we know the distances of
some three hundred stars, and it can-
not be doubted that in the course of a
few years this number will be increas-
ed to many thousands. So accurate
is the new method that if a star is no
farther than 163 light years away its
distance can be thus directly measured.

But the great cloud of suns around
us contains millions upon millions of
objects. The latest estimate from
Cambridge is that the number of vis-
ible suns in our universe is no less than
1,600,000,000. Though w^e can direct-
ly measure the distances away of but
a few thousands of these can we reach
no reasonable conclusions in regard to
the true distances, sizes and distribu-
tion of the others? We can indeed ac-
quire much reliable information on
these points, but it must be obtained
indirectly. And our greatest source of
information comes from the so-called
Proper Motions of the stars. — Eric
Doolittle, C. E., Professor of Astron-
omy.

On almost any moonless night wdien
the sky is perfectly clear, and the soft
shades of twilight have vanished, a
most enjoyable half-hour or hour may
be spent in gazing upon the immense
deep blue expanse above, bedecked
with roving planets and scintillating
stars. The beautiful constellations —
strange groupings of the brighter stars,
handed down from the antiquity of the
ages — are always present in God's
great outdoors, and are ever changing
as the months go by, constituting a
scene of marvellous and impressive
splendour, and at the same time afford-
ing an unfailing field for study, of the
highest interest and utilitv. — "The
Call of the Stars" (Kippax).

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

265

A Midnight Mountain Message from
an Astronomical Observatory.

BY KDGAR LUCIAN LARKIX, IHRECTOR OF

THE LOWE OBSERVATORY, ^rOUNT

LO\VE, CALIFORNIA.

{Especially written on the summit of the

mountain for the readers of The Guide

TO Nature.]

I have been looking- at the Milky Way
and upon the hiig"e disk of Jni^iter with

doubted. The fact is that during all my
years in observatories in Illinois i never
really saw the unutterable splendors of
the Milky Way, the star strewn way, un-
til I came to this peak. As I write, the
stillness and the solitude are absolute.
The imagination is alert, and there
alone on the mountain summit I
seem almost to hear the axis of the earth
turning in space. I just glanced toward

THE LOWE EOr
This illustration and the one on the followi

iRI \l. TELESCOPE.

re lent to us by "Tlie Theosophical Path." Point

Loma, California. They originally appeared in Professoi Larkin's book, "Witliin the Mind Maze."

the sixteen-inch Clark & Sons equatorial.
The air is so pure to-night that \vere I
to tell of the inconceivably minute points
— all giant suns — that I have seen deep
within the galaxy, my words might he

the south window of the observatory and
beheld the majestic Goddess of the Night,
personified as from the Galaxy. She is
disolaying her supernal robes adorned
with millions of stars. Owing to the

266

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

rotation of the earth, she is dragging tb.e below the great white dome of the observ-
hem of the garment in the Pacific Ocean, atory. . .

for the gorgeous stellar hosts by untold Stars by millions are rising and the
millions in Scorpio and Sagittarius are glittering points emerge from peaks and
vanishing bevond the waterv wastes. My crags worn by the wind, scarred and

southern and southwestern horizons are
water, while the eastern is a scries of
majestic sentinel peaks rising thousands
of feet above the floor of the canyon far

shattered by the lightning. To-night I
beheld a moon of Jupiter rise behind a
distant rock before the edge of the
mighty disk appeared. Early this morn-

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

267

ing, September 6th. 1915, the edge of
Saturn's ring was seen projecting beyond
the stone before the globe came into view.
The star-Hghted vault celestial seems to
be just around and about the mountain
summit. One can almost touch the stars,
the illusion is so apparently real and so
fascinating. There is another remark-
able summit and canyon effect. The tele-
scope reverses, therefore by looking with
one eye at the instrument and the other
at a peak, literally millions of galactic
suns seem to pour downward in a colos-
sal flood toward the yawning abyss, black-
er now than Egyptian night. At this
approach of midnight, giant suns are
blazing in all directions with an effulgence
unseen in observatories on the plains
below. Here one is not "near to Nature's
heart," but within it. One must indeed
be debased and "out of tune" if he is not
deeply impressed by the supernal beauties
of Mars and Saturn so near conjunction.
The World's Great University.
I have just returned from thirty days'
research into the amazing astronomical
and electrical wonders of the Panama-
Pacific Exposition. The transcendent
products of the Mount Wilson, Lick
and other observatories advance those
making these astonishing photographs
to the dignity of exalted beings.
Each step in the evolution of suns
from nebulae is shown in photog-
raphic detail. Nature cannot lift
a hand without being instantly photo-
graphed. No such collection of stellar
spectra has ever before appeared. One
can see the laws of nature in action.
Astronomer Kapteyn's concept of the
drifting of the stars is confirmed, for
there are the paths of nineteen hundred
suns that are moving toward Orion in
majestic march. The motion of our own
sun with reference to the Taurus stars,
including the Pleiades, during the last
eight hundred thousand years is on dis-
play. The instrumental exhibits of War-
ner & Swazy, of Brashear, and of the
United States Government, present the
perfection of human work in precise
measurements. Brashear's diffraction
gratings are there, glowing with superb
colors, and telling man of the elements
composing the sidereal universe ; the tele-
graphone, recording human speech; and
the audian amplifier, in circuit between
New York and San Francisco, and capa-
ble of making audible the faintest wliisper

in either city — these three wondrous
triumphs of genius stamp their inventors
as master minds. But on this summit,
in the "witching hours," I am writing of
things supernal, in a peace that passeth
all understanding, due to the laws of
nature. I look upon scenic and cosmic
splendors, and know that all these won-
derful things are in the mighty clutch
of pure mathematics. The amazing ef-
fects due to chemically pure atmosphere,
the mirage of perspective, the exquisite
panorama of peaks — these and the balmy
air of a California night in the mountains
conspire to set the mind in the path of
peace and happiness.

I have attended the inspiring sessions
of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, the Astronomi-
cal Society of America, and with the
members of these societies and of the
American ^Mathematical Society have
visited the Lick Observatory on Mount
Hamilton. As I entered its classic dome,
I put my hand on the spectroscope, the
world famous instrument that has accom-
plished the seemingly impossible task of
measuring in the line of sight the specific
speeds of flying sims as they approach
or recede. A few years ago this seemed
to be beyond the power of man, but it
is now accomplished fact. The year 191 5
has astronomically been of fascinating
interest.

— Lowe Observatory, 2 minutes A. M.
September 7, 1915.

May Now View the Sunspots.
On Thanksgiving Day the Sound
Beach Astronomical Observatory was
used for the first time in viewing the
sun. The telescope show^ed very effect-
ively quite a fair-sized sunspot then
in good position for observation. A
view of the sun and its spots may also
be projected through the telescope up-
on a white cardboard on the wall of
the observatory, so that several people
may see the sunspot at the same time.
These first experiments in solar obser-
vation were made by the director of the
observatory, assisted by S. C. Hunter,
an amateur astronomer of New Ro-
chelle. Mr. Hunter had already con-
tributed $50 towards the observatory,
and. in addition, on this recent visit,
he presented a very fine sim diagonal,
costing $30. The observatory is now
well equipped and in readiness for
Aiewinof anvthiiiir in the heavens.

268

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Death of Carl A. R. Lundin.

Mr. Carl A. R. Lundin died in Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts, on November
28th, 191 5. He was born in Wenners-
borg, Sweden, January 13th, 185 1.
Subsequently his family removed to
Falun where his education was ob-
tained at the Falun High School.
Early developing a taste for mechanics
he decided to become an instrument
maker and soon after his graduation
went to Stockholm where he served
an apprenticeship of seven years.
From thence he went to Christiana,
Norway, and was associated with
Olsen, the famous instrument maker of
that city. In 1873 he determined to
come to America, and soon after his
arrival in August of that year he
entered the employ of Alvan Clark &
Sons (who had become famous) as
their chief instrument maker.

From the beginning he was interest-
ed in the optical part of the work and,
finding him possessed of unusual prom-
ise, Mr. Alvan Clark induced him to
devote his entire time and study to the
art. Up to the time of Alvan' Clark's
death a strong attachment existed be-
tween the two men. each recognizing
and appreciating the ability of the
other. It is interesting to note that Mr.
Lundin was the only man in whom
Mr. Clark ever saw sufficient promise
to induce him to educate him in the
science of objective making.

Mr. Lundin had two children — a son,
C. A. Robert Lundin, who for the past
twenty years has been associated with
his father in the making of telescope
objectives at the Clark works, and a
daughter, Laura M. Lundin, a gradu-
ate of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and now a professor of
mathematics and physics.

Mr. Lundin's first important work
was in connection with the thirty inch
objective for Pulkowa, Russia, and he
v\/as especially designated by the Rus-
sian government to take the objective
to Russia and install it. At the time
it was made, it was the largest glass in
the world. In the making of the thir-
ty-six inch objective for the Lick Ob-
servatory and the forty-inch objective
for the Yerkes Observatory, he bore a
prominent part. A particularly fine ex-
ample of his work is Dr. Lowell's
twenty-four inch objective located at
Flagstafif, Arizona. He also made the
sixteen inch for the University of Cin-

cinnati and the eighteen inch for Am-
herst College.

Nearly his last work was the six inch
refractor for the Agassiz Association.
This telescope was received October
20th. only a little over a month before
his death.

He was a Fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science, and a Charter Member of the
Astronomical Society of America. In
recognition of his services to science,
Amherst College in 1905 conferred up-
on him the degree of A. M.

Faithful Work of an Astronomer.

Dr. Furness, of Vassar, writes enter-
tainingly of the disappointment felt
by one, who, fired by a love of astron-
omy, visits an observatory for the first
time, and watches an astronomer at
his work. He is not found sitting at
the end of a great telescope, looking
at a Lunar landscape or a planet, and
uttering from time to time an irrepres-
sible exclamation of delight at what
he sees, nor is he ever hunting in the
sky for something new. Instead, he is
probably passing hour after hour plac-
ing a fine spider's thread upon the
exact centers of successive stars, or
determining to the hundredths part of
a second the instants when other stars
are crossing his meridian — occupations
which to the uninitiated seem utterly
uninspiring and devoid of interest. —
Eric Doolittle, C. E., Professor of As-
tronomv.

A Poor Telescope.

Sir Robert Ball used to tell a story
of an experience he had when he was
at the Dunsink Observatory. A farmer
came to him one day and asked if he
might look at the moon through the
telescope.

"Surely you can," said Ball. "Come
round tonight."

"Can I see it now?" asked the farmer.
"I am sorry that you cannot," said the
astronomer. "You will have to wait
until night."

"Huh ! Then your old telescope is
not so great a thing as I thought it
was !" said the man. "I can see the
moon at nigfht without it."

The gray squirrel is reported to be
increasing in England, where it is not
at all desired.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

269

AOASSIZ ASSOCIATION'

feCCC<CCCC5KCC<KC<KC<CCCCCCCCC^^^

Established 1875

Incorporated, Maasachusetts, 1892

Incorporated, Connecticut, 1910

Where are the Really Interesting
Things?

A few days ago, a garage not far
from our office caught fire. The whole
town turned out to look, and I was
assured that it was a spectacular sight,
when the great volumes of black smoke
rolled upward, and the flames leaped
across the driveway and began to beat
against our post office building. If I
had been at home, I probably would
have joined the crowd to gaze upon
the fire and the smoke and the labor-
ing firemen.

On the same day, in the Sound Beach
Astronomical Observatory, only a few
rods from this local conflagration,
which was watched by hundreds of
people, one could view a fire large
enough to devour half of the United
States, possibly the whole earth. Sound
Beach, yes, the state of Connecticut,
might be dropped into this fire and it
would vanish like a chip in a bonfire.
Not only for a few minutes, but for
days was this seething maelstrom of
whirling flame a spectacular sight.

A few called to see it and some of
these appreciated what was taking
place and were awed by its grandeur.
Others looked at it and said, "Is that
little black thing what you call a spot
on the sun? It isn't much, is it?
True ; Things are "much" only rela-
tively.

Not long ago, I wandered away with
my camera and came to a picturesque
ravine down which gurgles and laughs
and plunges a wonderful brook. From
its side I looked at this miracle of rush-
ing water, but I had the sight to my-
self. Not a human being was visible
in the moist earth at the ford, there
was no print of a foot except the print
of a cow's hoof.

As I returned to the office, I saw the
road crowded with people, traffic sus-
pended, vehicles blocked and a multi-

tude gazing. What was the attrac-
tion? A water main had burst. Spurt-
ing, gushing streams were leaping into
the air, muddy water filled the gutters
and ran into the ditches. At that mo-
ment the spirit of Lowell, the poet, said
to me. "The most winsome and way-
ward of brooks draws now and then
some lover's foot to its intimate re-
serve, while the spurt of a bursting
water pipe gathers a gaping crowd
forthwith."

Why is it that the first shall be last
to attract the general mass of human
beings? On earth at the furtherest
for only a few decades, amidst a won-
derful universe, with every inch of
earth's surface crowded with wonder
and beauty, why do the gigantic events
of nature go unconsidered, and the
tiny marvels remain unseen? After
the earth has swung around the
sun for only a few more times, human
eyes will no longer be able to see them.

If I were to go to a distant place, or
if I were to visit a great Exposition,
and had only a limited time in which
to stay, do you think that I would not
use ever}^ minute to the best possible
advantage? This world is only a lar-
ger and more extensive Exposition,
with God as the exhibitor. Why not
so live and see that there be not an
eternity's loss and possible regret that
more of the marvelous things of time
were not seen with that intensest en-
thusiasm that thev merit?

Throug'h the printer's error after final
proofs had left this office. The Agassiz
Association was referred to in the Decem-
ber number as The Agassiz Society. It is
probable that all our long time friends
understood this to be an error, but we call
attention to it for the sake of those that
have recently come to us. We are not a
society, but an Association of societies
known as Chapters, together witli indi-
vidual Members.

2/0

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Studying Nature in a Barn.
Forty-three years ago next summer,
Louis Agassiz established in a barn
on Penikese, an island ofif the southern
shore of Massachusetts, the most fam-
ous school for the study of nature that

has ever existed. From that school
went out innumerable influences in var-
ious channels. A pupil, David Starr
Jordan, is at present a Trustee of The
Agassiz Association. The school was
held in a barn rather hurriedly fitted

LOUIS AGASSIZ, THE MASTER TEACHER VV^HG INSPIRES EVERY AA MEMBER.
"He seldom spoke without a piece of chalk in his hand * * * * Those who saw his genial sniile that
portrayed his kindly heart * ♦ * * were influenced for life, and they in their turn have influenced thous-
ands of others."

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

271

OUR Fn'E 1-JKES CHAPTER ( CKEEN W 1(1 1, (O.XXECTICUT.i HOLDS ITS MEE 1 1 .\( IS IN A BARN.

up for the purpose. Professor Holder
in his "Louis Agassiz : His Life and
Work" tells us of the first day and of
Agassiz's opening the school with si-
lent prayer, a fact recorded in the poem
by Whittier and familiar to all our
readers.

Dr. Jordan says :

"None of us will ever forget his first
sight of Agassiz. We had come down
from New Bedford in a little tug-boat
in the early morning, and Agassiz met
us at the landing-place on the island.
He was standing almost alone on the
little wharf, and his great face beamed
with pleasure. For this summer school,
the thought of his old age, might be
the crowning work of his lifetime. Who
could forsee what might come from the
efforts of fifty men and women, teach-
ers of science, each striving to do his
work in the most rational way? His
thoughts and hopes rose to expecta-
tions higher than any of us then un-
derstood.

"His tall, robust figure, his broad
shoulders bending a little under the
weight of years, his large round face
lit up by kindly dark-brown eyes, his
cheery smile, the enthusiastic tones of
his voice, his rolling gait, like that of
'a man who had walked much over

ploughed ground, — all these entered
into our first as well as our last impres-
sion of Agassiz. He greeted us with
great warmth as we landed. He looked
into our faces to justify himself in
making choice of us among the many
whom he might have chosen.

"The old barn on the island had been
hastily converted into a dining-hall
and lecture-room. A new floor had
been put in ; but the doors and walls
remained unchanged, and the swal-
lows' nests were undisturbed under
the eaves. The sheep had been turned
out, the horse-stalls were changed to
a kitchen, :and on the floor of the
barn, instead of the hay-wagon, were
placed three long tables. At the head
of one of these sat Agassiz. At his
left hand always stood a movable
blackboard, for he seldom spoke with-
out a piece of chalk in his hand. He
would often give us a lecture while we
sat at the table, frequently about some
fish or other creature the remains of
which still lay on our plates."

In that famous school Agassiz taught
his pupils to take the near-by things of
marine life and study them. He then
stood at the blackboard making sket-
ches of the things under consideration.

272

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

LEADERS OF THE FIVE FIRES CHAPTER CONTINUING AGASSIZ'S METHOD AT THEIR

BLACKBOARD IN A BARN.

Those who saw his genial smile that
portrayed his kindly heart and knew
his ideals as a teacher were influenced
for life, and they in their turn have in-
fluenced thousands of others.

The work still goes on under the
auspices of The Agassiz Association.
Young people are everywhere inspired
by the influence of Agassiz to investi-
gate the commonplace things nearest
to them, to note the details and to in-

spire others by their studies.

It seems peculiarly fitting in the fifth
decade after that famous school in the
Penikese barn that we should have es-
tablished in a barn in Greenwich a
Chapter known as Five Fires. Youth-
ful enthusiasts are there taking the
commonplace things and sketching
them so to note their detail. In our
illustration Master Lewis, Vice-Presi-
dent of this Chapter, is shown in the

^-^^S^Cio^ <

■">

THE OAK PANEL ON OUR OFFICE DOOR.
Quoted from a motto of Agassiz's school in a barn.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

^72>

act of continuing the method of black-
board demonstration as it was estab-
lished forty-two years ago by the great
Agassiz himself. Master Lewis and his
associates are studying the details of a
flicker's nest much as Agassiz studied
the radiates and demonstrated them to
his pupils. This is the right spirit,
and the commonplace objects of nature
are the best objects.

Chapter No. 1052, Nashua, New
Hampshire.

Our Chapter enjoyed a successful
season during the fall, winter and
spring of 1914-1915. We do not hold
summer meetings, as our members are
at that time widely scattered. We have
about thirty members and hold our

never short of funds to carry on our work.

We have enjoyed some delightful
evenings among the stars, -especially
those spent at the observatory of the
Reverend T. C. H. Bouton, who is ever
ready to place his six inch telescope at
our disposal.

Studying bacteria under the micro-
scope of Dr. Bradford Allen proved
particularly valuable. The description
of the "Distribution of Seeds" aroused
great interest. Several evenings were
spent in studying "Bird Architecture."
Wild flowers, trees, ferns, birds and
many other nature subjects were con-
sidered. We have now begun a syste-
matic study of "The Geological Story,"
to occupy most of the winter months.
If the interest shown in the first meet-

THE EXTRA.W K TO THE CAMP OF THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' AA CHAPTER.
The Camp Fire Girls along this part of the Connecticut coast have formed an union AA Chapter, meet-
ing at ArcAdiA once a month.

meetings fortnightly in the Unitarian
Church or at the homes of the mem-
bers. Organized as the "Nature Club"
connected with the local Unitarian
Church we sought and obtained, about
a year ago, membership in The Agas-
siz Association. We have no dues, but
those that so desire contribute five
cents at every meeting. Nearly every-
body "chooses" to do this, so we are

ing on the subject, "The Three Great
Classes of Rocks," is any indication,
the meetings this winter will be fol-
lowed with absorbing interest. Num-
erous specimens add greatly to the val-
ue of the discussions. We take fre-
quent field trips, especially in the
spring during the bird migration.

Manly B. Towxsexd.
Class Leader.

2/4

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

'?.»."^^

WHERE AA GIRLS SPEND SEVERAL WEEKS NEAR TO NATURE.

Old Wire Mills Camp Chapter.

On Saturday evening at five o'clock the
Camp Fire Girls from Sound Ueach.
Riverside and Greenwich gathered at
Welcome Reception Room. ArcAdlA.
The girls were chaperoned by their guar-
dians, Mrs. Lewis W. Barney, of Sound
Beach, Mrs. I. Newton Lewis and Mrs.
Seaman Mead of Greenwich. After sup-
per the girls were called to order and Mrs.
L Newton Lewis acted as chairman. The
Old Wire Mill Camp Chapter of the

Agassiz Association was organized with
]\Iiss Genevieve Seeley, of Greenwich, as
president ; Miss Emma Knapp, vice-presi-
dent ; Miss Clara Schotanus, of Sound
Beach, recording' secretary ; Miss Reeves,
corresponding secretary and Miss Mar-
garet Smith, of Riverside, treasurer. It
was voted to meet at Welcome Reception
Room last Friday in January at 5 p.m.
Dr. Bigelow gave a short talk on the stars
and then took the girls out to look
thr(mgh the telescope.

A PRACTICAL AND ENJOYABLE WAY OF STUDYING THE INTERESTS OF A BROOK.

LITERARY NOTICES

IX

LITERAK

^««>®23<B^®

War, Science and Civilization. By William
E. Ritter. Boston, Massachusetts : Sher-
man, French & Company.
The author treats the subject biologically
exactly as he would treat some phase of na-
ture. He does not stop with theories and their
proof, but indicates what our nation can do
with its present supreme opportunity toward
leading the world to permanent peace.

The Essence of Astronomy. By Edward
W. Price. New York City. G. P. Put-
nam's Sons.
Here is a volume of popular astronomy
quite different from the usual variety.

It answers in untechnical language the
everyday questions of ever3'day people, the
material being so arranged as to be readily
available for reference, as well as for con-
secutive reading.

The ]\Ioon.. By Garrett P. Serviss. New
York City. D. Appleton and Company.
What i\Ir. Serviss writes on astronomy is
always interesting. In this book he has made
the subject especially attractive since he has
adopted a conversational method, in imitation
of the style of an eighteenth century French
classic. The entire book is readable and in-
structive. We cordially recommend it to our
readers. The photographs are the best to be
obtained from the Yerkes Observatorv.

The Call of the Stars. Bv John R. Kippax,
M. D., LL. B. New York City. G. P. Put-
nam's Sons.
This readable book gives a concise and ac-
curate story of the starry heavens, together
with the legends that time and fancy have
associated with them. It is intended, not for
professional readers, but for those that desire
to know about the wonderful things in the
sky with their interesting myths. The illus-
trations and charts are effective and interest-
ing. We cordially commend the book to those
of our readers that are beginning star study.

Our Dooryard Friends. Bv Sara V. Prueser.
Steinway Hall, Chicago, Illinois : "The
Platform,'' The Lyceum and Chautauqua
Alagazine.
This is mostly devoted to birds in fulfill-
ment of the author's desire to interest both
young and old in the life and beauty of the
out-of-doors. She makes no claim to novelty
nor to much originality, but she has a thor-
oughly good individualistic point of view.
The_ book is pleasingly illustrated and the
publishers have done their work well. Among
the many interesting photographs, perhaps the
most attractive is that of a house wren that
built her nest in a clothespin bag and there
reared her young.

NOTICES

^Iy Growing Garden. By J. Horace McFar-
land. New York City: The Macmillan
Company.
When searching for a semi-suburban plot,
the author of this book stumbled upon an old
house of hybrid design, together with a couple
of acres of abandoned vineyard. What he
and his family do during a half-dozen years
to make out of this a notable garden home, on
a scale at once modest yet inspiring, is the
theme of the volume. Mr. McFarland is well
known for his enthusiasm for forestry and
outdoor life, and also as head of the American
Civic Association, leading in the fight for the
preservation of Niagara Falls.

Plant Life. By Charles A. Hall, F.R.M.S.
Soho Square, London, England : A. & C.
Black, Ltd. American Agents : The Mac-
millan Company, 64 & 66 Fifth Avenue.
New York City.
This attractive book treats the subject in
a scientific way, but is sufficiently elemen-
tary and explicit to interest the general
reader. The beautiful illustrations make it
an ideal gift book. In addition to the col-
ored plates, of which there are several, there
are numerous clear and beautiful photog-
raphic illustrations.

The book attempts no detailed description
of any special phase of plant life, but rather
embodies a broad view of the whole field.

The Sun. By Charles G. Abbot, S. M. New
York City: D. Appleton and Company.

Everybody is interested in the sun. All
life depends upon the sun, but it must be con-
fessed that many persons' interest seems to be
not all that it should be as a matter of actual
knowledge. The design of this book is to have
the rays of knowledge reach head and heart
and to sweep away the clouds of ignorance
that so often obscure those rays. The author
has succeeded remarkably well in placing on
his pages much that is new to the amateur
and of especial interest to the professional
astronomer. The book has also been nicely
adapted for school and college use as well as
for the general reader. The chapter, "The
Sun among the Stars." clearly sums up var-
ious facts and theories pertaining to the sun.
The human race knows but little, compara-
tively speaking, regarding the sun and other
heavenly bodies, but the author expects much
in the future, as he states :

'There still remains, and ever will remain
in solar and stellar investigation, room for
such work; and on the thorough doing of it
in our time the wonderful flowers of future
discovery, whose beauty our eyes cannot see,
or our imaginations picture, must largely de-
pend."

X

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Beekeeping. By Everett Franklin Phillips,
Ph.D. New York City: The Macmil-
lan Company.
The needs of the beekeeper with a few
colonies are considered in this book as well
as those of the specialist who devotes his
entire time to hony production. The treat-
ment of the subject is based wholly on fun-
damental principles. The author presents
the essential manipulations in their logical
order and shows the desirability of elimi-
nating all that is non-essential. Since tools
alone do not make a good beekeeper the
consideration of apparatuses is subordi-
nated, though all of the equipment is briefly
described and illustrated.

it thought. The more you pay for your lens
and the greater its reputation the more time
and attention you must dcz'ofe to it in order
to obtain results. This statement is born of
actual fact."

The Children's Book of Birds. By Olive
Thorne Aliller. Boston, r\las~achusetts :
Houghton Mifflin Company.
This interesting and attractive book will
fulfill its purpose to interest young people
in the ways and habits of birds, and to incite
them to further study. The author for
many years has had extensive experience in
talking on the subject to boys and girls in
the schools. She reports that the result of
some of these talks has been astonishing.
The book is well adapted to the continuing
of this good work in a wider range. The il-
lustrations too are many and effective. The
publishers have seconded the author's ef-
orts in every respect, as might be anticipat-
ed from their high standing and well-known
efficient work as publishers.

The x\merican Annual of Photography
1916. Edited by Percy Y. Howe. New
York City: The American Annual of
Plhotography, Inc. Distributing Agents :
George Murphy, Inc., 57 East Ninth
Street, New York City.
As usual, this book contains a vast amount
of illustrative and textual material. To the
reviewer, the best article in the volume is
"The Anastigmat Lens and the Average
Amateur" by A. H. Beardsley. It is well
written and to the point. It covers the ques-
tion. Why is an anastigmat lens better than a
recitilinear, and why is a rectilinear not so
good as an anastigmat? The question has
caused much discussion and from this new
point of view both sides are right. The
photographer will get the most out of a lens
in which he firmly believes and to which he
is best adapted. Mr. Beardsley makes it clear
that that principle applies not only to a choice
between an anastigmat and a rectilinear, but
to a choice between the various kinds of anas-
tigmats. I have never before seen so clear
an explanation of the fact that a rectilinear is
better than an anastigmat and that the anas-
tigmat is also suoreme. The anastigmat is
better only when the photographer can use it
to better advantage. The following quota-
tion from the article is worth careful consid-
eration :

"A motto handsomely framed and illumi-
nated by electric lights should be hung in
every store to read, 'Never buy an anastig-
mat lens without solemnly taking the oath
to master its proper use.' Just because you
paid fifty dollars for a lens in no way guaran-
tees you better pictures. Note this and give

Ten Years' Work of a Mountain Observa-
tory. By George Ellery Hale. Washing-
ton, D. C. : The Carnegie Institution of

Washington.

This little book, published by The Car-
negie Institution of Washington, and beauti-
ful in a mechanical way, contains much of
value. The illustrations, particularly those
of the sun and the nebulae, are remarkable.
Every American, especially every one that
is interested in astronomy, must have a feel-
ing of pride at what is being accomplished
by Director Hale and his efficient assistants
at Mount Wilson. We cannot thank him
enough for placing before us these remark-
able results of astronomical investigations.

The Mount Wilson Solar Observatory,
like other great observatories in the United
States, is doing the work of a big manufac-
tory or warehouse; it is producing and
storing an enormous amount of material
that would be interesting and useful to the
public. Here is shown the need of many
small observatories like the new one at
Sound Beach to disseminate this informa-
tion among those that crave a knowledge
of the wonders of the heavens.

Wild Bird Guests : How to Entertain Them,
By Ernest Harold Baynes. New York
City: E. P. Dutton & Company.
Every friend of American wild birds —
everyone who wishes to be their friend, will
find this book a source of joy and inspira-
tion. As a result of his own wide experi-
ence, the author is able to show why the
birds are in sore need of our friendship;
why it is so well worth our while to give
it to them, and then, how we may give it to
them in such a way that it shall be profit-
able alike to the birds, to us, to our chil-
dren, and to the country at large.

There is a delightfully intimate descrip-
tion of Meriden, N. H., "The Bird Village,"
and of the interesting results already at-
tained by the residents there through fol-
lowing the author's methods of attracting
wild birds; and in later chaipters these
methods are described in detail, step by
step, so simply that even a little child may
follow them. Finally, for the benefit oi
those who may feel inspired to work with
him to still further advance the cause of
bird protection, Mr. Baynes tells exactly
how to organize and manage an active bird
club. With the assistance of his readers he
hopes to spread a network of such clubs
over the United States — the happiest pos-
sible solution of the problem of American
wild bird conservation.

Uplifting are the mountains
And having them in sight.

An inspiration to the soul.
E'er striving for the right.

— Emma Peirce.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

THERE IS ONLY ONE

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wall finish pro-
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It is used by the U.
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on prominent office
and public buildings,
, schools, churches,

hospitals, theatres and dwellings. Color
Card and descriptive literature sent upon
request. Working samples to architects

THE CHARLES H. BROWN PAIIVT CO.

i88 Montague Street
Boston Brooklyn, N. Y. Atlanta

Hunting Without a Gun

A LECTURE

Illustrated with trophies of the hunt in
natural colors. The wild bird, the
wild animal, the wild flowers and
other wild life. Showing how all
may be had without doing them injury
or even molesting them, and giving
graphic explanation of how to over-
come the pugnacity of the English
sparrow in attracting the native birds
to our homes.

Engagements Solicited

THE BIRD-MAN

^<^>^A 203 MONROE AVENUE

1

ROCHESTER

NEW YORK

TWO GRAND
PRIZES

The International Jury of Award,
Panama-Pacific Exposition, has con-
ferred the Grand Prix upon

BAUSCH & LOME
BALOPTICONS

Bausch & Lomb Balopticons ofifer the
most efficient means for every form of
optical projection. The recent intro-
duction of the gas-filled Mazda lamp
has made them still simpler and more
efficient and optical projection has been
reduced to its simplest terms by the
adaptation of this new Mazda to the
projection of opaque objects.

Another Grand Prix is awarded

BAUSCH & LOMB
MICROSCOPES

for superiority of design and construc-
tion— optical and mechanical.

The Gold Medal — the highest prize
granted in this class — was awarded to

BAUSCH & LOMB

ZEISS

Photographic lenses

It is understood that no Grand Prize
was awarded in this class — not because
of lack of quality — but because of the
absence of foreign exhibitors and con-
sequent lack of competition.

Bausch & Lomb Optical Co.

324 SAINT PAUL St.. ROCHESTER. N. Y

Leading American Makers of Mic-
roscopes, Projection Apparatus {Bal-
opticons), Photographic Lenses, En-
gineering Instruments, Range Finders,
Binoculars, Searchlight Reflectors,
Ophthalmic Lenses and other High
Grade Optical Products.

XII

THE GUIDE TO NATURE— ADVERTISEMENTS

Were Your Vacation

Pictures Failures ?
-IF so—
The Moderate Priced

<*oe:rz

SYNTOR

SHOULD BE ON YOUR
CAMERA

THIS lens is especially made to
fit both the pocketbook and the
camera of every amateur pho-
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results. Of special importance to
you is the fact that the SYNTOR is
a GOERZ LENS of true GOERZ
QUALITY. See your dealer or
write us for full information.

C. p. Gocrz American Optical Co.

317 G. East 34lh Street, New York City

SUBSCRIBE NOW

January, 1916, is
No. I, Vol. XII, of the

Nature Study Review

Official Journal American Nature Study
Society
The numbers for the coming year
will be filled with special articles from
practical teachers dealing with actual work,
methods and suggestions for School Gar-
dening, Elementary Agriculture, and Nature
Study.

DO NOT MISS ANY OF THEM.

$1 00 per year 15c per copy

Add for Canadian Postage 10c. Foreign

Postage 20c With "Guide to Nature"

one year $1.50.

Address all orders to

The Nature Study Review

Make Your Reading Count

READ THIS COURSE

Thirty-Seventh C. L. S. C. Year

Social and Economic Forces in Ameri-
can History. Edited by Albert Bush-
nell Hart, Harvard University ...$1.50

Changing America.. By Edward Als-
worth Ross, University of Wiscon-
sin $1.20

American Ideals in Character and Life.
By Hamilton Wright Mabie, author
and editor 1.50

The Ways of the Planets. By Mar-
tha Evans Martin 1.25

The Independent. A wreekly maga-
zine. Illustrated, 52 issues 3.00

The Round Table. Monthly. Teach-
ing and illustrative material.

C. L. S. C. Membership Enrollment i.oo

$9.45
All four books. The Independent, The
Round Table and C. L. S. C. Mem-
bership $2.00

"EASY FOR ANYBODY, WORTH
WHILE FOR EVERYBODY"
If in doubt, send stamp for handbook
of testimonials.
Address Chautauqua Institution, Chau-
tauqua, New York.
DON'T READ AT RANDOM

It is generally agreed that Edward F.
Bigelow, of ArcAdiA, Sound Beach.
Connecticut, is one of the most interest-
ing instructors of any who have ad-
dressed the institute in recent years.
His talks are not only entertaining but
are based along lines that will prepare
teachers for the new vocational work
and his subjects cover a wide range.
Mr. Bigelow's lectures have attracted
considereable attention locally and
there have been many in attendance
who are not connected with the teach-
ing stafif of the comity. These visitors
are cordially welcomed by the peda-
gogues.— -"The Danville Gazette," Dan-
ville, Indiana.

ITHACA, N. Y

The torpedoing of an oil steamer off
the east coast of Scotland has caused
the death of thousands of shore birds.
The escaped oil coats the surface of the
water, and so beplasters the feathers
of the eider ducks, puf fins, razorbills
and guillemots, that the wretched birds
can neither fly nor dive. Therefore
they starve and their dead bodies strew
the beaches.

1916

February

VOL VIII, No. 9

EDWARD F. BIGELOW

MANAGING EDITOR

Published Monthly by

The Agassiz Association

ARCADIA, SOUND BEACH. CONN.

Subscription, $1.00 a Year; Single Copy, 10c

WJ^^on^ 5i"/scn

GREENWICH

THE EDITION DE LUXE
OF CONNECTICUT TOWNS

GREENWICH

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Savings Mean Success and the
Man, Woman or Child who In-
dustriously saves a Small Portion
of Their Income is Building a
Bulwark of Protection Against
Poverty and Unhappiness. This
Bank Allows a Liberal Rate of
Interest on Savings Accounts.
Give It Consideration

The Greenwich Trust Co.

ESTABLISHED 1887]:

GREENWICH, CONN.

GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT

has good transportation facilities to
New York. You can buy or rent to
good advantage and enjoy living by
the water or among the hills to the
utmost satisfaction.

I have for Sale

Elegant Country Estates, Shore and Inland

Residences, Farms, Acreage, Cottages and

, Building Sites. Also a number of selected

i Furnished Residences and Cottages to Rent

in all locations.

Would be pleased to have you call or write.

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Tel. 456 Opp. Depot Greenwich, Conn

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GREENWICH, CONN.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS. 1'

THE STAMFORD SAVINGS BANK

INCORPORATED 1851

ASSETS, $5,832,000.00

Interest from the First Day of Each Month at the Rate of 4 per cent, per annum

CHARLES H. LOUNSBURY, President.
ALBERT G. WEED, Vice President.
J. HOWARD BOGARDUS, Treasurer.

Greenwich

A New System of Banking by Mail

A unique system of Banking by mail has been in-
stituted by The Putnam Trust Co. of Greenwich.
Conn., intended to afford a simple and safe method
bv which people living at a distance can carry on
interest accounts through the mails. The first and
subsequent deposits can be sent by check or a
money order with the depositor's signature and ad-
dress. The company sends a certificate which looks
a good deal like a coupon bond. A number of small
coupons are attached, and when the depo'^itor wish-
es to withdraw, he can do so by simply filling out a
coupon, and niail certificate, with the coupon at-
tached, to the company. These certiticates are noi -
negotiable and cannot be used except by the person
who has the account. In return, a check is sent by
The Putnam Trust drawn on the Guaranty Trust
Company of New York, which can be cashed in any
place where there is a bank. Deposits and witji-
drawals are noted on the certificates, showing tbe
exact balance. For depositors in foreign coui tries
a bill of exchange is sent payable in the currency
of the country. The comi)any pays the usual four
per cent, interest ar.d its operations are safeguarded
bv the laws of the State of Connecticut.

SEND $5.00 FOR TRIAL ACCOUNT

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Telephone Connection

Promoting Nature — Agriculture !

"Where I stayed last summer a green
hired man tried to kiss me. He said
he had never kissed a girl in his life,

and "

"What did you tell him?"
"I told him that I was no agricultural
experiment station." — The Country
Gentleman.

Merciful Lessons from Nature!

The teacher was hearing the class in
Nature. Trying to impress upon the
children's minds the horror of cruelty
to animals she told the following story :

"Once a farmer went out to milk a
cow and a little calf switched the man
in the eye with its tail. The man took
out his knife and cut off the calf's tail.
Now, children, what verse in the Bible
should that man have remembered?"

Of course she had reference to "Bless-
ed are the merciful," but Philip had an-
other answer :

"What God hath joined together, let
no man put asunder."

COMPLIMENTS

of

THE SOUND BEACH PHARMACY

Sound Beach, Connecticut.

Telephone 1294 Stamford.

D. MAHER & SONS 1

LEHIGH COAL, HYGEIA ICE |

BUILDING MATERIAL, LIME, LATH, |
BRICK, SAND, CEHENT, DRAIN PIPE -

Sound Beach, Conn. I

Tel. 1582-2

II

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

Stamford Business Directory

WE SELL
LEHIGH VALLEY ANTHRACITE

"The Coal That Satisfies'

GRAVES AND
STRANG

INC

Tel. -
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JOHN PHILLIPS

Dealer in
BOOTS AND SHOES

463 Main St. Stamford, Conn.

FOR FINE MILLINERY
NEWSTAD'S

200 ATLANTIC STREET, STAMFORD, CONN

THE STAMFORD LUNCH

?-76 MAIN STREET STAMFORD, CONN

FRED McDERMANT, Proprietor
We cater to Parties, Clubs, Stags and Outings 45-47 Bank St.

VOSKA & OXXO

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Suits and Ovei coats to Order Twenty-five dollars up
We mean of better kinds

Stamford, Conn.

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CONTRACTOR

Sewers, Pavements, Macadam Roads, Cokcretk
Walls, Excavating Rock, Railroads

Dealer in Sand and Gravel
P. O. Box 88 Teleohone Connpction

Room 306, 1 Bank St.. Stamford. (Jonn.

REMOVAL NOTICE

Drs. W. H. and E. W. Pomeroy

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are now located in the Gurley Building,
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THE GUIDE TO NATURE.—ADFERTISEMENTS.

V

THE STAMFORD LUMBER CO

LUMBER

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and it can be made with a high or square neck and with
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many occasions as well as to many materials. When
flouncing is used, the hem and tucks are of necessity
omitted. Here, the fulness at the upper edge is laid in
tiny tucks, but it would be quite possible to substitute
smocking and smocking is exceedingly smart and also
gives a very pretty effect. On the figure, the frock is
made of embroidered flouncing with plain lawn for the
sleeves and lace banding used as trimming. In the small
front view, it is made of rose colored challis with lace
and it makes a very pretty frock suited to the girls of six
years of age.

For the 4 years size will be needed, 2 yds. of material
27 or 36 in. wide, 1 3-4 yds. 44, or 1 1-2 yds. of flouncing,
27 in. wide, with 1-2 yd. of plain material 36 in. wide
and 2 1-4 yds. of banding.

NEW STORE NEW LOCATION

NEW GOODS

COME AND VISIT

AUGUST GARGIULO

Cor. Main and Greyrock Place

DELMOMCO RESTAURANT

Good Food Promptly served at popular

prices in neat and tasty manner.

GEORGE PIERRIDES

284 Main Street,
Stamford Connecticut

Try

for

IVIen's Xogs

Suits and Overcoats to measure

Gleaning, Repairing and Pressing

a Specialty

Best Hat Values Obtainable in the

Celebrated G & K

Line of Derby and Soft Hats

196 Atlantic St.

Stamford Connecticut

VI

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS

Full Plans and Specifications May be Obtained from
THE GUIDE TO NATURE.
A Modern Home
Attractive and Convenient.

This cottage makes a pleasant home,
and can be built for a moderate amount.

From the side porch entrance is had
to the large reception hall, which con-
tains a wide staircase. Closet under
stairs. Parlor on right. Dining room
has a deep bay window. Pantry con-

h^xcavation
Stonework
Brickwork
Carpenter work
Plastering
Cement tioor
Paper and nails
Lumber

90
100
100

550

125

40

30
475

tains shelves and dresser. Kitchen is
conveniently arranged. Rear porch
has a cold air closet.

On the second floor are three bed-
rooms and bath-room.

The following items give cost of
building :

Millwork

Painting and Glazing

Plumbing, etc.

Hardware

Hot air heating

Range

Total

400

225
250

50
125

40

$2,600

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS

VII

vS'^: <::<:? A/x? 7\2: cx>^=^

f-;:z.srr 7^JL.cxP7=^

"Aren't you afraid of hoi polloi?" the
erudite reporter asked Senator Cashem.

"Oh, no,"' rephed the statesman ; "we
boil our drinking water." — Philadelphia
PubHc Ledsrer.

The Alvan Clark
& Sons Corporation

Cambridge, Mass.

MAKERS OF

Astronomical

and

Terrestrial

Telescopes

Correspondence Solicited

The place you will eventually go
to have your

CHIROPRACTIC SPINAL ADJUSTMENTS

Lalest Painless Methods. Spinal Analysis Free

E. BARTHOL, D. C.

STAMFORD, CONN.
Week Days Only, 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. Phone 1727

w. A. McClelland

OPTOMFTRIST

OPTICIAN

^ yburjStdf/onery
JVeeds-

whether business or social,
can be supplied here to the
best advantage. Variety,
quality, price, all in your
favor. We would espec-
ially like to show you

Self -Filling

Fountain Pen

—the pen that fiUs It-
self by a thumb-pres-
sure from anything
that holds ink. Cleans
itself at the same
time. Never leaks.

345 Atlantic Street

STAMFORD. CONN.

V^III

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

THE C. 0. MILLER CO.

Established 48 Years.

Atlantic Square Stamford, Conn.

SPRING— GOODS— ARE— COMING— IN

All Departments are Showing New Arrivals.

OUR INVENTORY SALE

Continues to offer good choosing in Furs at one-half Price and less. Waists at one-
half Price; Coats at one-fourth Under Price; Remnants of Silks at one-third Under
Price; Remnants of Dress Goods at one-fourth Under Price; Pillow Tops at one-half
Price; Odd Pairs of Curtains — Draperies of Many Kinds — from one-fourth to one-third
Under Price; Remnants of Carpets, Linoleum, Matting, etc., at Special Low Prices.

THE— TROLLEY— BRINGS— YOU— TO— OUR— DOOR.

THE C. 0. MILLER CO.

i

bbTABLlSHED 1S5;

THEQETMAN&JUDD CO.

Lumber and Timber of all Kinds

SPECIALTY : High-Qrade HARDWOOD FLOORING

tkoroughly KilmDiTed a>d stored im Steam keated buila
iHg until delivered to our customers. Our steadily in-
creasing trade in tkis specialty prores the fact tkai
Ike country home is Hot complete until fitted out witk
tkis beautiful and sanitary furnishing. Old residence!
may be greatly impi-oved fcy laying tkin floors orer tke
old ones.

CANAL DOCKS, STAMFORD, CONN.
Telephone 2180.

Homes Near to Nature

Skould be so constructed as to give lasting satisfaction.
3ur metkod of manufacturing dependable Interior and
Exterior kouse trim from thoroughly kiln dried materia)
OT skilled mechanics insure; ?uch satisfaction.

THE ST. JOHN WOODWORKING CO.

Canal docks, Stamford conn.

Telephone 781

DIRECTORS
WALTON FERGUSON, Pres. W. W. HEROY,

W. D. DASKAM, Vice Pres. F. H. HOYT.

W. H. JUDD, Sec. and Treas. F. \V. BOGARDUS.

J. G. WIGG, General Manager.

<P'

;i:

"%

The LOCK WOOD & PALMER Co.

Wholesale and Retail
Dealers in

HARDWARE

AGRICULTURAL

IMPLEMENTS

House Furnishings, Etc.

TOOLS
A.11 Kinds

92 PARK PLACE

(Cor. Summer Street)

STAMFORD - CONN

TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS

n

"Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching
them with your hands, but like the sea-faring man on the
desert of waters you choose them as your guides, and follow-
ing them you reach your destiny."

^:

■^d tot' ^^ ^®# ^-i - -'

%iL tm. tmt fCi^t fi£^Mm% tmmit

-^

This drawing was made and contributed to The Agassiz Associa-
tion by the Reverend Lewis W. Barney, Ph. D., Sound Beach, Con-
necticut.

^1

.c- -

,..,

HONEYBEES LIVE IN THIS ROCK.
Cut by courtesy of "Gleanings in Bee Culture," Medina, Ohio.

Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA; Sound Beach, Connecticut,

Subscription, S 1 .00 a year Single copy, 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12. 1909. at Sound Beach Post OflBce. under Act of March 3, 1897.

Vol

VIII

FEBRUARY, 1916

Number 9

Honeybees that Live in a Rock.

The full page illustration shows a
remarkable home of honeybees in a
rock located in Griffith's Park about six
miles from Los Angeles and two miles
from Lindale, California. The editor
of "Gleanings in Bee Culture" has
kindly lent us this illustration, and
from that interesting apiarian maga-
zine we glean the following :

The park contains three thousand
acres of mountain scenery, beautiful
drives and zoological gardens, but bee-
keepers will be interested in what is
perhaps the biggest bee rock in the
world, and in the several bee trees that
stand in the reservation. The rock is
on high ground, and while it com-
mands an extensive view of the sur-
rounding country, it is itself so per-
forated by holes and excavated by cav-
ities that it has become a fantastic ob-
ject, in which we may see the forms of
animals and the faces of men. In
these cavities are located colonies of
bees, some of which are probably enor-
mous in size. Apparent!}- no one has
ever explored the interior of the rock
or made any attempt to take the honey.
The rock is difficult of access ; but bees
can be seen flying in at the various
apertures.

The Defenceless Menhaden.

BY JOSEPH W. LIPPIXCOTT, BETH.AVRES, PA.

Fifty or more Wilson terns were hov-
ering over a small cove in that intent
fashion which invariably denotes that
ihey have found a large school of small
tish. Every now and then there was
a splash as one of the birds darted into
the water, and often there were other
splashes and swift gleams of silver as
large fish, over zealous in their pursuit
of the small prey, broke the surface.

I drifted down wind in a small boat
until in the midst of the swarm of
screaming terns where, several feet
below me, I could see a vast army of
small fish — young menhaden — thous-
ands and thousands of them not travel-
ling in any direction as is their wont,
but evidently feeding upon the infini-
tesimal animal organisms in the sea
water.

As I watched, a few, perhaps a hun-
dred, shot upward disclosing a large
fish — a flounder — in hot pursuit. They
scattered along the surface the terns,
ignoring me, dashing down to catch
them. Two were carried off by the
terns, one b}^ the flounder It all hap-
pened in a moment, then once more the
hoard was feeding all unconcernedly.
And this had been going on for days,
perhaps, in one way or another, ever
since the little fish emerged from the
eggs.

("o|pyrieht )9'6 bv The .Agassiz Association. ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn.

278

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

In the cove, a reef divided them from
the bay, a reef covered by snaky rock
weeds several feet long which moved
with the motion of the water and evi-
dently frightened the menhaden back
whenever their leaders attempted to
pass over it. They had come in during
the wet weather and now they chose
to remain although each day saw more
terns collecting to feed upon them from
above and more large fish and crabs to
attack them from below.

The tern army was openly encamped
on the near-by rocks evidently intending
to stay there until the last menhaden
was caught. It could only operate by
day so as if to further aid in the work
of extermination, night herons collected
in the evening. I counted seven stand-
ing motionless at the water's edge each
ready to strike with swift bill.

One thing might save them — a storm
— a rough spell of high turbid water
that would carry them out of the cove
in spite of themselves. A month went
by and it did not come, a month during
which the fish vanished, probably at
the rate of about a thousand a day.
And even if they rushed the barriers,
what then? What chance for them,
defenceless in a world of enemies. Per-
haps they were wise ; I did not meddle,
but went away wondering at the way
of life and — hoping.

Mossy Glen.

BY A. W. BROOKS, OMAHA, NEBRASKA

This picture shows a deep ravine be-
tween the hills near Strawberrv Point,

Iowa. Just beyond this spot is the head
of the glen, where the waters come tum-
bling over the rocks from the springs
above. Ferns of many kinds grow in
profusion, and it would not be easy to
find a square inch of ground, rock, tree
trunk, stump or log that is not covered
with mosses. Hence the name. Mossy
Glen, a delightfully cool spot on a hot
summer day, and restful to the eyes.

Lightning from a Clear Sky.

"A bolt of lightning from a clear sky"
is a phrase familiarly used to illustrate
some event considered to be of extreme-
ly unlikely occurrence. Yet that very
thing is reported from the Connecticut
village of Ellington this week. There
were a few clouds low on the northern
horizon, but the sky was the color it
usually is when bending over the blue
water of the Bay of Naples. Such was
the apparent aspect of things when a
discharge of lightning swept down the
main street of the village, paying un-
welcome visits to six dififerent dwellings
on the way, and in each displaying its
proverbial freakiness. But there was no
freak or wonder in the whole perform-
ance greater than the fact that nobody
was killed. — The Stamford (Conn.)
Advocate.

Open wide every window and door,
Let in all the sunshine, I pray;

And when falls the curtain of night,
Let it wrap 3'ou about till the day.
— Emma Peirce.

"A DELIGHTFULLY COOL SPOT ON A HOT SUMMER DAY.'

UNLIMITED FOOD SUPPLY FROM THE OCEAN

279

Unlimited Food Supply from the
Ocean.

The ocean, points out Professor J.
Stanley Gardner in a report on British
fisheries, is really much more fertile
than the land. The earth produces one
crop a year, or at the best two or three,
but the minute vegetable organisms
which nourish the life of the sea grow a
new crop every day.

If, therefore, the wild life of the water
were kept down as the wild life of the
land is. so that only the useful creatures
are allowed to multiply, there is no
practical limit to the quantity of human
food that reaches out of the soil or is
yielded.

We commonly think of all the plant
food that leaches out of the soil or is
allowed to flow away as sewage as so
much total loss to mankind. It now ap-
pears, however, that much of this in
the economy of nature is recovered
again. The nitrogen, phosphorous and
silicon abstracted from the land help to
nourish the plant life of the sea. This
in turn is consumed by the fishes, only
to be returned once more to the land
when the "sea food" reaches the
market.

Recent studies of the British fisheries
show that in the abundant vegetable
food of the North Sea most food fishes
grow three times as rapidly as in the
Baltic, and no less than eight times
faster than in the cold waters of the
Arctic Ocean, while four year old her-
ring from the White Sea are only one
eighth the size of those of the same age
from the fishing grounds about Ice-
land in the same latitvide. As for the
sea creatures simpler than the fishes.
their growth is almost entirely a ques-
tion of the food supply. Two starfish,
for example, hatched from the same lot
of eggs, may difi^er in size by five thous-
and times.

The Brook.

BY A. W. BROOKS, OMAHA, NEBRASKA.

This looks like a fisherman's paradise,
but it is not. The spring floods make
it impossible to keep the stream
stocked. It is. however, a favorite spot
for picnics. Just above is a log cabin
with a big fireplace, and across the
stream is an ice cave, where ice may
be had for making ice cream. This cave,
the remains of a tunnel dug into the
hillside by lead prospectors, has, with

"A FAVORITE SPOT FOR PICNICS."

the exception of a few feet at the
mouth, caved in, and in the hole thus
left is a pool that is always frozen solid
— why no one knows. Perhaps the hills
are a vast storehouse of ice buried there
since the glacial period. The photo-
graph was taken in eastern Iowa, near
Strawberrv Point.

The Workers and Money.

It is quite probable that the workers
of the United States might be described
accurately about as follows:

Ninety per cent trying to make
money, thinking of little else.

Seven per cent despairing of making
money, and bitterly enxying those that
have money.

Three ])er cent thinking of earnest,
tiseful eft'ort a])art from money, like the
nol)le Agassi/, who said he hadn't time
to make money. (That three per cent
allowance is very generous.) — N. Y.
Journal.

28o

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

A PHOTOMICROGRAPH OF A SMALL PORTION OF THE UPPER SURFACE OF A CAT'S TONGUE.
By Edward F. Bigelow from a section prepared and mounted by H. C. Wheeler, Montreal, Canada.

The Roughness of the Cat's Tongue.

BY H. C. WHEELER, MONTREAL, CANADA.

A few days ago I received a letter from
the editor in which he says, "I often won-
der why microscopy has been so sparingly
popularized in comparison with other
sciences." I often wonder at this myself,
when I think of the many pleasant hours
that the microscope has afiforded me. It
cannot be from the lack of things of in-
terest to look at, because there are thous-
ands of such things around every dwel-
ling, no matter how humble or confined
it be. Nor yet can it be from the cost of
a microscope, as there are many excellent
ones to be had for a few dollars and that
would afford any one real pleasure in the
examination of the common things that
surround us.

Take, for instance, the common house
cat. Her tongue is rough, but I doubt if
one person in a hundred has given the
matter any thought as to the cause of
this roughness. The illustration shows a
piece of pussy's tongue. The reason for
the roughness is at once apparent. Note
the little pockets that the hooks' form.
These enable her to get the meat from the
bones that she has for dinner, the hooks
acting much the same as a rasp. She can
get the bones cleaner than can we with
our knives and forks. All members of
the feline tribe have this rough tongue.
In lions and tigers it is so pronounced
that to have one of them lick vour hand

or face would very likely be painful and
draw blood.

This is only one instance out of the
many thousands that are accessible to all.
The tiny flowers on the grass are things
quite as pretty as some of the flowers in
the florist's window. All they require is
to be magnified so that our senses can
become acquainted with their beauty. Get
a microscope and look about you and you
will see that the world is not such a bad
place after all.

The Box Elder a Maple?

'Ts the Box Elder a Maple?" is the
subject of long discussion by Amon B.
Plowman in the Botanical Gazette for
September. After examining every
minutest point of leaf, wood, root,
blossoms, and bark of the two trees,
and also the fossil forms of both, the
author reaches this conclusion.

The box elder was an early offshoot
of the maple group, which took on its
present day characters as a result of
the storm and stress of the Glacial
Period. In other words, it is a modi-
fied maple, especially designed to with-
stand the rigors of the Great Ice Age.
But the buffetings of this trying time
have so far altered the pre-glacial char-
acter of the box elder that in its modern
form, it is no longer to be counted
among the maples. Nevertheless,
amongst other marked differences cer-
tain striking similarities still survive.

SOME INTERESTING SPECIMENS

281

Fitting for Immortality.

The thought of immortaHty ought to
be one of the utmost seriousness. One
must somewhere learn to live in immor-
tal things. Tell me honestly — the sort
of existence that many people are here
dragging out is it worth perpetuating?
Is it worth while to lengthen frivolous
and useless lives to infinite age? What
good do they do here? What good
would they do there? — Rev. Dr. Marion
D. Shutter, New Haven, Connecticut,
in a sermon on "Meaning to Immortal
Life."

The latest theory of the origin of the
starfishes and sea urchins is that they
are both merely greatly modified forms
of the crab-lobster group.

Interesting Specimens.

Through the kindness of Mrs. Edwin
Binney of Sound Beach we have been
favored with an interesting specimen of
the well-known Hercules beetle of South
America. In the textbooks the ordinary
form, that of the male, is shown on ac-
count of the huge horns. The dilTerence
between the male Hercules beetle and the
female is the reverse of what occurs with
the ordinary mosquito. It is the female
mosquito that bites and stings ; the male is
rare. Few know the female Hercules.

The same contributor has also favorel
us with a remarkably good specimen of a
trap-door spider and the nest. The door
is well shown in the photograph from

Mrs. Binney's specimen reproduced here-
with. In "The Spider Book" Professor
Comstock tells us as follows of the struc-
ture and action of this door :

"The door is provided on one side with
a hinge which is merely a continuation
of the wall of the tube into the layer of
silk that forms the foundation of the door.

"The inner surface of the door presents
the same appearance as the silken lining
of the tube, being a firm layer of silk ; but

THE FEMALE HERCULES BEETLE.

the outer surface of the door is covered
with earth and made to simulate in a very
perfect manner the surface of the sur-
rounding soil, so that, when the door is
closed, very careful observation is neces-
sary to detect the presence of the nest. In
those cases in which the nest is built in soil
covered with moss, moss is planted by the
spider upon the door of the nest."

These were all forwarded to Mrs. Bin-
ney by Mrs. M. E. Stead from Carthage,
North Carolina.

TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS WITH A NESl.

282

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Domesticated

NATURE

Why Keep Rabbits or Cavies?

BY CHARLES H. ELLARD, NEW YORK CITY.

Keeping a few rabbits or cavies, the
so-called guinea pigs, may not seem to
have any scientific interest or impor-
tance, but in them is a tremendous
amount of material for study and ex-
perimentation that can give one a lib-
eral education in heredity, Mendelism
and evolution.

No one just "keeps" these pets and
gets any profit out of it. The enjoy-
ment and education are in proportion
to the efforts he puts forth to develop
his stock and their progeny until he
approaches some ideal of beauty of
form or color or fixes a type that is dis-
tinct. If these types have become fixed
"permanently," people interested in
fancy stock of this kind and controlling
by their combined associations the
"fancy," give their sanction to the nev^
type, formulate standards, which are
supposed to express the highest ideal of
the type, and makes classes for them at
the accepted exhibitions. The standards
are intended to express the ideal of per-

fection in beauty of lines, form and
color. Nature unaided would not pro-
duce such perfection. It is the breeder's
endeavor to obtain results as near this
ideal as he can. To do this he must
study the probabilities to be expected
from the parents of his future perfect
specimen. He must know much of
their parentage and must consider care-
fully the faults of each parent so that
those in the one may be counterbal-
anced by the other. A case in point
might be the tan rabbit. In breeding
this we desire a deep rich black or blue
marked with tan in certain definite
places and ways about the body. One
parent may be particularly good in
these markings while the otner may have
a clear black in the body color. The
probabilities of still better offspring
would be good. But if both parents
showed a decided tendency to have tan
fur mixed with the black good results
could not be hoped for from pairing
such individuals. In all cases the breed-
ing of any of the several varieties of
rabbits, cavies, mice or what not when

A BLUE DUTCH RABBIT AND HER HAPPY CHILDREN.

DOMESTICATED NATURE

283

it is done in the fancier spirit toward the
development of the ideal of variety and
type to which it belongs, becomes a mat-
ter of scientific study of no mean propor-
tions. Results must be studied, mis-
takes corrected, several generations
sometimes being needed to correct a
single, simple blemish. But thought
and care will bring you nearer and
nearer to the perfect specimen. There
is little probability that chance will
produce results except in isolated and

■

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F

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t {*«

is ■:■

3

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^^

'^m

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^

FUR PULLED BY THE MOTHER RABBIT FROM

HER BREAST FOR ONE NEST.

Piled on a plate to show size of pile.

extremely rare cases, and in such the
return to the faults of the parent and
grandparent is usually pronounced.

When an active fancier of cavies, a
railroad man, with whom I had discus-
sed some of the ideals for which we
were trying, and to whom I remarked
that a white cavy with blue instead of
pink eyes seemed to me a desirable
type to produce, discovered on a trip to
Washington what seemed to be this
type, he purchased the pig, a female,
and sent it to me. I determined to try
to produce a strain that would breed
true, like reproducing like. The pig
sent me had about five colored hairs

THE \"ERY VOUM; RABBITS IN THE NEST OF
FUR.

near the scruff of the neck. I selected
a pure albino mate. The young of the
first mating showed of three one albino
and two with some decided red patches.
The albino was a male and I kept him
and bred him with his dam and one of
the red spotted ones to the sire. The
next litters both showed a boar in one and
two sows, in the other male nearly all
white but having females a little more
colored than the original dam. These
were again crossed on the preceding
parents that were either albino or
showed the least color. By this care-
ful crossing and recrossing at the end
of twenty months I had two pairs of
white pigs with blue eyes that bred one
or two reproductions of themseves in
every litter. There would also be a re-
version to the patched or to the albino ;
had I been able to continue these ex-
periments for another year there is no

RABBITS A FEW DAYS OLD.

284

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

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WHITE BELGIAN HARES ON A MIRROR.

A CONTENTED FAMILY TAKING A RIDE.

DOMESTICATED NATURE

285

doubt that such a variety would have
been produced and maintained. In
fact I believe Professor Castle of Har-
vard has obtained such results.

Results are more easily obtainable in
animals whose period of gestation is
short, such as mice, in which the blue-
eyed white is not rare.

Similar study and perseverance must
be applied to each and every variety.
Whoever really endeavors to produce a
specimen that will win a competitive
place of the exhibitions of stock must
bring his results before a competent
judge who will make the necessary
comparisons and criticisms. In most
cases the judges are glad to make sug-
gestions to help the breeder to obtain
results nearer the ideal. This ideal is
invariably one in which beauty of con-
tour and of color is paramount. This
gives us, in addition to the biological
training, a sort of development in our
aesthetic tastes. To approach the ideal
of the standards in any fancy animal —
horse, dog, cattle, rabbit or mouse — is
no child's play. The young person
capable of securing results is bound to
have learned that thinking things out
has much to do wath success and will
have gained a store of biological knowl-
edge. He will realize, too. how
men may use God's laws to enhance
the latent beautv of these little creatures.

Who Can Beat This?
They have been discussing, in one
of the English natural history journals,
the strange idiosyncracies of cats in the
things they like to eat. Here are some
of the reports. Are American cats
equally original?

"A FTNT'S A POUND
THE WORLD AROUND.^

One animal habitually refused both
meat and milk, and preferred above all
else raw potatoes. Once she got up
on the table, and, ignoring a lamb cut-
let, made off with a cucumber.

A Persian tom demanded regularly
two raw potatoes, and for a change
enjoyed asparagus, cucumbers, cab-
bage, tomatoes, vegetable marrow,
melons, cocoanut and olives.

A Manx cat would risk a beating to
steal baked pears.

Still a fourth cat devours earth-
worms and frogs, and in the spring
will stand on the shore of a shallow
pond and with its paw fish out masses
of frog's eggs for a meal.

A YOUNG CAVY.
Photographed by an apple for comparison of size.

Even what most attracts us in the
farmer's life is not its profitableness. We
love to go after the cow not for the sake
of her milk or her beef, or the money
they yield, but perchance to hear the
cinkling of the cow-bell — We would keep
hens not for eggs, but to hear the cocks
crow and the hens cackle. — Thoreau.

286

mi'. (iUIDE TO NATURE

A HEN BROODING FIVE KITiENS.

Cut by couitesy of "(_)ui- Dumb Animals," Boston, Massachusetts.

Hen Mother's Five Kittens.

Mrs. Mary 1. Glover, 318 North Ave-
nue A, Canton, Illinois, has a buff Ply-
mouth Rock hen that is acting the part
of mother to live kittens, about six
weeks old, says the Daily Register of
that city. That this statement is no
mere "newspaper story" is attested by
the accompanying photograph, sent to
Our Dumb Animals by a Canton cor-
respondent.

The hen had been sitting perhaps ten
days, when she left her nest to feed,
and while strolling about the barn she
discovered the kittens, whose nest was
in a tub, and proceeded to adopt the
litter and preempted their home. She
will fight for the kittens and seems very
much attached to them.

Mrs. Glover has attempted to per-
suade the hen to go back to her nest of
eggs, in fact she has taken her back
several times, but the hen apparently
prefers the company of the kittens and
immediately returns to them.

Equally strange is the story of the
mother cat which has adopted a crip-
pled chicken, a few miles out of Favette
City, Pennsylvania. The Journal of
that town tells how Mr. Charles Grant
took a number of chicks from an incu-
bator, among them one so puny and

sickly that it was not expected to sur-
vive. But Mother Cat took it gently in
her jaws, placed it in the nest with her
kittens, and now tenderly cares for it
and makes over it as if it were one of
her own kind. The chick is flourishing
and follows the feline mother wherever
she goes. — Our Dumb Animals.

Old Museums Vigorous and Growing.

The oldest natural history museum
within the limits of the United States
was founded at Charleston, South Caro-
lina, in 1773. That at Salem, Massachu-
setts, followed next, in 1799, as a repos-
itory for the curious treasures which
the old shipmasters brought back from
the ends of the earth to what was then
one of the chief seaports of the country.
The museum of the Philadelphia Acad-
emy of Sciences dates back to 1812;
that of the Boston Society of Natural
History to 1830. Of three great collec-
tions of the United States, the Natural
Museum at Washington started in
1846; the Agassiz Museum at Cam-
bridge, in 1852 ; and the Metropolitan
Museum in New York City in 1869.
All these old institutions are still as
vigorous, as flourishing, and as up-to-
date as if they were the youngest in
the land.

DOMESTICATED NATURE

287

The Curious Swimming Frogs.

All frogs can swim but most frogs do
not stay in the water all the time. The
African swimming frogs are thoroughh
aquatic in their habits, and live in perma-
nent pools which they have never been
observed to leave voluntarily.

In the Reptile House of the .\e\v York
Zoological Park three species of these
frogs are on exhibition. The "Zoological
Society P.ulletin" sa}s of the largest,
known as the smooth clawed frog:

'Tt attains a length of body of four
inches and has a smooth skin, except for
several rows of thread-like filaments on
the head and body. Its color i-^ dull
olive, with large variously-snaiDel spois
on the back and limbs. The throat and
abdomen are white, sometimes faintly
spotted with brown. The head is com-
paratively small, flat, with small eyes,
situated on top and looking uoward. A
star-shaped pattern of fine white filaments
surrounds the eye. The mouth, which
has teeth in the upper jaw only, is very
wide. The three inner toes carry sharp,
horny claws at their tios. The home of
this frog is tropical Africa southward to
Cape Town."

SKKKXITV AND CURlUSriV.

Cut by courtesy of The C. P. Goerz American Optical

Company, New York City.

The Fir.

(Watched from a train.)
In phalanxes of green it crowns

The hills,, afar and near;
E'er breathing incense on the air,

So crisp and crystal clear.

Its spires pointing heavenward.

To where the cloudlands lie,
And melting off itself anon

Into the sunset sky.

— Emma Peirce.

AFRICAN SWIMMING FROGS.
Cut by courtesy of tiie "Zoological Society Bulletin," New York City.

288

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Heavens in February.

BY PROt'ESSOR ERIC DOOLlTTI.E OF THE
UNIVERSITY OE PENNSYLVANIA.

Surely no one who turns toward the
heavens on any clear evening of the
present month can fail to be impressed
by the wonderful beauty of the celes-

the west to the east, and that the mag-
nificent Orion, Sirius, Gemini and Ca-
pella are in their highest positions in
the heavens.

Always during this midwinter month
the whole heavens are filled with these
brilliant winter stars, but it is seldom
indeed that no less than four of the

MoieTH

.^OUTK

Figure 1. The Constellations at 9 P. M., February 1
the map upright. If facing east, hold East below
below. If facing north, hold the map inverted).

(If facing south, hold
If facing west, hold West

tial objects that now fill the winter
skies. At no time of any year will he
ever witness this spectacle in greater
brilliance.

The February Stars.

It is only during the evenings oi
February that the train of bright win-
ter constellations forms a complete
band across the southern heavens from

brightest planets are also seen shining
in the evening heavens as we see them
now.

High in the east, the red planet
Mars shines out with six times the
brightness of a first magnitude star.
Almost on the meridian in the south
is the whiter Saturn which, though less
brilliant than Mars, is still nearly twice
as bright as a star of the first magni-

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

289

tude. And in the west there is seen a
pair of most beautiful objects made up
of the brilliant, silvery Venus and the
golden Jupiter.

From a very little watching, the ob-
server will find that Venus is moving
rapidly eastward among the stars.
While at the beginning of the month
it is far to the west of Jupiter, it will
rapidly overtake and pass the giant
planet and soon be found far east of
it. The observer will find it very in-
teresting to watch these two bright
planets as they first draw nearer to-
gether and afterward separate from one
another. Their closest approach will
occur on February 13 at 10 P. M., when
they will be seen separated by a dis-
tance considerably less than the diam-
eter of the moon, the silvery Venus
being then north of Jupiter. For sev-
eral days before and after this date
the two objects will form a conspicuous
and beautiful star figure in the evening
sky.

The Total Eclipse of the Sun.

In the forenoon of February 3, the

moon will pass between the earth and

the sun and at all points within a long

narrow strip on the surface of the earth

west corner of South America, pass
diagonally across the entire North
Atlantic Ocean, and will finally leave
the earth at the point B at 12 hrs. 31
min. o s. P. M.

Figure 2. Region within which the solar eclipse of
February 3 is visible, and the path of the moon's
shadow on the earth.

The eclipse is an interestmg ana im-
portant one, for from certain points
within the path the sun will be hidden
for no less than 2 min. 36 s.

To all observers within the path, A.
M. B. the sun will be completely cov-
ered by the moon. If we move over
the earth farther and farther north of
this path, we will, as it were, look more
and more over the upper edge of our

Figure 3. Showing the times (Eastern Standard) of the beginning and ending
of the eclipse of February 3 for all points within the United States.

will completely blot out the sun's light.
The shadow will first strike the earth
at the point A (Figure 2) at 9 hrs. 29
min. 12 s. A. M. (Eastern Standard
Time). It will sweep over the turn-
ing earth, crossing the extreme north-

moon and thus see our satellite dis-
placed downward upon the sun's disc.
To all observers in the United States
the moon will thus be seen to pass
across only the lower path of the sun
and the eclipse will hence from this

290

THE GUIDE TO XATl'RE

country appear as a partial eclipse only.
Finally, if the observer is north of the
line R S T the moon will be lowered so
far in the heavens that it will pass com-
pletely below the sun. To such ob-
servers the eclipse will be wholly in-
visible.

Observers within the United States
can estimate the times at which the
eclipse begins and ends at their sta-
tions by the help of Figure 3. The

Figure 4. Path of the n-oon across the sun as
viewed from Philadelphia on the morning of February
3rd.

lines running from right to left indi-
cate the times of beginning and the
vertical lines the time of ending. By
measuring the proportional distances
from his location to the two adjacent
lines in each case he can find the times
within two or three minutes.

For example, at Philadelphia we
f^nd:—

Edge of moon first touches edge of
sun and eclipse begins (first contact)
10 hrs. 15 min. A. M.

Edge of moon passes ofif edge of sun
(last contact) 12 hrs. 27 min, P. M.

The appearance of the eclipse as
seen from Philadelphia is shown in
Figure 4. The eclipse will begin when
the moon's center is at A and end when
this is at B, the greatest obscuration
will occur when our satellite has reach-
ed the position C. Observers in the
northern part of our country will see
less of the sun covered than is here
show^n, while to those in the southern
states the obscuration will be greater.
From no point within the United
States will the eclipse be total, but
from all points it will be visible^ as a
more or less striking partial eclipse.

The Planets in February.

Mercury will come into conjunction
with the sun and enter the morning
sky on February 5. It reaches western
elong-ation on March i and for the last

few days of February may be seen
shining brightly in the southeast for
more than an hour before sunrise.

V'enus, Jupiter and Saturn all shine
brightly in the evening sky in excellent
position for observation.

Mars is running rapidly westward
and during the month will pass from
Eeo into Cancer. Its nearest approach
to the earth of the entire year will oc-
cur on February 9, at 6 A. M. at which
time it will be but sixty million miles
awav from us.

Why February is the Shortest Month.

In all the earliest calendars the
month was the number of days in one
lunation, — that is, from full moon to
full moon or from new to new. As it
is impossible to fit an exact number of
such months into a year it was neces-
sary to arbitrarily add or drop a lunar
month from the calendar from time to
time.

The resulting inextricable confusion
was first remedied in B. C. 45 by Julius
Caesar, who wholly discarded the
moon from the calendar, adopting 365-
y^ days as the length of the year, the
extra quarter of a day being readily al-
lowed for by making each fourth year
366 days. February at this time con-
tained thirty days and our seventh
month also thirty days ; Caesar named
the latter July, after himself, and that
it might be as long as any other month
he transferred to it a day from Febru-
ary, leaving the latter with but twenty-
nine.

His successor, Augustus Caesar, in
like manner took possession of the fol-
lowing month, naming it August, and
that it also might be as long as any
month, he borrowed still another day
from February to add to his own
month leaving the former month with
but twenty-eight days.

In the present year, however, Febru-
ary will contain twenty-nine days as
191 6 is a leap year.

TO KXOW THE STARRY IIE.WEXS

291

Contributions to the Sound Beach
Observatory.

Airs. Mortimer B.Foster, Sound
Beach $ 5-O0

Mr. George A. Galliver. Arling-
ton, N. J 5-00

Mr. Joseph M. Phill)rick, Xew

York City 5-O0

Reverend N. P. Coleman, River-
side, Conn 5.00

Mrs. C. O. Miller, Stamford. . . lo.oo

Mr. Frederick A. Hubbard.
Greenwich 5.00

Mr. C. Dana Potter. Sound

Beach 5.00

Total $ 40.00

Previously acknowledged.. .$1,001.43

Grand Total $1,041.43

^ :{; ;); H< ^iJ

Congratulations to Leon Barritt.

We heartily congratulate Mr. Leon
Barritt of 150 Nassau Street, New
York City, upon the decennial anniver-
sary of his delightful little publication,
"The Monthly Evening Sky Map." Mr.
Barritt not only publishes this pleasing
periodical, but he also supplies a num-
ber of new^spapers v^ath a syndicate
service. He says :

"The combined circulation each
month, of these papers has been for
many years over one million and a half
copies. By this continuous presenta-
tion of the subject of astronomy, popu-
larly presented, to this great audience
of general readers, the publisher be-
lieves can be attributed in no small de-
gree the revival of interest in astron-
omy, which is daily becoming more ap-
parent. ... I have learned by
my experience in this business some-
thing of its possibilities and its limita-
tions. Dollars and cents, however, are
not the measure of reward to those
who work in the astronomical field.
It is largely a labor of love to all who
engage in it."

We extend the right hand of fellow-
ship to Mr. Barritt, with hearty con-
gratulations upon his achievements,
his work has largely been a labor of a
generous love ; his excellent serive
has brought him only moderate finan-
cial returns, but his monthly has been
a valuable and influential factor in de-
veloping an interest in astronomv.

What is the Matter with Astronomy?

T am deeply interested in astronomy.
I have found it a pleasurable diversion
froni the activtties of a busy life, and
I think e\'cryone should become ac-
quainted with the "friendly stars." The
f;icts are, howe\ er, that the subject re-
ceives comparatively little attention. I
have found that astronomy is not
taught in a single Grammar School in
the United States. A few High Schools
give it consideration in connection with
physical geography, and in the Col-
leges and Universities it is elective,
and very few take it up. In my boy-
ho(Kl astronomy was a part of the cur-
riculum in every^ educational institu-
tion in the country. What has brought
about this great change? I believe it
is largely due to the abstract manner
in which the subject has been presented
in text-books, making the subject re-
pellent to teachers as well as students,
and in no small degree has it been
brought about by parents who want
their children educated along lines that
would have more commercial value.
Statistics show that fully 75 per cent,
of the children who graduate from the
Grammar School do not enter High
School, so this large percentage of
boys and girls go out into life without
the slightest knowledge of the great
.Solar System of which we are a part.
They know nothing of the apparent
rising and setting of the sun ; the cause
of the moon's phases, or any of the
simplest facts regarding astronomy —
"The Monthly Evening Sky Map."

When We Shall Know.

The child is said to long to grasp
the moon. Wlio. in his maturer years,
has never wished that he might stand
upon the moon, and watch the earth
at full, a glorious planet of the night,
four times as far from rim to rim, and
twice as bright in every part as is the
moon herself! AA'ho. thinking more
gravely, has not wished sometimes he
had been born in later years, when he
could share the fuller understanding
yet to come? Shall we not live in hope
that if we worthily contribute to that
happy end. we, too, may join with that
great company Avhose patient and
sound labors have given us what we
know, and in a future life with them
may see unrolled the wider view which
here we long to see in vain? — "The
Sun" by Charles G. Abbot.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

ORNITHOLOGY

All communications for this department
should be sent to the Department Editor,
Mr. Harry G. Higbee, 13 Austin Street,
Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Items, articles
and photographs in this department not
otherwise credited are by the Department
Editor.

Scaup Ducks in Their Winter Home.

As both the lesser and greater scaup
ducks, known commonly as blue-bills,
gather along the shores and ponds of
our eastern states in the late fall they
become particularly noticeable.

As the ponds and streams freeze
-over, or their food becomes scarce from
some other reason, these birds gradu-
ally work their way southward, arriv-
ing along the Florida coast and in the
larger lakes and streams about the first
of December, though sometimes ear-
lier. Here they spend the winter in the
quiet waters of the semi-tropics, gath-
ering in thousands and tens of thous-
ands about the harbors of some of the
towns, where they receive the protec-
tion of state and federal laws, and

A STREET IN THE BEAUTIFUL TOWN OF DAYTONA.

These two species, usually found to-
gether, have but slight differences in
their markings and are practically in-
distinguishable except at very close
range. Ordinarily they seem to asso-
ciate little with other ducks, although
they appear very sociable among them-
selves.

where they find ample food to their
liking. Here they become so tame that
in many instances they may be easily
approached. This applies only, how-
ever, to their protected areas and the
same birds outside become wild and
shy, probably from being fired at by
the sfunners.

ORNITHOLOGY

A FLOCK OF LESSER SCAUP DUCKS.

At Daytona, a beautiful winter resort
situated on the Halifax River along the
Florida east coast, we observed thous-
ands of these birds — mostly the lesser
scaups — in the latter part of Novem-
ber, and spent a number of hours in
studying and photographing them.
They were active and quick-moving on
the water and are extremely rapid fli-
ers, and we found them difficult to
photograph on the wing. We noticed
a whistling sound produced by the
wings as the birds passed over our
heads. Usually in their feeding, and
while paddling about or resting on the
water they were altogether silent, al-
though occasionally a low whistling,
or "purring," would seem to run
through the flock. These flocks, wheth-
er large or small, appeared to be under
the leadership of some one bird.
Shortly before sunset they would be-
gin gathering for the night ; circling
'round and 'round over an area about
half a mile square on the water, grad-
ually closing in to form compact bun-
ches, and appearing like floating is-
lands in the river.

Extending for twenty miles south of
Daytona, is the government bird pre-
serve known as "Mosquito Inlet Reser-

vation," and large numbers of scaups
were noted among the many islands of
this area.

Below Mosquito Lagoon the beauti-
ful Indian River winds southward for
about a hundred miles, being in some
places two to three miles wide ; its
banks bordered with palms and other

SCAUP DUCKS IN FLIGHT,

294

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

tropical vegetation. Here one passes
through pretty villages, citrus groves
and pineapple plantations. At Cocoa,
on the west bank of the river, we found
the ducks congregated in large num-
bers. Here for several years past dur-
ing the winter months certain persons
have become interested in these birds,
and a flock of from fifty to several hun-
dred may be seen daily near the bridge
by the bank building, where they are
regularly fed by these people. Both
here and at Daytona we were able to
call small flocks of these ducks across
the water in answer to our whistling,
when they would come — shyly at first,
then more boldly — to feed upon the
bread crumbs and other scraps which
we threw out to them. I noticed in
these instances that the ducks were
much less shy than the drakes.

In some places we passed through
flocks in our launch which, by careful
estimates, I judged contained as many
as ten thousand birds. Often these
masses would simply divide, making
a wide passage for our boat, when they
would scuttle along low over the water
with a great whirring sound.

Through the sixty-one mile canal
from Ft. Lauderdale to Lake Okeecho-
bee in the Everglades we saw but one
lone duck. On the big lake, while
there were immense flocks of coot, but
few of the ducks were noted, although
we saw many thousands of them on
the waters (or more properly speaking,
the liquid mud) of Lake Hicpochee
and Lake Flirt. This was in the latter
part of December. Their numbers
grew gradually less as we passed
through the waterways to the west
coast, and we noted a conspicuous ab-
sence of scaup ducks along the borders
of the Gulf of Mexico and in the har-
bors and bays of the towns along the
west Florida coast on our trip north-
ward.

It is beautiful to attain the quiet life,
the simple life, like Burroughs in a
country cottage, or like Thoreau in a
cabin in the wilderness. But it is still
more beautiful to be able to attain the
quiet life, the simple life, mixed with
the crash of city activities, surrounded
by the hurry of the mart and the grind
of the office. — -"The Columbus Medical
Journal," Columbus, Ohio.

FEEDING THE SCAUPS AT COCOA, FJ.OKli;A.

ORNITHOLOGY

295

ox THE INDIAN RIVER, FLORIDA

With the Audubon Societies.

NOTES FRo^r THE ANNUAL KEI'OKT.

The Annual Report of the national
association of Audubon Societies shows
that this organization now has assets
amounting to over $400,000, about
ninety per cent of which is credited to
the endowment fund. Its income for
the year just closed, with unexpended
balance carried over from the year pre-
vious gave the society $106,787.12 as a
total available sum for its year's work.
Of this amount, about $80,000 was ex-
pended,— the greater proportion being
for educational work in its various de-
partments,— leaving a substantial bal-
ance at the close of its fiscal year, Oct.
19.

A new island has been purchased in
Orange Lake, Florida at a cost of $250.
Boats now owned by the society and
used in bird protection work aggregate
some $3,000 in value. A little more
than that sum was spent in the egret
protection work in the South, and has
accomplished results of great value.

Reports of the various officers of the
association ; of field agents, secretaries
of the state societies and wardens all
seem to have a cheerful tone and show

large things accomplished the past
year in bird conservation work, look-
ing forward with bright prospects for
the coming season. The new depart-
ment of Applied Ornithology, under
the expert guidance of the Rev. Her-
bert K. Job, is proving a great success,
and showed a balance of about $4000
at the close of the vear's work.

Moving Pictures of Bird Protection
Work.

Arrangements are being made by the
national association to have some of
the excellent moving picture reels of
l)ird protection work, obtained by Mr.
Job, exhibited in regular moving pic-
ture houses throughout the country.
This should have a far-reaching effect
in educating young people to protect,
rather than to destroy, our native birds,
as it will bring this work before thous-
ands of people not reached through the
ordinarv channels of the Audubon
Work. "

If Nature you would know,

You have not far to go;

The nearest road, or left or right,
Will bring her breezy realms in sight,

And lay her portals low.

— Emma Peirce.

296

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

THE FAMOUS WILLOW VlLl.K SLOUGH ON THE DOMLXOUEZ KAXCllU.

Migratory Birds on the Dominquez
Rancho.

BY AEFRE;d C00K.\LVX_, HX-PRESIDKNT OF
TFIF LUTHER BURBANK CHAPTER OF THE
AGASSIZ ASS0CL\TI0N IN THE UNIVER-
SITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, LOS AN-
GELES, CALIFORNIA.

In early October, several members
of the Luther Burbank Chapter of The
Agassiz Association established in the
University of Southern California
journeyed to the Dominquez Rancho,
twenty miles south of Los Angeles and
four miles north of the city of Long
Beach in Los Angeles County, South-
ern California, to study the migratory
birds that are now visiting this area,
and to collect a few specimens for
scientific study.

The Dominquez Rancho all told cov-
ers twenty-four thousand acres of land.
It extends from the inner harbor; of
San Pedro, situated in the southwest-
ern section of the Rancho proper, to
the city of Gardena six miles northwest
to the foothills of Long Beach located
in the southeastern part of the Rancho
proper and about eight miles southeast
of Gardena. It forms the northwest
boundary of the city of Long Beach.

"Signal Hill" is a peak towering above
the surrounding foothills. From its
summit one can view the Alamitos
Bay territory and the canals of Naples.
The Los Angeles River meanders
among the willows and the cotton-
woods in the southwest section, diag-
onally northeast, then southwest to
the sea.

The Dominquez Rancho is consider-
ed by many of our western ornitholo-
gists as one of the greatest bird retreats
in the southern division of California.
One of the greatest fields for ornitho-
logical research on the American con-
tinent is located on this area. "Nig-
ger Sloughs," a great marsh locality,
is situated four miles north of San Pe-
dro and seventeen miles south of Los
Angeles. It comprises five large lakes
and covers eighteen hundred acres of
land. Thousands of marsh birds visit
this area during their migration, and
several species are permanent resi-
dents. There are several small marsh-
es adjoining the main lakes that are
rich with vegetation — tules, cotton-
woods and willows. Going among the
tules and beneath the overhanging
vines, one may imagine himself in the

ORNITHOLOGY

297

jungltjs of the Amazon, or on the banks
of the African Congo. The beautiful
sea birds, birds found in bays and
marshes, and the game birds of the
Pacific Coast Hnger in this locaHty to
feed on the insects, the Crustacea and
the molluscs that here abound. Many
varieties nest here.

Several leading gun clubs have tak-
en advantage of these lakes, and have
leased large portions over which to
shoot the wild ducks that visit us in
the fall of the year.

During a visit to Xorth River Slough,
one of the largest of the five lakes, we
recorded twenty-five species and nearly
three hundred individual birds. Among
those most interesting was the northern
phalarope (Plialaropus lobatns) of which
a large flock was observed feeding at the
edge of the lake. In the group we counted
fourteen individual birds. They are a
common migrant along the coast and on
inland bodies of water. The writer took
an adult male October 12th — a late re-
cord.

The black-necked stilt {Himantopus
mexicanus) is a common summer resi-
dent. We did not expect to record any
of these long legged stilts, but on the
northeast section we counted six. They
are rare in winter. The writer has taken
sets of eggs of this species for the
museum in j\Iay and June.

The avocet {Recurvirostra americana)
was heralded with surprise. We have
never been so fortunate as to locate this
species at Nigger Slough. Dr. Brown of
Washington, D. C, who is spending his
winter in Los Angeles, informed me re-
cently that he has taken several adult
specimens this year at North Slough.
They are common in marshy districts
during migration. We counted three
feeding near the "little hill."

Among other interesting species we
recorded the American bittern (Botaurus
lentiginosiis), the American coot {Fnlica
americana), the Bonaparte gull {Lams
Philadelphia), the California and the
western gull {Lams calif orniciis and L.
occidcntalis) , the western sandpiper
{Breimetes iiianri), the beautiful marbled
godwit {Liniosa fedoa), the greater yel-
lowlegs {Totanus inclaiiolei(cus) , and
several. varieties of song birds, ducks,
terns and grebes.

The writer is preparing a treatise on
the aerial fauna of this region and is
being assisted by members of The Ag-
assiz Association that reside in Los
Angeles and its vicinity.

Greenland Wheatear at Manomet,
Massachusetts.

An adult Greenland wheatear was ob-
served by Judge Charles F. Jenney o f Hyde
Park, on September 16, 191 5, along the
boulder-strewn shore of Manomet Beach,
Massachusetts. This bird was studied
at close range for twenty minutes, giv-
ing the observer ample opportunity to
sketch and note in detail its markings
and characteristics.

This is the second instance of the wheat-
ear appearing in Massachusetts, the pre-
vious record being in September 19 10, and
there are four records of its occurrence in
New York. It rarely, however, appears
anywhere along the coast of the United
States ; its usual route of migration carry-
ing it across the North Atlantic, through
the British Isles and France, southward
to the northwestern part of Africa, its
winter home. It returns in the spring
over the same route to its nesting grounds
within the Arctic Circle and is said to be
the only small species of land bird still
followino- this ancient route.

TAKING NOTES AMONG THE CACTUS OX THE
DOMINQUEZ RANCHO.

298

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Nesting of the Yellow-Tailed Tit.

BY H. STUiVRT DOVE, WEST DEVONPORT,
TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA.

The yellow-tailed tit belongs to a genns
(Acanthiza) which is peculiar to Austra-
lia and Tasmania, and includes about ten
species. They are placed in the family of
warblers, and the approved trivial name
is "Tit Warbler," which suits them well,
as they have the ever-moving, restless
ways among the leaves and twigs which
charcaterize the true tits (Paridae) — such
as the American chickadee, — while at the
same time most of them have the habit of
uttering a sweet little strain like the war-
blers. To the Colonial boy, however, and
to the great majority of the bush-dwell-
ers, this particular species is simply the
"Tomtit" or the "Yellow-tail," being
known to scientists as J. Chrysorrhea.

He is a wee little fellow, under four
inches in length ; ver}- neat in his plumage
— olive-brown above ; yellowish- white be-
neath, his dark forehead spotted with
white, and a light line over the eye. The
base of the tail and upper tail-coverts are
bright yellow, and this contrasted with
the dark, terminal band makes the bird
very conspicuous as soon as he takes
wing.

The tom-tits are gregarious during
autumn and winter, feeding in the trees
and bushes, or often on the ground, in
small companies, but early in the spring
these companies break up — each pair then
entering upon the serious duties of life.

The nest is a rather bulky structure for
such small architects, and often loosely
constructed, but individuals vary greatly
in this particular. It is domed ; has a side
entrance, and is built mostly of grasses,
warmly lined with plentiful feathers, —
those of the domestic fowl being much in
favor. The structure is seldom placed
more than eight or nine feet above the
ground and is suspended from small
branches or stout twigs ; — the grass, or
sometimes pieces of twine, being worked
around the twigs until a secure hold is
obtained. A favorite location aboyt here
is amid the drooping foliage of the white
gum (Eucalyptus viininalis), where it is
impossible to see the nest among the thick
leafage until one gets against the tree
trunk and looks upward, when he may —
if he has beforehand a pretty good idea
as to its situation — be able to "spot" it.
About my own place this gum foliage.

in one tree or another, is used every year,,
while at a friend's place over the river a
pair of yellow-tails builds each season in
the swamp tea tree (Melalenca cr ice folia)
just back of his cottage. This tree is of
an entirely diiTerent habit from the droop-
ing white gum, being stiff and upright
with short, linear foliage — more like-
pine-needles, — so that individualism
shows here as well as in the mode of nest-
construction. At a locality a few miles
past my friend's place, the prickly wattle
(Acacia verticillata) is the tree selected,
and makes unpleasant handling for
would-be nest-robbers.

The "procreant cradle," swung in the
thick leafage of a gum only a yard or two
from my wood-pile, was constructed of
soft, partly-green grasses, with a fair
amount of green moss interwoven, and
was plentifully lined with hens' feathers.
It had the usual apical depression, called
the "cock's nest" by the boys, where the
lord and master is supposed to sleep while
his mate is brooding.. Whether he actu-
ally does so. I have not so far been able
to ascertain, owing to the dense nature
of the foliage in which it is situated.
Three white eggs were laid, of the usual,
rather elongated pattern with fine, glossy
surface. As I did not find the nest until
the eggs were deposited, the time of in-
cubation was not ascertained with cer-
tainty, but it was at least fifteen days.
The time from hatching to leaving the
nest was nineteen days. This agrees with
an observation on the same species which
I made in Victoria (Australia) , and is
much longer than the time taken by our
long-tailed wrens, which feather in eleven
to twelve days. (A brood which I timed
in A'ictoria left the nest on the tenth day
from hatching) .

The young tom-tits have a slight grey-
ish down on the head and back when
hatched ; the eyes open about the eighth
day, and on the tenth day the down has
almost disappeared and feathers are-
sprouting- well on the head and body ; —
the yellow on the short tail and rump
showing distinctly.

Our yellow-tail is not infrequently vic-
timized by the handsome little bronze
cuckoo; of which two, and possibly three
species visit us each spring and summer
from the main-land of Australia. ' The
eggs are practically the same size and
much the same shape as those of the "tit,"

ORNITHOLOGY

299

but the tint is different, — which of course
does not matter in a covered nest. The
peculiar whisthng calls of these small
cuckoos are among our familiar spring
sounds.

A peculiarity of our "yellow-tail" is
that it sometimes builds under and ad-
joining the nests of such fierce birds as
the eagles, ravens and magpies. The
latter is properly the "piping crow-
shrike," one of our most familiar species,
and so fierce at breeding time that I have
seen it chase a hawk fully a mile from
its nest, and occasionally it will even at-
tack human beings who venture too near
the tree — yet our little "tit" w'ill some-
times brood under its protection. It
would be interesting to know whether
any of the small birds of America indulge
in the same practice.

The Starling's Objectionable Habits.

Meriden, Connecticut.
To the Editor : —

In the September number of this
magazine you make mention of the in-
vestigation now being carried on by
the Department of Agriculture, to de-
termine the economic value in America
of the European starling.

Before this work is completed, and
the result of the inspection of hundreds
•of stomachs is made known, I believe
that a collection of facts relating to the
■objectionable habits that I know, from
actual experience, to be common to the
starling, would be of importance in de-
ciding the question, Shall the starling
be protected or condemned? Many
items have been published that de-
scribe the starling as an insect destroy-
er worthy of protection, and some ob-
servers consider the protected robin as
an even greater destroyer of fruit, but
personally I believe that the starling
more than pays for the fruit it devours
by the number of insects it destroys,
especially tent caterpillars, grasshop-
pers and cutworms.

Other things might be mentioned in
its favor. The beautiful plumage, ap-
pearing after the August moult, when
the dull brown of the young bird is dis-
placed by feathers of glistening black,
with changing tints of purple and
green, and each feather tipped with
white, gives the bird a speckled ap-
pearance that mav appeal to some
nature lovers.

Their power of mimicry is interest-
ing, but it is limited to short calls and
whistles. I have heard them imitate
the call note of the robin, the wood pe-
wee, the grackle, the catbird, the flick-
er and the whippoorwill. How the
starling could have learned the whip-
poorwill's night call is a question, but
I saw the bird, at midday, perched near
the top of a Norway spruce, and heard
it thrice repeat to perfection the call,
"whippoorwill."

But none of these interesting habits
nor its insectivorous nature should
save the starling, if we have enough
evidence to prove its enmity for our
native birds. The greatest sufferers
are woodpeckers, bluebirds, martins
and tree swallow^s. In fact, no species
is safe that builds in a hollow tree, or
in a hole, or in a bird house that the
starling can enter. The native bird is
driven out and the site taken for the
starling's own use, or, if the starling
has already made its nest, it will visit
such places to rob the nests of eggs or
of young birds.

Other objectionable habits are its
destruction of sprouting and ripening
grain, its habit of making holes or of
nesting in or about buildings, and, af-
ter the nesting season is over, the habit
of roosting in large flocks in a tree by
the wayside where they make them-
selves disagreeable, especially in the
city.

The examination of the stomach con-
tents of starlings captured in various
localities and at all seasons will deter-
mine the proportions of animal and
vegetable matter consumed, and prove
or disprove their economic value. But
it will not make known the number of
flickers that have been driven from
their holes, nor the hundreds of martin
boxes and bluebird boxes that have
been occupied by the starling before
the desired tenants arrived. The child
that has witnessed such incidents has
more convincing evidence against this
imported bird than has the professor
with his microscope. The starlings
are increasing rapidly, and many of our
native birds are about as rapidly de-
creasing.

If the reader has witnessed any un-
desirable habit of the European star-
ling and will report to me. I will as-
semble the evidence and forward it to
Washington. We can all thus take

300

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

part in preventing what is likely to be-
come a greater pest than the English
sparrow.

L. W. Smith.
The gathering of such material should
be of interest and value. Will not our
readers cooperate and send to Mr.
Smith, 60 Cottage Street, Meriden,
Conn., their observations of the star-
ling's habits, both pro and con, to be
summarized for a later report to this
department? — H. G. H.

That Mysterious Little Bird.

Eartville, Pennsylvania.
To the Editor :

From October 15th to 17th a small bird
was seen among the alders that line the
swampy part of a dam. It was not larger
than the English sparrow, and was quiet
in every motion. We stood perhaps six
feet away and it showed no fear. It was
mottled greenish yellow, with the shoul-
ders between the wings a downy, pale
brown quite distinct. So much white was
on the wings and the short tail that I said
at once of the new bird, "It is a crossbill."
But we could see that only the little bill
was curved — the upper mandible. The
bill was not stout but appeared to be
pointed at the tip. As the bird seemed
immature and the tail very short, I
thought it might be a white-winged cross-
bill without the decided cross. After
looking in my bird guide and other books,
I decided that I did not know what to do
about that little tail with so much white
that it appeared to be of white-edged
black feathers, the black showing also on
the wings. We feel sure it was not a
goldfinch although its lower wings and
wee tail resemble those of the goldfinch
as pictured. While we guessed at the pine
siskin, it did not resemble those that we
have occasionally seen. Its body and
wing coloring were like those of the
female white-winged crossbill. When it
was feeding on the alder cones, we noticed
that the bird gave a twist in extracting the
seeds. When moving from one branch
to another it spread the little tail (one
inch long or a little more) fan fashion like
the redstart. I saw it two days later
eating the seeds of the bitterweed (rag-
weed). At no time, even when flying,
was it more than a few feet high ; it fed
low, flew low, of its kind was a solitarv
bird.

There were many other birds about the
hillside and along the water, but it kept

to itself, and seemed fearless. Is it pos-
sible for you to name it? It has greatly
puzzled me. I am familiar with a hun-
dred land birds, but not with all the
young. It was not a goldfinch, nor, I
think, a siskin.

Yours,
A'Irs. D. W. Jackson..

The bird was probably a pine siskin,,
although these usually travel in flocks, as
do the goldfinches and the redpolls. It is
often difficult to note the distinguishing,
characteristics of a bird so that we can
afterward positively identify it, as in vary-
ing lights and attitudes the colors and
form seem to differ.

The size, general markings, sharp bill
and feeding habits, in this instance, all'
point to the pine siskin. The light, yel-
lowish white markings both on the wings-
and the tail show conspicuously when
they are spread and are entirely con-
cealed when they are closed. There is
also considerable variation in the mark-
ings among individual specimens. — H.
G. H.

Owls Make Attacks on Heads.

A naturalist living in northern Canada-
opines that the animal of the region most
dangerous to man is not the moose, rat-
tlesnake, bear, cougar or lynx — but the
great horned owl.

The bird, sitting aloft in the gathering"
dusk, mistakes fur cap or human hair for
some small creature on the ground. .
Thereupon he drops silently down, and
before he finds out his mistake, he has
driven eight inch-long talons into some-
body's head. In some lumber camps, re-
port is, the men actually have been forced,
when they go back and forth in the eve-
ning, to carry boxes or barrels over their
heads.

State Parks Made Bird Reservations.

The necessary legal steps have been
taken by which the fine state parks of
Wisconsin have been made into bird
reserves. This will be of great value
in preserving all kinds of bird life, and
especially important in view of the
threatened extermination of certain
species. — Boys' Life.

GILLTES.
Gillies, frosted, dainty, sweet,

Grace the border of the lawn ;
Glowing, as though clusters neat
Caught the first flush of the dawn.

— Emma Peirce.

EDITORIAL

301

EDITORIAL

Guidance to Common Pleasure.

Not far from this office, tlie road has
for several weeks been torn up. The
new concrete road will be a delight,
especially to automobilists. At a con-
siderable distance from the place a
sign has been erected and gives the de-
tour route to Stamford or to Green-
wich. Imagine the driver of any one
of the hundreds of automobiles that
pass over the road in a day, coming to
that sign and pondering it long, with
disparaging remarks about the avithor-
ities that put it there! Suppose there
should come a philosophic chauffeur
and he should further question the
right of the masters of Greenwich and
Stamford to erect such signs to detract
from his pleasure in going straight
forward on the road over which he
wishes to go.

Imagine the absurdity, if such a
chauffeur should still further question
whether or not it were wise to improve
the road ; it never had been improved
in the past, why try to improve it for
the future.

The dummiest chauffeur that ever
lived, if he thinks at all in the matter,
will say. "That guidepost will tempor-
arily swerve me from my present road
and take me over a less pleasurable
one, but it is for the ultimate good of
all that pass this way. I may never
come over this road again, but I per-
ceive that the process now going on
here, as indicated by this sign, while
it brings me present annoyance, will
in the future afford great pleasure to
many chauffeurs and to their passen-
gers."

How many times in recent months
have we heard it said that there cannot
be a God — if there were a God, He
would stop the horrible war now rag-
ing in Europe. This is only applying
to nations what many have said about
death in their own family or of pain
long sviffered.

To the writer it seems that this great
war is only a guidepost to point out
the road that the nations in the future

shall follow for the benefit of the hu-
man race. This may not be for any of
the travelers that are now passing over
old Mother Earth. It will be for the
comfort of the future, but how far in
the future, no one knows. In His sight
a thousand years are as one day, and
one day as a thousand years.

How did that chauffeur know that
the guidepost indicated a terrible up-
heaval of affairs that would lead to
future comforts? By using his com-
mon sense, he had observed that a lit-
tle tearing up of a road makes a little
discomfort followed by only a little
improvement. He had likewise learn-
ed that when a long stretch of road is
torn up for a long time something radi-
cally better than the old will follow.
The war in Europe more and more
plainly indicates that God is doing a
tremendous work in behalf of the hu-
man race, though it must be admitted
that it is at present a mighty discour-
aging and painful operation. Things
are so generally torn up that there is
no comfort in traveling in any direc-
tion.

So it is with pain and bereavement
in a family. The Divine processes are
long, they extend far into the future,
where love will probably be all the
stronger ; the greater the present sor-
row, the greater the future joy. Pain
may inconvenience and discomfort for
the present, but it is a guidepost that
always has been and always will be
pointing to better things. Every pain
that every person bears means that
somewhere in the individual life, or in
the life of some ancestor something
has been done wrong. Every one in
perfect present health and comfort is
reaping the reward of the pain and
death of the past.

This rule applies unerringly to na-
tions as well as to individuals. We
hear many say of the war as they say
of the great and seemingly cruel strug-
gles of Nature, "There is no God."
But, like the chauffeur, one must think
far beyond the present, and stop to

302

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

read the sign that directs to the great
changes for the better that shall come
in the future.

It is true, as John Fiske remarked,
that "Every daisy field is a scene of
carnage worse than that of any Water-
loo," but every daisy field of the pre-
sent is the result of the carnage of the
past. Every protective Government,
and every healthful enjoyment is the
result of the carnage of the past.

History tells us of the cruel suffer-
ing in the wars between the Whites
and the Indians that occurred in our
own vicinity. Only a few rods from
where I am dictating this article, is
the Congregational Church to which
the men, only a comparatively few de-
cades ago, carried their rifles when
they went to the church service. Those
were times when faith was strained to
the breaking point. Rifles, war, the
possibility of death in God's House !
Would one be surprised if some of
those good people had lost faith and
had said, "There is no God to protect
us from the tomahawk and the scalp-
ing knife — nothing but our own power
and bullets!"

But out of it all has come a better
race, a better Sound Beach with better
protected homes, with better laws and
better order everywhere.

Would it have been possible for even
Omnipotence to develop a world in any
different manner? Could there be hap-
piness in a world in which unhappiness
is impossible? Would not the monot-
ony be painful? Could there be any
righteousness in a world in which sin
is impossible? What may be in some
other world or in some other state of
existence no one knows. This dictum
is intended to apply only within the
scope of that human earthly horizon.

As I look out of the window I see a
long ridge of earth and two conical
mounds on the golf links. Why do
not the golf players remove those
things? They leave the obstructions
for the future satisfaction of overcom-
ing them, and of getting the ball from
one end of the links to the other. If
I were to ask such a question, I should
be laughed at : "Do you not know that
we have just added what you call hay-
stacks of turf? We want to make play-
ing not easier but more difificult. Our
pleasure is in exercising skill in over-
coming obstacles." A life without ob-

stacles would not be worth living, and
a painless life could never afford real
happiness. The greater the upheaval
of the road, the greater will be our
future comfort, convenience and plea-
sure.

Be Frank, even if Not Interested.

Not everybody is expected to be in-
terested in the study of nature. If
everybody were interested, there would
be no need for some phases of the work
of The Agassiz Association. But it is
strange that many people who are not
in the slightest degree attracted try to
imply that their interest in nature is
supreme. I recently called at a school
where, so far as I know, there is not
a particle of nature study in the pro-
gramme. Said the principal, "I readily
recognize the great importance of na-
ture study for these young people. In-
deed, I think nothing better can enter
into their lives. Why, I recall that
when I was a boy I was influenced
more by nature than by anything else,
and I recognize that you are doing
wonderful work,' and so on, and so on,
commending ad infinitum, it seemed to
me, stopping hardly long enough to
catch his breath.

"How much time," I asked, "do you
devote each day to this subject, or how
much time would you be willing to de-
vote to it?"

He said, "We have no room for it in
our curriculum. I wish you could see
what we are doing. We are already
overcrowded and there is not a minute
to spare for any of your kind of work."

"Do you have any nature study in
the school?"

"I should like to have a lot of it, but
we have no time for it."

I do not hope to live long enough to
convince that man of the importance
of nature study, but I might perhaps
convince him of his lack of frankness.
He is not honest with himself. His re-
marks amounted to this : "There are
many subjects to be considered in the
school. We have everything except
nature because we consider that less
important than any other."

I recently handed a man a sample
copy of The Guide to Nature. He
went into ecstacies and poured forth
a volume of grateful expression for an
occasional copy of this "beautiful little
magazine." He said, "I think it is the

EDITORIAL

303

most delightful publication I have ever
seen. I and my wife enjoy reading
every word of it and looking at your
wonderful photographs. You are in-
deed to be congratulated upon such
success."

"May we have your dollar to enroll
you as a subscriber?"

"Oh, no, no, no," he said. "Our
house is already crowded with maga-
zines and papers. We have no time to
do justice to half of them."

My dear sir, you are a long way
from being a naturalist, or from the
proper appreciation of our "little mag-
azine," and you are still further astray
from the home of frankness. Your
remarks so completely disprove what
you intend your words to convey that
your remarks are painful. What you
really said is, "There are a large num-
ber of magazines and newspapers, and
of them all I regard your magazine as
the least important."

A young man came into my home a
few years ago and requested me to
show him the microscope. I think that
he was really interested and I should
have been pleased if he had said so,
but because he knew my interest in the
subject he thought that nothing short
of the highest laudation would gratify
me. He said something like this : "I
have been longing for several months
to get a microscope. It is the height
of my ambition. I think that I could
get more satisfaction and pleasure out
of a microscope than out of anything
else in this whole world. I am going
to buy one just as soon as I can, be-
cause I know that there is nothing bet-
ter."

"Well," I said, "why not? The cost
in these days is not great. Why not?"

"The trouble is that I have not
money enough. What would a really
good microscope cost?" I replied that
almost any amount from forty dollars
to seventy-five dollars would get a
satisfactory equipment. He said, "I
have just sixty dollars."

I congratulated him. "You are able
to realize your wish. Send in vour
order at once."

"Oh, no, no, no," he replied. "I
could not think of doing it now. I am
saving my money to buy a bicycle."
This was when a good bicycle cost
one hundred dollars. About two weeks
later T saw him with a fine bicvcle, but

for several years he continued to assert
that he knew of nothing in all the land
that would afford him so much enjoy-
ment as a microscope. So far as I
know, he has not yet obtained it. I
do not blame him for selecting the bicy-
cle if he liked it better, but I deplore
his lack of frankness. His courtesy
and appreciation would have pleased
me more, if he had been more truthful.
It is his habit of mind that I deplore.

If I were a Salvation Army worker
and should meet a Congregationalist,
I should not expect him to say, "I think
that your association is the best in the
world. If there is anything that I de-
sire to become it is a worker in the
Salvation Army."

If I were a Democrat, and a Pro-
gressive should meet me would he say
as a matter of courtesy, "If there is
anything in all this land that I desire
to become, it is a Democrat?"

Then in the name of common sense
why does everybody because I am a
naturalist say, "I think there is noth-
ing more delightful in all this world
than the study of nature. W^e all know
that it is a wonderful subject. It must
be ideal to live among such wonder-
ful things. I envy you every minute
of your time !" As Shakespeare more
than once remarked, "Go to !"

My friend, I am telling you imper-
sonally because it would not be court-
eous to say it individually. Before
you manifest an interest in anything,
study the good old-fashioned quality
of frankness.

If you were to go to the home of a
musician, the greatest compliment you
could pay him would be, "Please let
me have some of your music. Please
play for me." Why do you not use
ordinary common sense when you visit
a naturalist? Why do you hurl your-
self through the doorway and say, as
you consult your watch, "I know that
you are a busy man. I would not
think of taking any of your valuable
time so I am going to stay just a few-
minutes. And, indeed, I have to catch
a train." Why come if you come only
to go?

What is desired by a naturalist in
charge of an Institution like ArcAdiA
is to have a visitor show that he is re-
luctant to go away. We wind here the
great hunting horn of nature, and the
longer you stay to hear the music, and

304

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

the more you seem to enjoy it, and the
greater is your evidence of apprecia-
tion, the longer we like you to stay.
Come repeatedly, stay a long time, and
if you enjoy the music we shall be glad
to give it to you. On the outside the
world is rushing. Do not rush in
ArcAdiA. And above all things, tell
the truth in both word and deed.

Science in Journalism.

[from the literary digest, new YORK
CITY.]

The American people do not care
enough about sound and reliable scien-
tific information to pay what it is worth.
We are content with the pseudoscience
of the daily paper and an occasional
sensation of doubtful value in the
monthly magazine. This somewhat
pessimistic pronouncement is made edi-
torially by our best scientitic magazine.
The Popular Science Monthly (New
York, September), in announcing its
future differentiation into two separate
publications. This statement is based
on the fact that almost every serious
publication in the United States, de-
signed to give scientific news and in-
formation to the non-technically edu-
cated citizen, has lost money, and is still
losing it. The editor believes that this
condition is inevitable and that such
magazines, if they continue to exist,
must always show a deficit to be made
up by individual contributions or by
scientific organizations — now the more
usual method. Says the magazine
named above :

"In a democracy, journals and a news-
paper press fit to educate people of all
sorts to an interest in science and to an
appreciation of its measureless value
for national and human welfare are
matters of the utmost importance. Un-
der an aristocratic regime, science, like
arts and letters, must be cultivated and
patronized from above. In Germany
the Imperial Government has directed
and subsidized its schools, universities,
and research institutions, and has aided
commercial enterprises based on ap-
plied science. In England men of
wealth have devoted themselves to
scientific research, as they have served
without payment as county magistrates
and members of Parliament. In both
countries and in France titles and social
position have been used as rewards.

"Scientific research can not be under-
taken as a profession. In the existing
organization of society any service to
an individual or to a group of individ-
uals is paid for by them, but service
to society is usually not paid for at all.
If newspaper publishers, ammunition-
makers, or army officers succeed in
causing war they profit ; if they advo-
cate and maintain peace they suffer.
If lawyers reduce legal complexities
and delays, or if physicians decrease the
causes of disease, they sacrifice their
material interests. If a surgeon per-
forms an operation for cancer he may
be paid a thousand dollars for an hour's
work ; if he discovers an improved tech-
nique he may profit somewhat, but
scarcely more than other surgeons
and far less than the patients ; if he
should discover a cure for cancer he
would receive no money-reward; on
the contrary, he and other surgeons
would in so far lose their means of sup-
porting their families.

"So scientific research, of greater
value than any other service to society,
is not paid for directly. It has been
mainly carried forward in this country
by inen employed to teach in colleges
and universities who, as amateurs, give
part of their time to it. In recent years
the national Government, endowed in-
stitutions and industrial establish-
ments have undertaken to advance re-
search on a business basis and the gain
has been very great. But in order to
maintain and increase the work under
democratic control, people must be
taught to value it, and for this purpose
the proper treatment of science in mag-
azines and newspapers is more impor-
tant than any other agency.

"The problem is very difficult. One
does not expect a high school, a univer-
sity, or a museum to be self-supporting.
Even secondary schools for the children
of the rich are endowed. If the Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History charg-
ed an entrance fee it would be an empty
place ; the fees for a year would not
support the institution for a month. On
the other hand, the side-shows of a
circus may be profitable. Science is so
commonly ill-treated in popular maga-
zines and newspapers that the very
words 'popular science' need to be re-
deemed. The sensational newspapers,
the side-shows of the circus, and the

EDITORIAL

305

'movies' supply what people will
pay for. It is no discredit to our democ-
racy that these are what they want ;
■on the contrary, it represents a great
advance when a hundred million peo-
ple care for such things. We may be
satisfied if progress is made by educa-
tion and an improved environment in
a hundred years if a slightly better
germ-plasm is established in a thous-
and years.

"There are over a hundred journals
and proceedings devoted to the publi-
cation of research-work in America not
one of which pays its expenses on a
regular business basis. Magazines con-
nected with applied science and popular
mechanics may do so. This represents
a step in advance, which we may hope
indicates that ultimately there may be
a general interest in other and more
fundamental departments of science.

"It would probably be undesirable for
scientific journals to be directly subsi-
dized or endowed. Indirectly they are
now subsidized by the work of contrib-
utors and editors supported by en-
dowed or tax-supported institutions
and by subscriptions from public libra-
ries. In so far as they require addition-
al support, it can probably best come
through an increase in the number of
public libraries subscribing for such
journals and by an increase of sub-
scribers among those who may realize
the importance of supporting an insti-
tution essential to society and its better-
ment."

the sake of living over any part of the
past."

Mingled with a feeling of pathos and
3-et with joy that well-known quotation
from Omar Khayyam, the Persian poet,
came into my mind : "The moving fin-
ger writes, and having writ moves on."
The unwritten part of the page offers
as much joy as anything in the past
or present and, in addition, there are
the possibilities and always the pos-
sible variations.

Such a point of view is encouraging
to the naturalist. The achievements
and the knowledge accumulated in the
past are rolling up like a big snowball
and offering us untold wealth in our
ability to appreciate the things of na-
ture.

To say of a child, "That is the best
part of life," is equivalent to saying,
"A little development of brain and
body is better than much." We have
learned a little, and let us go and learn
more.

To the naturalist, in the Indian Sum-
mer of his age, "The moving finger
writes, and having writ moves on,"
are delightful words. Mr. Philosopher,
would you like to "come up again?".

"Would You Like to 'Come Up
Again?'"
A prominent resident of Sound
Beach asked me this question as I
boarded the trolley car in which he was
sitting. A little girl about eight years
of age had entered the car just ahead
of me, and as I stepped in he asked this
astonishing question, "Would you like
to be at that age and come up again?"
He said that he had made the sugges-
tion to many people, but had not yet
found one that would like to live over
even one day of his past life, and ad-
ded, "Life is sweet, but it is chiefly so
in anticipation. I believe that none of
us. no matter how happy the past has
been, would exchange one day of the
present nor one day of the future for

A Study in Psychology.

Recently in showing the work of the
projection microscope to a company of
visitors in the W^elcome Reception
Room, I thought to make it clear that
real specimens are used in the projec-
tion microscope. I took up a pocket
lens and a slide on which was moimted
a dragon fly's mouth, and called a boy
of about five years of age to look
through the lens and describe the object
to the company, making it clear to him
that he was to observe the mouth of
a dragon fly. The point I wished to
make was that what he saw by direct
observation the entire company would
see later by projection, and he should
thus prepare them, excite their curios-
ity, and make clear that a projection
microscope was used to save time. He
seemed much interested in what he
saw through the pocket lens held in
my hand above the slide. The slide
showed a number of formidable look-
ing "teeth" in the jaws of the dragon
fly. Thinking him properly impressed
with the device with which these in-
sects eat mosquitoes, I said to him.

3o6

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

"Now tell us how it looks." With all
seriousness, in tones of awe, this boy,
aged five years, said : "It looks like the
very devil !"

My first thought, and probably that
of some in the audience, was that this
boy came from a home where profanity
in a mild form was not unknown, but
from the manner in which he spoke,
and from facts that I learned from
further questioning, it appeared that
dragons and fairy book devils had be-
come confused in his mind. Perhaps,
too, I had increased his misunderstand-
ing as I had explained to the children
what the dragon fly is, and that many
children know it as the devil's darning
needle and give it a reputation for sew-
ing up mouths and ears. With the boy
it was an attempt toward a serious
description. To say that it looked like
the devil was to him as harmless a de-
scription as to sa}^ that it looked like
a horse or a dog. I hope the children
enjoyed the study of natural history
as much as I enjoyed the study of child
psychology.

An Appreciation of Mr, Burroughs.

West Devonport, Tasmania,

Australia.
To the Editor: —

By the August number of The Guide
TO Nature I was pleased to see that the
veteran naturalist, Mr. John Bur-
roughs, remains in good health. As
you are one of his correspondents,
please tell him that I have spent many
pleasant hours with his charming na-
ture books, which I have for years
possessed in the pocket edition. In
"Birds and Poets" I have favorite pas-
sages scored all through the book, also
in "The Return of the Birds" in"Wake-
Robin," and "Sharp Eyes" in "Locusts
and Wild Honey," with many others.
Mr. Burroughs may be pleased to
know that his writings are appreciated
in this Ultima Thule of the South.

I can endorse the statement that
eggs are poisonous to some constitu-
tions ; they have a deleterious 'effect on
me if taken more than very occasion-
ally, apples likewise unless of a soft,
easily digested variety. Many people
consider raw apples a soporific ; with
me they have the opposite efifect, in-
ducing wakefulness and unrest.

H. Stuart Dove,

Spots Before the Eyes.

The prevalence of this condition has
given rise to a great many curious
ideas. Almost everyone either sees
fixed or floating spots at times, or
hears some friend complain of these
conditions, so that it is not strange
that many popular misconceptions
have arisen. The commonest form of
floating spots are those which are
known by the name of muscae voli-
tantes, an old name which indicates
how long the condition has been ob-
served. These are tiny transparent
chains, or strings, which are seen es-
pecially on a white or brightly illumin-
ated field. They persistently float in
the line of vision, and though a shake
of the head may carry them out of the
way, they at once float back again.
These spots are probably caused by
the remains in the fluid part of the eye
of certain cells which should have been
completely absorbed in the development
of the eye. They never lead to impair-
ment of vision and, as before stated,
are perfectly transparent. Other float-
ing spots are due to cobweb-like mass-
es of inflammatory material which are
thrown out into the fluid of the eye
by some low grade inflammation.
These spots usually obscure the vision,
Vv'hich is their great point of difl:"erence
from the former ones. It is, of course,
very important to find out in any case
whether the spots are due to inflam-
mation, or not, and this can only be
done by a skilled observer. It is a
prevalent idea that the wearing of a
dotted veil may leave permanent spots
in the field of vision. While the dotted
veil may be a source of strain
by causing the wearer to pull
on the eye muscles in order to avoid
the obstruction of vision, it certainly
is not the case that the dots, or any
other object seen, can be permanently
photographed on the nerve tissues of
the eye. There is only one exception
to this statement. Many people who
have carelessly looked too much at the
sun, generally in observing the eclipse,
have actually produced a slight in-
flammatory change in the retina, so
that there is always a blurry soot
wherever they look. But it is doubt-
ful if any light less brilliant than the
sun can produce a permanent spot, and
certainly a dark object can not do so.
— Jour. Am. Med. Asso.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATIOxV

307

AQASSIZ ASSOCIATION

Established 1875 Incorporated, Massachusetts, 1892 Incorporated, Conuecticut, 1910

Necrology.

George Lauder, Jr., a nephew of
Andrew Carnegie's, a Member of The
Agassiz Association, a native of Pitts-
burgh, died in his thirty-eighth year at
his home in Rock Ridere, Greenwich,

GEORGE LAUDER, JR.
Cut by courtesy of "Our Town," Greenwich, Conn.

Connecticut, on Tuesday morning.
January fifth, of a sudden attack of
pneumonia.

Mr. Lauder held a number of promi-
nent positions in the business and so-
cial world. His principal form of rec-
reation was yachting, but he had a
general interest in nature, with especial
reference to photography in all its
branches.

By his per.sonal cordiality and nu-
merous acquaintances he endeared him-

self to many people and to- many insti-
tutions. He was a liberal contributor
to The Sound Beach Astronomical
Observatory, but never visited it, al-
though as he stated by letter he intend-
ed to do so "in the very near future."
One of Mr. Lauder's most generous
gifts in behalf of education was $400,-
000 given to the medical school of Yale.
In his death The Agassiz Association
loses a much esteemed member, and
the town of Greenwich a much beloved
citizen. He leaves a wife and three
children,

A Local Bird Sanctuary.

It is a delight to learn that in our own
town is to be established probably the
largest and most effective bird sanc-
tuary in the country. This is to be on
the estate of Mr. E. C. Converse of
Greenwich, where a tract of almost
two thousand acres is to be set apart
for the purpose, with houses and other
means of protection for the birds. The
work will be in charge of an expert
ornithologist from the Massachusetts
Agricultural College, and will be done
scientifically, with records and definite
data, so that the progress may be care-
fully watched. Every bird lover will
hail with delight the establishment of
this sanctuary. Doubtless its success
will lead to the establishment of many
such sanctuaries. The birds are now^
coming to their own. It is good to be
livinof at such a time.

]\Iv plea then is, not so much against
nature study and agriculture, as for
the sciences first. These can be taught
as elementary as may be desired, and
in properly teaching them we are giv-
ing instructions not onlv in agriculture,
but also in dozens of other arts or
practical fields in which the pupils thus
berome ])repared later in life, if they
wish.

3o8

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

rORRESPONDENCE

^ AND Information

%

"Bottle Pigs."

Flemington, New Jersey.
To the Editor :

One of our Chester White sows far-
rowed a Htter of seventeen pigs on April
Qth, and died two days later, leaving a
family of ten, two of whom soon followed
her. A post mortem revealed the fact

warm water and a bit of lime water afford-
ed just as good a dinner as "Another used
to make." The following day they were
fully reconciled to the change of diet, and
all the members of the family delighted
in feeding them. The quantity was grad-
ually increased from twelve ounces every
three hours on the first day, to sixty- four

ATRS. DFATS AND THE "BOTTLK PTGS.'

that she had died literally of a broken
heart, but whether from the largeness or
smallness of her family was not deter-
mined.

The babies were apparently a healthy
lot, so it was decided that they should
be raised by the bottle method. The small
boy was dispatched to the drug store in
town for a supply of rubber nipples, and
as it was "Sunday off" for the man who
takes care of the pigs, "the Boss" spent
most of that rainy day trying to persuade
those pigs that a mixture of Jersey milk,

ounces (three-fourths whole milk) four
times a day, divided as equally as possible
between rising and bedtime, until they
were four weeks old. Then skim milk
with a little wheat shorts was substituted,
and they were fed, pig style, from a small
trough, and allowed the run of the barn
yard.

After the first week, instead of hand-
ling each one separately, as shown in the
photograph, holes were bored in the side
of packing boxes, a sloping floor nailed
inside, and the pigs gathered around the

CORRESPONDENCE AND INFORMATION

309

festive board. This device was a great
time saver.

Those eight pigs differed just as much
as any family of that size. There was
the lazy fellow who took his time and that
of all the rest, while at the other extreme
was his larger brother, who might have
been trained at the traditional railwa\-
lunch counter. Another reminded me of
a man who worked for us when I was a
small boy, who "could eat a canal through
mashed potatoes and gravy." And then
there was the quiet little sister, perfectly
content to wait until all the rest were fed,
before she came to the table.

I have been told that each pig has its
own place at its mother's dinner table,
and the actions of this lot when it was
necessary to substitute a new rubber nip-
ple indicates that this opinion may be
correct.

We found that getting up by the alarm
clock in the middle of the night was just
as strenuous as conducting a cow test for
advanced registry, but now that it is over,
and our pigs are growing, we are glad
we tried to save them. "The only way
to learn how to do a thing is to do it," and
then "tell the neighbors;" hence this
letter. ' H. E. Deats.

The foregoing lines were penned "in
the pleasant month of May." As I sit
on the top rail of the orchard fence this
chill November morning, and watch that
litter of pigs, a bit of current slang seems
to express my opinion. "Never again"
will we take the trouble to bring up a
family of orphan pigs. When we figure
the time and material lavished on them,
and compare them with another litter of
eight of the same age, there is no doubt
of our failure, from the commercial stand-
point.—H. E. D.

How were These Trees Planted?

West Devonport, Tasmania,

Australia.
To the Editor: —

It is fascinating to speculate on the
various methods by which the flora of
a country was conveyed thither by
purely natural agencies, before civil-
ized man came upon the scene and
mixed things up so indiscriminately as
he has done. Even now, if we keep
our eyes open in our wanderings, we
may at times see some of these meth-
ods, or their recent results.

Early last month, while pushing
through some scrub of boobyalla and
beyera on this coast, I came upon two
small trees of the Victorian hedge lau-
rel (Pittosporum undulatum) growing
among the tall bushes. The only pre-
vious record of the tree's spontaneous
growth in our island was made by Mr.
Emmett, years ago, while he was su-
perintending the cutting of a track
through the forest adjacent to the Ar-
thur River, one hundred and fifty miles
to the west. Although Mr. Emmett
searched over a considerable space, he
was able to find only the solitary spec-
imen. The question arises, How did
these widely separated trees get here?
Wind as the agent is out of the ques-
tion ; so, to my mind, is water. We
must put aside the improbable supposi-
tion that the small seeds might have
floated across two hundred miles or so
of sea from the Victorian (Australia)
coast, since the plants, which were
growang near the beach, were too high
above the tide mark to have been
thrown there by the waves. In the
case of the Arthur River specimen, it
is more improbable still, as the river
has a swift current always flowing
down through wild bush country.
Naturally I thought of bird agency, but
all our migrants from the mainland
are insectivorous, except the waders,
and they live on worms, small crabs
and mollusks. On this subject I con-
sulted Professor Ewart, Government
Botanist to the State of Victoria, and
he gave it as his opinion that, as the
seeds of the Pittosporum are sticky,
they would readily adhere to the feet
of our migrants, if such happened to
perch on trees w^ith ripe seeds, or on
the ground where the seeds had fallen.
This, I think, is the correct solution,
especially as one of the small trees was
growing up through the centre of a
large boobyalla bush (Myoporum) in
just such a situation as it would find
if the seed had been rubbed from the
foot of a bird perching in the bush,
after its flight across the intervening
sea.

If you consider this note sufficiently
interesting, you are welcome to print
it ; it may elicit other instances from
your readers.

H. Stuart Dove.

xu

THE GUIDE TO NATURE— ADVERTISEMENTS

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203 MONROE AVEI\UE
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512 ST. PAUL STREET ROCHESTER, N.Y.

19 16

MARCH

VOL VIII. No 10

EDWARD F. BIGELOW

MANAGING EDITOR

Published MonihK b\

The Agassiz Association

arcadia, sound beach, conn.

Subscription. SI. 00 a Year; Single Copy, 10

Uilil'Jllll|i'lll,]||||||||lr'iihi'ii.j.'Jr.Wi-iii' i-iliii.:i|iiJi!iihi^^j'ii.>iiiii,M,i,nui,,i,,,,,iimiLii.,i.,i,un,!niiiiii:,HiilU)i,i,hllliiiiK,,„i;;i.i,,i,:,ninihiiilln,1^

GREENWICH

THE EDITION DE LUXE
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n

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

Ill

SOME OFFICE ASSISTANTS -TRY TO FILL IT

But LACK IN GENERAL TRAINING, and
consequently lose their positions.

A COMMERCIAL TRAINING AT

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A Poor Substitute.

Robert, the four-year-old son of a
scientific man, had lived in the country
most of his short life. One day a caller,
wishing to make friends with the little
fellow, took him on his knee and asked :
"Are there anv fairies in vour woods
^- ere, Robert?"'

"No," responded Robert promptly ;
"but there are plenty of edible fungi.'"

— "Youth's Companion."

A Pleasant Surprise for ArcAdiA.

The Reverend Dr. Lewis W. Bar-
ney called at ArcAdiA at the beginning
of the new year and presented a magni-
ficent punch bowl which bore the fol-
lowing inscription :

"For the Welcome Reception Room
with New Year's Greetings from the
Ladies' Aid Society of the First Con-
gregational Church."

His or Her Ownership of a Part of a
Cow!

Below is given a copy of an inscrip-
tion that adorned a board fence in
Kent:

"Notis — If any man's or woman's
cows get into these here oats, his or
her tail will be cut ofif as the case may
be." — The Countrv Gentleman.

Spratt's trophy, consisting of two hand-
some sterling silver porringers, for the
best brace in the 1915 shows, was won by
Ridgeway Kennels' wire-haired fox ter-
riers.

A Study in Psychology.

Teacher : Who can tell me which is the
index finger ?

Bright Boy : It's the one yon lick when
you turn over the pages.

— "The Countrv Gentleman."

" 'mid all this mighty sum

Of things forever speaking."

— Wordsworth.

THOMAS D. MAGEE

INTERIOR DECORATOR

Broad and Summer Streets
STAMFORD, CONN.

rv

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

TRADE MARK REGISTERED

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FRANK M. WEST

HARDWARR

Paint*. Oils, Varnishes. Etc. House Furnishings

79 ATLANTIC STREET Tel. Con

A. L. EMBREE, :: DRUGGIST

Use Velvet Cold Cream
It is the Best

18 PARK ROW STAMFORD, CONN

THE GUIDE TO XATURE.—ADJ'ERTISEMEXTS

VII

SHORELANDS

Owned and Operated by

THE SOUND BEACH SUMMER HOMES
CORPORATION

SOUND BEACH, CONNECTICUT, Box 84

NEW YORK CITY, 1 Liberty Street

Summer Bungalows and Cottages for Sale and
for Rent— furnished and unfurnished

Moderate Prices.

Moderate Rentals.

Telephone Connections.

Had Lost the Key to the Situation.

A colored man was driving an old
jog-trot horse toward the railroad sta-
tion half a mile away. A man. walking
rapidlv in the same direction, asked for
a ride.' The colored man replied. "Dnn
know, boss, but I'se fraid I'll not get
you dere much quicker dan you could
walk it, 'cause I'se only got dis ole worn
out war boss."

The traveler, and old soldier, aroused
by the remark about the war horse,
said, "I think I can drive him better
than you can. I am an old cavalryman
myself."

"All right, Boss, take de reins." The
soldier peremptorily shouted, "Atten-
tion!" Instantly the horse became
alert with new' life . "Charge!" he
shouted, and down the street went
that veteran horse at a speed never be-
fore known to his present owner.
"Halt!" shouted the soldier as they
arrived at the station. The horse
stopped so suddenly that both occu-
pants were nearly thrown over the
dash-board.

The colored man was delighted to

learn that the horse possessed so much
speed. The next day, going again to-
ward the station he overtook another
traveler in great haste, who asked
whether such an old plug of a horse
would mxake worth while for him to get
aboard.

"Now, Boss, dun you worry 'bout
dat ; I can get you dere in time. Dis
boss is more speedy dan you think."
The traveler got in. "Attention!"
"Charge !" and away they went helter-
skelter. Within a few yards of the sta-
tion, the colored man showed some ex-
citement. "Say, Boss, I spects you
better jump, 'cause I'se clean forgot de
word dat stops dis boss !"

The Birds of 1916 Are on the Way.

It is now 1916. In a few weeks the
birds will be here. This is about the right
time to start your bird houses, so as to
have them thoroughly in harmony upon
the arrival of their prospective inmates.

Write to Air. Joseph H. Dodson, Har-
rison Avenue, Kankakee. Illinois. He has
an ideal outfit of everything of the kind
that is needed.

VIII

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

THE C. 0. MILLER CO.

Atlantic Square Established 48 Years. Stamford, Conn.

A PLEASANT REMINDER OF SPRING is the Sight of New Goods.

We are offering Pleasant Reminders now.

REMINDERS

We have just placed on sale our new Spring Embroideries, Laces and Dress
Trimmings.

New Wool Dress Goods and Silks have begun to arrive.

A large and attractive new stock of Wash Goods is now on sale.

Extensive showing of Ladies' Muslin Underwear, also Shirtwaists in at-
tractive new styles.

Silk Petticoats. a

Newest Cretons, Laces, Scrims, Swisses, etc., by the yard, also Ready-Made
Curtains. The best drapery display in our history.

To those about to furnish the home we would be glad to show our large and
reliable stock of Rugs, Carpets, Mattings, Linoleum, etc.

All departments are vying with one another to excel in their ability to serve
you with greatest satisfaction.
THE— TROLLEY— BRINGS— YOU— TO— OUR— DOOR.

ESTABLISHED i85i

THEQETMAN&JUDD CO.

Lumber and Timber of all Kinds

SPECIALTY : High-Qrade HARDWOOD FLOORING

tkoroughly KilmDiied amd stored ia Steam keated kuiio
tag until delivered to our customers. Our steadily in
creasing trade in this specialty prores the fact ' tka
tke country home is not complete until fitted out witi
this beautiful and sanitary furnishing. Old residence;
may be greatly imp'-oved hy laying thin floors orer the
old ones.

CANAL DOCKS, STAMFORD, CONN.

Telephone 2180.

Homes Near to Nature

Skould be so constructed as to give lasting satisfaction.
Jvi- metkod of manufacturing dependable Interior and
Exterior kouse trim from thorcmghly kiln dried materia)
o» skilled mechanics insures such satisfaction.

THE 5T. JOHN WOODWORKING CO.

Canal docks, Stamford conn.

Telephone 781

DIRECTORS
WALTON FERGUSON, Pres. W. W. HEROY.

W. D. DAS K AM, Vice Pres. F. 11. HOYT.

W. H. JUDD, Sec. and Treas. F. VV. BOGARDUS.

J. G. WIGG, General Manager.

;i:

:i:

'^

The LOCKWOOD & PALMER Co.

Wholesale and Retail
Dealers in

HARDWARE

AGRICULTURAL

IMPLEMENTS

House Furnishings, Etc.

TOOLS
AA\ Kinds

92 PARK PLACE

(Cor. Summer Street)

STAMFORD - CONN

TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS

n

:s9

Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Connecticut,

Subscription, $1.00 a year Single copy, 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12, 1909, at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897.

Voii

VIII

MARCH, 1916

Number 10

A Stamford, Connecticut, Museum.

BY R. HERTZBERG, M. D., STAMFORD, CON-
NECTICUT.

Stamford as a good place to live in
ranks well with other cities of equal size.
Many institutions that bespeak the altru-
ism of her citizens are maintained and
supported by private subscriptions. We
have to mention only the Stamford Hos-
pital, the Young- Men's Christian Asso-
ciation, the Ferguson Library, the Chil-
dren's Home and the Day Nursery to
realize that large sums are given each
year for charity. These institutions are
necessities, each one filling a place that
no decent, self-respecting community can
afford to leave unoccupied. We now pro-
pose to .give Stamford something that
will appeal to the aesthetic side of life. It
is not a charity, yet if it is supported by
the good will of the people, it will return
an ample recompense alike to old and
young, rich and poor.

Stamford is to have a ]\Iuseum, if the
contemplated plan find sufficient support.
It is not purposed to place in some build-
ing a collection of various objects, dust
them off occasionally for exhibition
spasms, and then allow the grime to re-
accumulate until the next excitement.
That sort of institution is sure to become
the charnal house of hope and eflForts.
What is needed is a live organization of
men, women and children, who will be
willing to give some of their time to the

work. Every one who is at all interested
in making this life fuller and richer for
others, and in making Stamford a still
better place to live in, should become a
member.

The plan is to organize the Stamford
]\Iuseum Society, the dues to range from
a Life ^Membership at five hundred dollars
to an Annual ]\Iembership at two dol-
lars, thus enabling all to join and to regu-
late their own expenses. When members
enough to assure an income of twenty-
five hundred dollars a year have been
secured, the Museum will be organized
and incorporated. The society will own
all collections given to the Museum.
From among its members shall be formed
the faculties to govern the various de-
partments of the institution. A tentative
division of the Museum under the follow-
ing groups is proposed :

Art : Painting and Sculpture.

Crafts : Ceramics and Tapestries.

Xatural History : Ornithology. Ento-
mology, Zoology, Botany, Conchol-

ogy.

Stamford History.

Stamford Geology.

Indian Relics.

The Art Department will be in charge
of a member of recognized ability. Class-
es in printing, drawing and modeling will
be formed, and, while at first not many
original paintings or statues may be avail-
able, yet excellent copies of famous paint-

CopvriKht 1916 bv The Agassiz .Association. ArcAdiA: Sound Beach. Conn,

312

THE GL'IDE TO NATURE

ings and plaster casts of celebrated statu-
ary are obtainable at a reasonable cost.
These will serve all working purposes.
The lack of such a collection lias more
than once been lamented 'by art lovers.

The Department of Natural History
must of necessity play an important role
in the life of the Museum. The study of
birds is a never ending source of pleas-
ure. Already a fairly complete collection
of mounted specimens of resident birds
is at hand, the beauty and variety of
which are both surprising and pleasing.
A well-organized Bird Club with the
Museum as headquarters could work
wonders for bird protection and in the
dissemination of love for our feathered
beauties.

In entomology we have a powerful
lever for good. Butterflies, moths, bee-
tles interest almost every boy. Let us
form field classes, show the boys where
and how the caterpillar lives, how it
metamorphoses and finally emerges from
chrysalis and cocoon. Show the boy that
any old log may be a perfect mine of sur-
prises, and that under a piece of bark a
treasure is often found. Show him how
to prepare, preserve and mount his speci-
men and there will be no flagging of in-
terest. Furthermore, the lessons in the
propagation of life may thus be taught in
such a manner that the subject is at once
removed from the domain of the morbid
and the mysterious, and becomes a nat-
ural phenomenon.

Botany will appeal especially to the
girls. Field classes will again be the in-
strument of study and pleasure. Flowers
and ferns, leaves and grasses will be col-
lected, dried and preserved. Drawings
made of the different stages of plant de-
velopment could be framed and kept for
future comparison. A multitude of inter-
esting things will be found afield to add
a continuous zest to the work.

Zoology will find its devotees, for there
are many creatures whose lairs may be
visited, and whose habits and actions may
be watched and studied. Many beautiful
shells are found on our own shores. For
the student of conchologv there is an
abundance of material. The Aquarium
Club will adequately meet the needs of
those interested in fishes.

Boys and girls not interested in any of
these subjects may find their pleasure in
geology and mineralogy. Here again
field and laboratory classes will supply

the incentive to get in touch with the
"Great Outdoors." The many ways in
which such an institution can make an
indelible impression on the lives of our
rising generation will readily present
themselves to all who read these lines.

A trained curator is to be in charge of
the Museum. Without trained supervi-
sieTn chaos would soon reign. The plan
is endorsed by the Stamford ^ledical
Association, by Dr. William J- Long, Dr.
Robert T. ^Morris and Dr. William T.
Hornaday, Curator of the Bronx Zoologi-
cal Park. Already a goodly membership
has been secured. But much remains to
l3e done. Every one is earnestly urged
to become a member of the Stamford
Museum Society, so that we may soon
give to our city an institution to which we
mav point with pride as the result of our
own efforts.

The Only Known Albino Frog.

The "N. Y. Zoological Society Bulle-
tin" reports an albino frog captured by
Henry Snyder, the son of the Head
Keeper of Reptiles, at Scarsdale, West-
chester County, New York, and by him
presented to the Zoological Park. The
"Bulletin" states : "When this speci-
men first was seen with some normally
colored green frogs, it was thought to
be a diseased specimen, but the young
collector wisely considered it worth
while to take home the specimen and
show it to his father. Mr. Snyder im-
mediately realized the rarity and im-
portance of the find. Out of the thous-
ands of frogs that during the past fif-
teen years have been caught for our
reptile collection, no one who has
caught and otherwise handled many
thousands of frogs for quite a number
of years, ever previously has secured
an albino specimen. The writer has
recently examined all available records,
and has failed to find any mention of
an albino frog having been caught in
the United States. Europe can show
records of several species of frogs and
toads in which albinism occurs from
time to time, but this is the first speci-
men recorded for America.

"The specimen referred to is a com-
mon pond frog, {Rana clamitans) such
as may be found in almost any brook,
ditch, pool or freshwater swamp. Its
color is a waxy yellowish white on all
upper surface, and milkv-white under-

THE OXLV KNOWN ALIUNO FROG

313

neath ; the eyes are brilliant red, with
a narrow gold rim arotind the pupil.
Our specimen is a female about two
and three quarter inches in length of
head and body, and therefore not quite
adult. At first it was very timid, dart-
ing arotmd its cage with nervous agil-
ity, bruising its head against the screen

ALBINO FROt;.

Photographed with common color phase to show the

marked difference.

Cut by courtesy of the '"Zoological Society.

top and glass sides whenever anyone
came near it. After nearly three
months of captivity, however, it has
lost its nervous fear, and will come
from its hiding place tnider the moss
provided for it and hunt the roaches,
mealworms and earthworms which
form its food. It will also sit for hours
on a large flat stone in the center of its
cage, apparently quite content \vith its
surroundings.

"Of course this frog is enjoying spec-
ial care, and we look forward to keep-
ing it for a reasonably long time."

Will our members and other friends
keep on the watch for albino frogs?
We would be glad this coming spring
to have a report of the total number
and the different varieties seen in one
place?

The Royal Scottish Arboricultural
Society began some thirty-tour years
ago to plant with Douglas fir certain
barren northern slopes between sea-
level and twelve hundred feet eleva-
tion. Some of the earlier plantations
have now been cut, and show a net
profit of nearly seventy pounds to the
acre, on land that had been considered
virtually worthless.

An Astonishing Form of Snake.

BY CL.\RHXCE A. POPE^ ENGLISH, INDIANA.

Jiack through the ages of time and the
growth of man legends and myths have
been sung and told by the bards, poets
and prose writers, almost all of which
have embodied in them, it seems, some de-
gree of superstition. All antiquity seems
to have been darkened by overshadowing
deeds of horror ; the people cowered in
fear ])y the threatening approach of fero-
cious animals and venomous dragons,
and, in fact, if the legends be true, man's
existence depended upon his continuous
struggle ami final defeat of the serpent
family. It is highly probable that man's
superstition and fear for the hydra, dra-
gon, and great serpents that infested the
interminable forests and swamps was
well founded upon some reality : upon
some actual experience in life. We can
hardly believe that the myths, as we know
them, would have pictured man's strug-
gle with these multiheaded dragons and
monsters unless at some time there was
a real basic foundation of similar facts
that stimulated the mind to portray such
vived pictures of life, horror and death.

This idea was more vividly impressed
upon his mind when the following truth
came imder the writer's observation :

A group of men lounging around the
little country store of Pilot Knob, Indiana
were talking in a matter-of-fact way
about a two-headed snake that had recent-
ly been killed and invited the writer to
accompany them to view the newly dis-
covered freak. Back of an old black-
smith shop, where the weeds had been
permitted to grow to an unusual height,
was the object sotight. The snake was
three feet eight inches long, was of a
black and white splotched eft'ect, resem-
bling a cow-snake in many respects. The
belly was of two colors — one end white,
the other a mottled blue. There was a
full sized, perfectly developed head on
either end of the body. However the two
heads were not of the same type — one was
that of a non-poisonous snake but the
other lx)re every resemblance of the rat-
tlesnake family — shape, fangs, jaws and
eyes. In fact nature had so well per-
formed her duty in the creation of this
freak that those who discovered it coiled
thought there were two snakes, and not
until after it was killed did they learn the
real truth. This snake was killed Septem-
ber 15, 1914. and was the second of its
kind to be killed near this vicinitv.

314

THE Gl'IDE TO NATURE

All communications for this department
should be sent to the Department Editor,
Mr. Harry G. Higbee, 13 Austin Street,
Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Items, articles
and photographs in this department not
otherwise credited are by the Department
Editor

The Return of the Birds.

When the pussy-willows are bursting'
from their winter shells and creeping'
softly out along- the streams ; when the
growing- alder catkins are keeping" pace
with the leng-thening days, and the jNIarch
sun smiling" upon the brown meadows
seems t(i draw forth the tiny shoots of
green ; when the spiral leaves of the un-
folding skunks' cabbage dot the marsh,
and the blossoming swamp maples cast
a rosy tint over the hillsides : then it is

that we eagerly look for the coming of
tlie spring birds.

It may be the cbeery call of a phoebe
along the river ; a song sparrow mount-
ing a low shrub in the meadow and pour-
ing out its liquid melody, or the soft,
plaintive call of a bluebird as it drops
down from the sky and settles upon the
old apple tree; — any one of these it may
be which first brings to our minds the
fact that spring is here ; that a great and
wonderful change is going on in every
tree and shrub and plant, and that every
living thing- is awakening to the touch of
that power which stirs its 'innermost
being.

The great mass of our songsters will
not arrive before late April or May, when
the weather becomes settled and insect

■WHEN THE PUSSY-WH^LOWS ARE RURSTING FROM THEIR WTNTER SHELLS."

ORNITHOLOGY

315

THE DLUEBIRI) CARRIES THE SKY ABOVE
AND THE EARTH BENEATH.

and plant life furnish adequate food and
shelter : and while these will be eagerly
sought and welcomed back to their favor-
ite haunts, it is somehow the first call
that g-ives us the thrill. It is that call
for which we have waited many weeks,
and perhaps in search of which we have
wandered for days over the hills or along
the streams, and thrice welcome seems
the swift-winged messenger who brings it.
In any great movement we must admire
the pioneers. It is those who forge
ahead, establishing themselves under un-
certain conditions and maintaining their
living against adverse circumstances, who
pave the way and smooth the road for
those who follow. So it is with the re-
turning birds : we love the vanguard of
the advancing host. The phoebe that
calls from his perch over the ice-margined
river ; the song sparrow that sings
through the blustering March wind, and
the flicker drumming merrily in the cold,
gray dawn of an earlv sirring morning: —
these awake our enthusiasm and excite
our admiration.

There are some fifty species of birds
which an interested observer should be
able to record from ^Massachusetts during
the month of March. Nearly half of
these are classed as winter visitants or
])ermanent residents, the remainder con-
stituting the early spring migrants. The
wild geese are honking their way across
the sky in great wedge-shaped flocks ; the
red-tailed hawk is w'heeling and soaring-
above the woods and meadows, — the very
spirit of exultation ; robins are again ap-
pearing about our homes; flickers are
drumming their loud tattoo on the dead
stubs, and before the month is out the
meadows will be ringing with the lusty
calls of the red-winged l:)lackbirds. The
bronze grackles returning to the neighbor-

^bk^MS^^-^sa^r.

"WE M.\^■ I"
T'F

Xi)

I HEM . . .
THE DK

, I- \
\l)

A\ A 11 -\( ,
STl'llS."

3'^'

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

ing pines awaken us some morning with
their harsh, squeaky notes, — yet even
these sound now like music to our ears.

Many of the birds which have been with
as througli the winter are showing new
activities. The j uncos seem to be gather-
ing in larger flocks, and, in company with
the migrating fox sparrows preparatory
to making their way northward, now
make the thickets and hillsides ring with
their sweet music. Crows are becoming
numerous and seem to caw excitedly :
though many of these hardy birds remain
with us the year 'round, there seems to be
a touch of the migrating instinct still in
their breasts, as evinced by the large
flocks which suddenly appear in this lati-
tude in late February and early March.
The blue jays, which were comparativelv
silent through the winter, are becoming
restless and noisy; the plaintive trill of
the little screech owl haunts the dusk,
and we may hear the mating calls of the
chickadee and downy woodpecker, which
come less frequently now to our suet. We
may find them instead searching out holes
or excavating cavities in the dead stubs,
for they begin this work far in advance
of the time when they will occupy these
for their new homes.

i\Tarch. then, though it be a blustering
month in Xew England, is, never-the-
less. a welcome one to the ornithologist,
for it brings us the return of the birds. —
at least, of the more hardy ones, with the
assurance of others soon to follow.

My Little Owl.

BY J. WILLIAM I.LGYD, WESTFIELD, NKW
JERSEY.

There is a little screech owl of the gray
phase that has been one of the joys of my
nights for years and is now a joy in my
days also. He is a lovely, fluffy creature,
of unusual beauty of plumage, gray and
black and white, and when I am sleeping
on my porch, I love to wake in the night,
or dusk of morning, and see this little
ghost-like shadow flit, or hear his weird,
flute-like music tremble on the listening
ear.

I heard a little owl at eve

With trembling voice proclaim his joy;
He loved the weirdness of the dusk —

And so, O little owl, do I.

I love to watch the first star light,
I love to see the wan moon shine,

And there, against the ivory west.
The blackness of the forest line.

I love the silence and the chill,

The sense of difference from the day;

A spirit in another world

To seem, and go an unknown way.

For a long time this little neighbor had
his habitation in a woodpecker's hole in
the top of a dead pignut tree, in the fence
line, back of my barn. I'.ut in a storm
the tree was blown down and mv owl's

MY LITTLE OWL ON THE SHELF UNDER THE

PE.'XK OF THE R.\RN.

Photographed by the author.

pellets were no more found there. Where
he went for a while I do not know. In
19 1 4 I made an oblong box for a gray
squirrel that was visiting my place, and
fastened it to a hickory tree in front of
the house. The length of the box was
parallel with the tree trunk and at the
upper end, in front, was a round hole.
1 he squirrel and his mate accepted it and
all was well for a while. But sometime
in February I became aware that the little
owl whose morning song I had heard all
winter, without much regard to weather,
had usurped the squirrel box. We saw
his face in the doorway one day, and one
snowy morning we saw the squirrels
dancing on the roof and scolding. I made
another and hoped more attractive box
for owls and fastened it to the next tree,
a sweet birch, thinking to toll Megascops
to it.
Rut he seemed contented with his stolen

ORNITHOLOGY

317

property, and willing that the other fel-
low should do the moving". There was
considerable argument and agitation for
some time, the result being that the squir-
rels rejected both boxes and became only
morning visitors for nuts.

The owl was a rather irregular occu-
pant of this box till warm weather came,
but sometime in the fall he moved to a
hole that I made in the peak of the barn.
Behind it I placed a deep, narrow box
with sawdust and shavings at the bottom,
and an opening only at the entrance hole.
Outside, just below the hole, was a little
shelf. This caught the morning light and
held the sun all day till nearly mid-after-
noon and could be clearly seen from one
of our windows. The owl has lived there
ever since, although sometimes absent for
a day, or for several consecutive days.

I have learned from this owl some-
thing that I did not know, and have
never seen in print — that owls do not
necessarily dislike daylight nor even sun-
shine, provided their eyes are not much
exposed . I had thought that an owl
always hides himself in darkness or in
deep shadow, and remains silent and still
in the daytime, although I had heard a
great horned owl utter his hoarse hoot,
like the bark of a big dog, in mid-after-
noon, in the cypress swamps of Florida.

In my journal for March 26, 1914, I
have this note concerning my little owl :
"One evening, before sunset, his head
stuck out of the hole of a squirrel house
on my hickory tree, facing the sun which
shone brightly on his face, the eyes being
apparently closed. Hearing me, he drew
his head slowly in, one eye opening so it
shone glassy in the sun which was right
on it. Yesterday he sat in the little
pigeon window hole of the pump house
for hours, nearly all the afternoon in fact,
facing southeast, and did not go away
though I often walked near or just below
him. He would shrink a little sometimes,
or turn his head to follow me, but often
did not visibly move. He looked like a
bit of rotten stump set up there in the
shadow. Though visible for hours, full
length, none of the birds feasting on my
suet, about thirty yards in front of him,
saw him."

On April 27, 1914: "The little owl got
into the west window of the barn to-dav
and hooted his bubbling note at 2 130
P. M. The sky was dull and overcast,
still the sun was almost out. He shrank

into a shapeless stump when 1 looked at
him, but did not attempt to fly. I had
never previously heard a screech owl hoot
in the daytime at this season of the year."

The last sentence refers to the fact that
I once heard a screech owl give a little
hoot on a dull day in January.

On January 22, 1915. "The little
screech owl has this winter taken up his
abode in the box that I put for him behind
the hole in the peak of the barn. Some-
times he is absent for a day, or for several
days, but always returns. Once or twice
the blue jays mobbed him. At first this
drove him in, but later he stood his
ground in grim contempt and dangerous
vigilance and they did not quite dare to
close with him. He likes especially to sit

outside on a shelf all day long in

the winter sunshine, his eyes apparently
closed or opening as narrow slits when
disturbed. Through the glass I have dis-
tinctly seen the sun glint on the half
open eye."'

I do not share in the usual dislike of
the screech owl's song. On the contrary.
I love it. I find it expressive. At times
it is fierce or sad, or it may be tender and
musical. It is like a flower of the night.

The Hovering Instinct.

BY JOSEPH W.LIPPIXCOTT, BETHAYRES, PA.

I once saw a sparrow hawk hover over
a grass patch and then dart upon a small
garter snake which, instead of being
directly beneath him. was fully fifteen
yards further up the field. Alice I have
seen captured nearly as far ahead and in-
sects at various distances, but sometimes
almost straight below the hovering point.

It would seem therefore that the little
hawk's eyes instead of concentrating on
one spot, thus making a fixed position for
hovering more easy, are searching the
ground near and far while some strange
force keeps his body exactly stationary
regardless of ordinary winds. It is much
the same with the humming bird and the
king fisher ; indeed many birds, even the
English sparrow, the crested flycatcher
and the tree swallow, at times do strange
hovering antics which bear out the theory
that a wonderful subconscious force must
aid in maintaining position. It would be
interesting to exoeriment with time ex-
posure photographs of hovering sparrow
hawks facing various wind velocities.
The wings, head and tail would blur, but
how about the bodv?

3i8

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Red-shouldered Hawk.

BY UDWIN L. JACK, PORTLAND, ME.

High up in the sea of bkie, where a few
fleecy clouds were saiHng, perhaps you
have seen a large hawk wheeling in
spirals and frequently sending forth its
sharp cry "ker-ker-ker." The "red-

usually some rough material such as fine
twigs and sometimes pieces of bark are
used. On this rough foundation from
three to four dirty-white
with brown are laid.

Young hawks are very interesting
little fellows. Thev remain in the downy

eggs smooched

A VOUNC, RKD-SHOULDEREU IIAVVK THREE WEEKS Ol.l).
Photographed by the author.

shoulder," like many others of the hawk
family, secures a large amount of its food
by flying high in the air and watching
the earth far below with its sharp eyes
for whatever prey happens to be moving
the tall grass tops in the meadows, thus
betraying its location and quite frequently
furnishing the bird with a meal. All
hawks are generally thought of as chick-
en thieves, but it is only when driven by
hunger that the "red-shoulder" ever ap-
proaches the barnyard. In the main this
bird's food consists of field mice, frogs
and snakes.

The red-shouldered hawk is a large
bird, measuring twenty to twenty-four
inches in length : its color is brown and
grayish, the shoulders having 3, pro-
nounced reddish-brown cast from which
the bird derives its name.

This hawk places its nest in the top-
most branches of tall trees, usually in the
woods. The nest is a rather rough struc-
ture, of small branches apparently very
loosely woven together, the lining is

stage for three or four weeks and it is
not until they are at least two weeks old
that the first pin feathers appear, — soon
bursting forth into blackish brown feath-
ers. They remain in the nest about six
or seven weeks and when ready to leave
are possessed with remarkably strong
wings. This no doubt accounts for the
fact that young hawks are rarely found
on the ground unable to fly as are so
many other young birds.

Our California navel orange originated
in 1822, in Brazil, as a bud sport from the
ordinary seeded variety introduced from
Portugal. Trees first reached this country
in 1868, but in a dying condition so that
only some of the buds remained alive.
These were promptly grafted on to seed-
lings at the Government greenhouses in
Washington. Two of these grafted trees
were sent to Riverside. California, in
1873. Now there are a hundred thousand
acres of them in the region, and each year
their fruit fills twentv-five thousand cars.

ORNITHOLOGY

319

The Commercial Value of Birds.

We sometimes think that the whole
argument of bird protection is based
on sentiment, although demonstrations
have not been lacking to show that in-
sect-eating birds have frequently saved
dollars for the farmer in saving crops
that have been attacked by destructive
pests, which, but for the birds' help
would have been a total loss or partial
loss.

We also find the worth of our bird
friends proven in their relations with
otir trees. That shade trees add mater-
ially to the value of residential prop-
erty is now generally acknowledged : —
a price ranging from $100.00 to $1,-
000.00 having been definitely set upon
individual trees in several recent court
cases; — and it cannot be denied that
birds render us great service in the
preservation of such trees.

In the State of Maine, the actual in-
come from its migratory water-fowl is
computed to be $650,000.00 every year,
while Oregon places its water-fowl
valuation at a million dollars annually.

The Federal Aligratory Bird Law,
known otherwise as "The Weeks-Mc-
Lean Bill," has now been in operation
about two years, during which period
a marked increase in the water-fowl
throughout the United States has
taken place ; which, for the greater
part, seems to be indisputably a result
of the passage of this bill. Other bene-
ficial results from this law are apparent
among the shore birds, and while in
the main it has been well received and
at least forty states have passed regu-
lations supplementing its work, there
are still those short-sighted or selfish
enough to oppose it, and several at-
tempts have been made to declare the
law unconstitutional, or to appeal from
its justice. This law required a trem-
endous amotmt of hard work to secure
its passage, and any attempt to over-
throw or nullify its effects by counter
legislation should be vigorously fought
by every true sportsman, bird-lover
and conservationist in the country.

As a migratory bird cannot properly
belong to any one state or locality, and
as these usually congregate in such
numbers and tmder such conditions at
certain seasons that their ranks are of-
ten largely depleted by unthinking
people owing to lax local regulations.

the wisdom of federal control of all
migatory birds is self-apparent. In
some instances, of course, this will nec-
essitate the changing of local legisla-
tion to meet new requirements, and
may at first seem like depriving some
of their individual rights in shooting;
but it appears to have been conclusive-
ly shown that birds have an actual
commercial, as well as an aesthetic,
value ; that their usefulness and owner-
ship are confined to no one season or lo-
cality, and therefor, no one state should
have the right to enact laws governing
them which would in any way infringe
upon the rights of the people at large
— the people who are the real owners
of the birds.

Notes from Bartville, Pa.

Mrs. D. W. Jackson, of Bartville, Pa.,
writes of the abundance of goldfinches,
purple finches, tree sparrows and juncoes
about her home during the past winter ;
also the wintering of a pair of cardinals ;
and, on the 24th and 26th of January, the
visitation of a pair of bluebirds, in addi-
tion to the usual chickadees and nut-
hatches, to partake of the abundant sup-
pi}- of food which is always at the dis-
posal of her bird friends. She mentions
also an instance of a crow being frozen
to the ice as it was taking a drink, being
reported to her by a writer from Chester
County.

The following extract from a letter to
her while away shows the interest of a
young maid at home in the feeding of the
birds : "It is about nine-thirty and the
little birds are all around getting their
morning meal. I see the little juncoes
and tree sparrows eating the seeds which
I put out uoon the point and hillside.
Xuthatch in locust tree : also saw the car-
dinal early this morning. The English
sparrows come up here in flocks after the
feed wdiich I scatter around for the other
birds. The little dog chases them away
when she gets a chance. — There was a
little chickadee. — T don't know what was
wrong with it. It settled unon the little
oeach tree, anrl T watched it to see what
it would do, and it just hung on a branch
about ten minutes, unside down just like
a little bat. until I thought it was dead,
so I went out to examine it, and it stuck
to the branch until I picked it into my
hands. It seemed rather surnrised when
it saw someone had it fast. I took him
into the house to warm him and give him

320

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

some crumbs, and I put him under the
rice sieve, and he ate the crumbs and
drank some water. After a while it began
to want to get out. He would climb up
on the seieve just like he does on a tree
and han,g head downward, so I thought
I had better let him go. I took him out
and sure enough he was not slow about
flying away. He seemed so very minia-
ture that I could hardly think he was a
chickadee when I had him in my hands.

The other day a hawk sat on the wire
and I thought it was a robin at first, but
when it flew away I could see the differ-
ence. It had a red tail, was not much
larger than a robin. Now and then I
see a little goldfinch flying over."

We are glad to note this interest in the
birds 'by a young girl. It was a kindly
deed to care for the chickadee, and also
shows good observation to note the differ-
ence between a robin and the similar-
sized bird, which was doubtless a spar-
rowhawk. — H. G. H.

Peculiar Nest of the Tit-Warbler.

H. STUART DOVE, M. R. A. O. U., WEST DE-

VONPORT, TASM.4NIA, AUSTRALIA.
(member TASMANIA FIELD NAT. CLUB.)

To complete the paper on the yellow-
tailed tit-warbler sent last month, I
should like to describe an extraordi-
nary nest of this little bird which I
found in a white gum on the bank of
the Don River, North-west Tasmania.

This nest was hung amid the pendul-
ous branchlets of the tree in a similar
fashion to that recently described, but
whereas the nest built in the tree close
to my cottage measured 6x4^ inches ;
that found at the Don River was
a long purse-like structure no less
than ten inches in length — a great
size, when compared with the dimi-
nutive builder. It was constructed
of greenish grass, part of which was
woven around the twigs to hold it se-
curely ; the lining being a copius one of
wool and feathers. In the lower part
of this purse-like structure was the
entrance to the incubation chamber,
the aperture being just about large
enough to admit one's forefinger.
Above this was the opening to a second
chamber, — not lined, and again, above
this, a third compartment, also unlined ;
while to crown all was the open cavity,
or so-called "cock's nest" on the sum-
mit.

Onlv the lowest, or lined, chamber

had been used, and why the others
were formed is a mystery. It is not
rare for the nest of this species to con-
tain one un-lined compartment, but
this is the only example I have dis-
covered with two besides the "nesting-
box."

Dr. Sharpe, in describing the nest of
the South African Penduline Tit, says
"towards the upper end of the nest is
a funnel-shaped opening, and below
this is a distinct little pocket, the use
of which is not clearly understood. It
is supposed to be the roosting place of
the male, for whom, as the nestlings
grow, there would be little room in the
chamber itself. The little birds are
said to draw in the tubular entrance of
the nest before they finally go to sleep,
and they then fasten it up tightly, so
that any enemy, snake or otherwise, on
attacking the nest, fumbles about at
the pocket, or false entrance while the
little birds peck a hole in the back part
and escape."

Some naturalists consider that the
false chamber in the structure of our
"Acanthiza" is meant to delude the
Bronze Cuckoo, which often victimizes
this species, but the cuckoo's egg is so
seldom found in the "wrong box" that
1 cannot hold to this theory. It seems
far more likely that these extra com-
partments are intended to serve as
'over-flow^ rooms' for some of the
brood to sleep in when they are getting
feathered, and the incubation room is
too stuffy for the whole lot.

It would be interesting if any of
your readers who have observed any-
thing of the kind would send notes to
The Guide to Nature upon the sub-
ject, thus possibly shedding light upon
this curious habit of our bird.

A Delight to See and a Joy to Use.

The C. P. Goerz American Optical
Company have recently issued several
attractive booklets containing illustra-
tions of their cameras and of some of
the remarkable results achieved with
them. Those that love the outdoor
world desire to keep a record of its
fleeting scenes. These cameras make
that record and do it to perfection.
When asking for these booklets will
our readers kindly refer to The Guide
TO Nature? Especial attention will
then be given to the request.

( )K.\iTHOLOGV

321

An Experience with Wilson's Snipe.

]'.\ i:i)\\ AKI) I'. IMCF.IJ i\\ .

A Wilson's snipe seriously injured,
supposably by a cat. was found in the
marshes not far from ArcAdiA. The
bird's life was saved by driving away the
cat, but whether or not tlie l)ird had been

lover of fresh-water marslies, where it
may be sometimes surprised along* the
bank of a slugg'ish stream, with its long
flexible bill buried to its base in the soft
mud, as it 'bores' for insects.

"The Wilson's snipe has always been
a favorite bird with the sportsman, not

THIS BIRD'S IN7URY WAS SHOWN IX ITS REM ARKAliLl-: TAMEXESS.

previously injured is not known. It
seemed to be in full possession of all of
its physical ability, and was apparently
not lamed either in wing- or leg. It was
remarkably tame. It was easily held in
the hand, and showed the slightest wild-
ness. It died soon after its rescue.

Mr. Harry G. Higbee writes of the
bird as follow-s :

■'This bird, belonging to the family
Scolopacidae, which includes the curlews,
yellowlegs. w^oodcock and sandpipers, is
not an uncommon migrant along our
eastern coast in both spring and fall,
being present in this locality usually in
April and early ^lay, in the fall from
September to November. It nests prin-
cipally north of the United States and
winters southward to Brazil, though it
casually extends its breeding range south-
ward to our middle states and its winter
range as far north as New England.
Being: a bird of solitarv habits, it is a

only on account of its esteemed delicacy
as food, but also for the exciting sport
which it gives the hunter. These birds,
known also as 'Jack Snipe,' lie close, and
with their excellent protective coloring
often entirely escape observation on the
brown meadows of the early fall. When
they do take wing, it is so suddenly, and
followed by so zigzag and erratic a flight
that a good marksman is needed to stop
one. This sudden spring into the air is
usually accompanied by a series of hoarse
and somewhat startling cries that add to
the excitement and exhiliration of the
pursuit. A low- drumming or bleating
note caused by the rushing of the air
through the wings, as the bird descends
rapidly from a considerable height, is
said to be produced principally in the
mating season. A peculiar vocal note has
also been credited to the bird at this time.
I have never personally heard either of
these sounds.

322

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

"Widespread reports in a recent inves-
tigation by the jMassachusetts State Or-
nithologist indicate that the snipe in the
past forty years has decreased by more
than fifty per cent throughout most of its
former ranges. Records of its breeding
in Massachusetts and the neighboring
states are now rare, though formerly not
uncommon in many localities. Its four
eggs, pointed and mottled gray, are
placed in a depression in the ground near
the border of a pond or a stream."

A Nest of the Wild Dove.

BY DR. R. MENGER, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.

Prairie birds of various types usually
build their nests on a definite and typical
plan. Occasionally, however, influenced

A SNUGLY LOCATED A'EST OF
WILD DO\'E.

THE TEXAS

by environment and other circumstances,
they alter their methods, but still if possi-
ble use the ordiary building material.

The Texas wild dove occasionally
erects its fragile nest in an extraordinary
way. It sometimes uses the abandoned
nest of another bird, occasionally select-
ing in the West Texas prairie plains, in
brushy regions, the old abandoned nest of
a mocking bird ; or it builds directly on
the ground : or, as seen in the accom-
panying photograph, on or inside of the
spinous leaves of the Opuntia cactus.

The illustration, taken on the plains by
the writer, shows a wild dove's nest with
its typical two white eggs, snugly located,
perfectly secluded and protected in a
quadrangular space of the blooming cac-
tus leaves. The season was the end of
July, the main breeding time of our wild
(love. The surrounding mesquite trees
harbored scores of the breeding birds and
their nests. This one was built directly
on a dry cactus leaf, surrounded by num-
bers of others in full bloom, some of
golden yellow, and others, in the rear, in-
tensely red, and alive with insects that
were feeding on them.

As a rule the Texas wild dove builds
on a branch of the mesquite tree, gen-
erally using a few dry grass helms. The
main breeding season is from the middle
of May to October. Some are sparingly
found in October and November. In the
fields and pastures at sunset, the birds
gather in large numbers to fly to their
favorite roosting places among the mes-
quites and the oaks. They are somewhat
smaller than the beautiful, white-winged.
Mexican, migratory pigeons, which are
not protected by the game laws, as they
are exceedingly greedv and injure the
grain fields considerably more than the
common wild dove, which the Texas
game law protects from March to Sep-
tember.

Migration Notes of 1915.

BY ANNE E. PERKINS, M. D., COLLINS, N. Y.

One of the most delightful occur-
rences in the bird life of this vicinity
the past season was the appearance, on
April i8th, of a pair of cardinal gros-
beaks in a swampy tangle on the Cat-
taraugus Indian Reservation. These
birds were repeatedly seen and heard
by several of the Audubon Society
members, and were there as late as the
middle of October. It is believed that
they nested, as they were always in
the same vicinity and acted very sus-
picious of observers. I had seen a
female not far from this place two
years before, and others have reported
the male cardinal near Gowanda, two
miles away, but it has never been
proven that it nested in this vicinitv.

On April 4th a flock of two hundred
cedar waxwings were seen in a large
tulip tree, and all faced the same way.
The}- gathered everv afternoon at 5:15
and remained there in the same tree for
a half-hour, then retired to the swamp.

OR. \" IT IK )\J nW

323

"A LITTLE PATIENCE WILL TAME THE

WINTER BIRDS.

Photographed by A. E. Collins, Chapman, Nt-w York.

I was able to show^ this flock to several,
as they were prompt to a minute in
coming.

On April 20th a female ruffed
grouse was found on the porch of the
hospital. Part of her tail was missing,
— she evidently having been caught
and had escaped from some animal.
Taken to the woods, she proved able
to fly briskly.

The yellow-bellied sapsuckers were
never so abundant. Thirty appeared
in one grove at the same time and mer-
cilessly attacked the trees, so that the
sap was running freely from maples,
hemlocks, tulip trees, etc.

A Lincoln's sparrow^ came on May
13th and remained until May 31st.
singing freely, always within a few
rods of the same place. Its song is

very noticeable and somewhat remark-
able

A pair of rough-w'inged swallows
nested by the creek, in the bank. Ten-
nessee w^arblers were numerous during
migration. The solitary vireo — rare
here, even in migration — was observed
in a remote glen building a nest. A
l^air of yellow-billed cuckoos, rarely
seen here, were noted day after day in
the same spot. This fall pippits ap-
peared on two successive days, in a
field. Robins and bluebirds were re-
markably numerous all through the
season, and on May 30th a nest of slate-
colored juncos containing young was
found six miles from here.

On November i8th a white-throated
sparrow was still here, and on Nov.
28th, two meadowlarks. There win-
tered a flicker, song sparrow, marsh
hawk, red-shouldered \hawk, screech
owl. barred owl, kingfisher and cow-
bird, besides the usual winter birds.

My feeding stations were patronized
freely from October first to the middle
of June by downys, chickadees, nut-
hatches and jays, and during the win-
ter by a brown creeper and hairy wood-
pecker and red-breasted nuthatches.
The chickadees ate from my hand free-
ly. The nuthatches show a preference
for sun-flower seeds ; the chickadees,
for suet and "Downy" for a fat marrow-
bone. The red squirrels interfere with

A WIDE-AWAKE SCREECH OWL.
l'hiitogra])lud by .\. E. Chapman, Collins, New York.

324

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

seeds in feeding boxes, and the only
way I can keep them from carrying off
suet is by making pockets of half-inch
mesh chicken wire on the trees. The
nuthatches crack the seeds of the sun-
flower in a crevice of the bark and
leave the empty shells there.

A little patience will tame the winter
birds, and afford much pleasure and
profit in feeding and studying them,
with opportunities for photographing
them. Any boy can make feeding
shelves or boxes and even the rudest
device answers. Accustom the birds
to your presence while eating and very
soon chickadees will come to your
hands or head for food, and nuthatches
can be persuaded soon, but not "Dow-
ny."

The Redstart.

BY EDWIN L. JACK, PORTLAND, MAINE.

The favorite haunt of the redstart is
in damp, thickly wooded locations. He
is a valuable insect exterminator, and
I do not know of any bird that presents
a more perfect picture of happiness and
contentment as he darts in and out
among the foliage searching for food.

As a fine example of bird architec-
ture, the redstart's nest is indeed
worthy of study. It is not only neat
and attractive in appearance, but is a
fine sample of protective coloring.

In my location the redstart most fre-
quently places its nest in small maple
and gray birch trees, and at a distance
of fifteen to forty feet from the ground.
Regardless of this fact, the nest here
illustrated was built less than two feet
from the ground. By the use of strong
plant fibres and great skill the birds
secured the nest on the first limb of a
little maple tree. It was lined Avith the
finest of grasses and dry pine needles,
while the edges and sides were com-
pletely covered with silver gray plant
fibres, perfectly resembling the color
of the surrounding branches.

When I first discovered the nest it
was empty, but appeared finished and
perfect in every detail. I visited it for
three days in succession and came to
the conclusion that the birds had de-
serted it for some reason, for during
the time I was about the nest, not
once did I catch a glimpse of its own-
ers : but camera work on other nests

in that locality took me to the red-
starts' location daily and one morning
I found that the nest contained one
tiny egg, profusely speckled with
brown, and four days later the nest
contained the full set of five eggs.

For eleven days I made visits to that
nest and watched its contents and on

NEST OF THE REDSTART.
"The edges and sides were completely covered with
silver gray plant fibres, perfectly resembling the color
of the svtrrounding branches."

the twelfth day the mother bird
brought off a brood of five very tiny
youngsters, and their mouths were
ever open for food.

During the period the mother bird
was brooding the eggs, I had secured
several studies of her on the nest, with
my camera. By the time the young
were out, the parent birds had become
so accustomed to me that I could sit
within three feet of the nest and secure
a perfect focus without their paying
the slightest attention to me. I have
found that in bird photography, if one
works about a nest with care and
patience, being careful as to making
unnecessary noise and quick move-
ments, birds soon come to know
friends from enemies and the results

ORXITHOLOGY

325

that may be obtained in such cases are,
indeed, remarkable.

Being able to observe these redstarts
at so close a range, I discovered that
for the first two or three days the
youngsters' diet consisted chiefly of
mosquitos. and as the location was
very damp, the birds had no trouble in
securing them.

I watched the process of feeding the
young by the hour. The male bird
seemed to do the greater part of it as
is not generally the custom. He would
dart from one small branch to another
and frequently I could hear his bill
snap as he snatched the insects. Hav-
ing secured a number the bird would
fly to the edge of the nest, when in-
stantly up would come five gaping
mouths, but it was generally not more
than two that were fed at a time. And
so on the birds would repeat the per-
formance throughout the day.

As the young birds grew in size and
strength, larger insects were substitut-
ed, and in the course of a single day
this one pair of redstarts proved their
great value as insect exterminators by
consuming hundreds of noxious in-
sects.

Derelict Cats.

Few city dwellers realize the evils
resulting from the neglect of cats that
are for a time kept as pets, then allow-
ed to wander. This is well illustrated
from our experience with stray cats
within the boundaries of the Zoologi-
cal Park. It has been necessary to de-
tail one of our men to trap neglected
felines that have taken to a life in the
woods and subsist largely upon birds,
young rabbits and squirrels. It is as-
tounding to note the actual number of
cats trapped within the area of the
Park in the past three years. Up to
the end of November, 191 5, we had
trapped and otherwise destroyed six
hundred and two cats that were living
and hunting in the Park. The Botani-
cal Garden reports similar conditions.

When we consider the other large
areas of the northern city parks where
hordes of cats prowl unmolested, the
extent of the depredations of these
bird-killing creatures may be esti-
mated. Many of the captured cats
are gaunt, savage creatures that
through a marauding, half-starved and

desperate condition are a real menace
to full-grown rabbits and squirrels;
and bird-hunting is their constant de-
light. Occasionally, also, one of these
cats will fight a human enemy. The
writer can attest this by an experience
when a tramp cat emerging from some
foliage deliberately leaped upward and
savagely bit his hand. Keeper Roman-
off, who so persistently hunts these
animals, has several times been attack-
ed by them.

During our cat-hunting work we
have come upon a surprising number
of other predatory animals in the Park.
Our lists for three years show twenty-
five wild racoons, twenty-one opos-
sums, and about a dozen weasels.
Although in a dififerent class, from the
damage they do, we have also checked
off fourteen muskrats. — "N. Y. Zoolo-
gical Societv Bulletin."

The Virginia Agricultural Experi-
ment Station, which makes a specialty
of apples, is now engaged with the
problem of the inheritance of time of
blossomine.

Not All That's Best Can Be Bought.

Not all that's best can e'er be bought.

But it can be so aptly sought.

If we would only take the pains.

And ours, at least, would be the gains.

The sunrise is a pageant rare

To most of us. as on we fare :

ft only means an early rise.

And thrills us with the glad surprise.

The bird choir in the early morn.

Mo one who hears could feel forlorn :

The ecstasy would well repay

A woodland walk at dawn of day.

The roadside is a treasure-trove
To tliose who nature truly love:
And things that would our knowledge foil.
Are founrl in one square foot of soil.

The trees and flowers, the birds and bees.
What interests can rival these?
A look, a hook to interpret them.
.-\nd in each one we find a gem.

The stars that spangle all the sky,
We feel them there, yet pass them by:
The only need, an upward look
To rarest page of Nature's book.

The simplest pleasures are the best ;
To them is brought an added zest.
Of joys undreamed of at the start.
.As knowledge reveals the heart

— Emma Peirce.

326

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Heavens in March.

BY PROFESSOR ERIC DOOLlTTLE OE THE
UNIVERSITY OE PENNSYLVANIA.

It is with the coming of March, our
first spring month, that the slow with-
drawal of the bright train of winter con-
stellations begins. Orion, Taurus and
Gemini are found on each succeeding
night a little lower in the west ; the beau-

its great reddish star, Arcturus, is now
seen low in the northeast : above this the
Great Bear has reached almost its highest
position in the heavens, while between
and below these two groups there is
found the wonderfully beautiful and deli-
cate little maze of faint stars known as
Coma Berenices, or the Maiden's Hair.
The long Water snake, or Hydra, though
it now stretches from the southeastern

SQUTH

Figure 1. The Constellations at 9 P.M. March 1. (If facing south, hold the
upright. If facing east, hold East below. If facing west, hold West below. If

man up „

facing north, hold the map inverted.)

tiful Dog Stars have been carried well
past the meridian, and the golden arch
of the Milky Way, which for so many
months has passed through the very
zenith of the heavens, is now perceptibly
sinking westward in our evening sky.
The' large constellation, Bootes, with

horizon almost to the very meridian, has
as yet dragged but half of its great length
from below the ground, and similarly but
one-half of Virgo, the first of the train
of summer groups, has so far appeared.
Yet the whole eastern heavens are far
less conspicuous than they were a few

TO KNOW" TIIF. STARRY HEA\'E.\S

}.^y

months ago ; the gradual transformation
of the winter into the summer skies is
already clearly under waw

Meanwhile no less than three of the
"Wandering Stars," or planets, still shine
brightly in our evening heavens. Jupiter
has indeed drawn too near the sun to be
observed, but in the west we see the
exceedingly brilliant \'enus ; the beautiful
and always interesting Saturn is high in
the south, while only a little way to the
east of the meridian our attention is at
once attracted by the lurid, almost omin-
ous, light of the red planet ]\lars.

The Planet Mars.

Next to \'enus, this beautiful world is
now the most conspicuous object in the
evening skies. It will be found almost
exactly due south in the early evening,
very near the border line between the
groups Cancer and Leo. This planet is
now nearly three times as bright as the
golden Saturn near-by and it is six times
as bright as the neighboring bluish star,
Regulus ; the silvery Venus, however, far
exceeds it, for this, our Sister World,
now shines in the west with fifteen times
the brightness of the planet j\Iars.

The reader who has been watching the
interesting motions of our evening plan-
ets will remember how very rapidly Alars
ran eastward across the constellations
until by January i it had advanced well
into Leo and how since that time it has
been moving slowly westward again.
This westward — or retrograde — motion
will cease and the planet begin again to
move eastward on the twenty-second of
the present month, but throughout all of
March Mars will change its position
among the stars but very little.

Even in a small telescope the white
Polar Caps, of this planet are very dis-
tinctly visible, while if the seeing is good
one may detect the Hour Glass Sea. the
Lake of the Sun, the Great South Sea
and a few other of the larger surface
markings. But, nevertheless, except in
the largest glasses, this interesting little
world is a rather disappointing object.
]\Tars is so small a world, being only 4230
miles in diameter, that even at the best
it looks far smaller than the very much
larger, though far more distant. Jupiter.
And besides this, its markings appear
rather as indistinct and difiicult shadings
in contrast to the conspicuous and sharplv
cut markings of the larger planet.

Yet there is a special pleasure in a pro-
longed examination of a difificult object
of this kind. If the observer will devote
perhaps an hour or more to this task, try-
ing different powers and patiently wait-
ing for moments of unusual seeing, he
will gradually detect many more details
than he would have supposed possible
from a first brief view.

A very little watching will show him
that this world is turning around — the

Figure 2. Showing- the positions of the Earth, the
Sun and Mars when the two planets were this year
nearly together. If the Earth passes Mars when the
planets are in the region marked R, the approach is
evidently a much closer one.

day on Alars being but thirty-seven min-
utes longer than our own. Spring, sum-
mer, autumn and winter also succeed one
another on the Red Planet, just as they
do with us. In the northern hemisphere
of the planet the sun is now as high in the
heavens as it is with us in May. Here
the summer is at hand, their longest day
— or Summer Solstice — occurring (ac-
cording to our earth-calendar) during
the first week of next May. In the south-
ern hemisphere of the planet winter is
now advancing. Accordingly the south
polar cap is now large and is growing
larger, while the cap around the north
pole is melting away.

Nearly the whole northern hemisphere
of the planet is of a yellow or orange
shade, while the so-called seas are of a
grayish or greenish color. It is now
practically certain that the former are
great desert regions ; the latter are cer-
tainly not water — as was at first thought
— for in the largest telescopes they show
a great mass of intricate and permanent
detail. Many astronomers believe that
they are — at least in part — regions of
some sort of vegetation, but this is as vet

328

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

by no means certain. As to the intricate
network of lines or bands of the same
color as the "seas" which cover the plan-
et, these interesting but mysterious fea-
tures are far beyond the power of a
smaller telescope.

Figure 3. Drawings of the planet Mars. The Syrtis
Major, or Hourglass "Sea," at A, the Lake of the
Sun, at B, and the South Sea, at C, as well as the
Polar Caps, at P, can be seen under good conditions
in comparatively small telescopes.

Though ^Nlars passed nearest to the
earth on February 9, and although it has
moved but a little way along its orbit
since then, the present is unfortunately
not a very favorable opposition. The
reason for this will be evident from an
examination of Figure 2. The sun is no
less than thirteen millions of miles out-
side the center of the nearly round orbit,
so that if the earth passes Mars when this
planet is at the most remote part of its
path the two worlds will be twenty-six
millions of miles farther apart than when
their approach is the most favorable. In
this year Mars passes aphelion — or is
farthest from the sun — on March 13.

The Zodiacal Light.

As a new moon occurs on March 3,
the last days of February and the first
week of March will afford the observer
excellent moonless nights on which to
look for this most interesting object. He
should go out of doors as soon after sun-
set as the western sky has become dark,
and having fovmd a station away from
all electric and other artificial lights, he
should face directly toward the western
point of the horizon. He will then see
this great, faint pyramid of light, its base
resting on the western horizon and its
apex probably extending almost to the
Pleiades. It will probably be consider-
ably fainter than that bright part of the
Milky Way which is above it, though the
brightness of the Zodiacal light often
varies suddenly and capriciously.

This faint light at which w^e look is a
real, material object, being nothing less
than a great flattened cloud of very small
density, which surrounds the sun and ex-
tends out into space beyond the orbit of
the earth. It is probable that its sudden
changes of brightness are electrical in
character, and they are probably due to
great electrical disturbances on the sun.
If so they should be especially marked
during the present year when sunspots
are most numerous.

The Planets in March.

Mercury reaches its greatest distance
west of the sun on March i, and during
the first part of the month may be seen
in the dawn for about an hour before
sunrise. It will not pass to the east of
the sun and become an evening star until
April 14.

A^enus is the most beautiful object now
in the evening heavens. The observer will
notice that this planet is now moving very
rapidly eastward and northward among
the stars so that by the end of the month
it will set far in the northwest and shine
in our evening skies until four hours after
sunset. It will attain its greatest distance
east of the sun on April 24. and through-
out the entire spring it will grow con-
tinually more brilliant, not attaining its
greatest brightness until May 27. In the
telescooe Venus now resembles the moon
when this is a little more than half full.

Tupiter, which has shone in our evening
skies for so many months, is now lost

TO KNO^^^ THE STARRY HEAYEXS

329

in the sun's rays and cannot be well ob-
served. It will pass to the west of the
sun and become a morning star on
April I.

Saturn remains in the center of the
constellation Gemini in excellent position
for observation.

On March 20, at 5 hours 47 minutes
P.M. (Eastern Standard Time) the
center of the sun will cross the equator
and at this instant spring will begin. This
day and the following night will be of
equal lengths.

The occurrence of Easter during the
present year is very late because it hap-
pens that a full moon falls on INIarch 19.
only one day before the X'ernal Equinox.
The date of Easter is fixed as that of the
first Sunday after the first full moon
which follows the Vernal Equinox. The
first full moon after ]\Iarch 20 occurs this
year on Tuesday, April 18. Accordingly
it is the following Sunday, April 23,
which is celebrated as Easter Sunday.

A Sun Fades Away.

BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW.

Long before you were born, unless you
are more than sixty-three years old, an
event took place, an event that on Thurs-
day, March i6th, evening at ten minutes
past nine (Eastern Standard Time) will
have its effect upon the earth. Some
sixty-three years ago, although nobody
can tell exactly when, there was shining
in its full brightness in distant space a
sun fifty-one times brighter than our sun
and almost one and a half times the
diameter of ours ; it was one and one-
quarter million miles in diameter. Trav-
elling around this sun was another not
so bright. This was 840,000 miles in
diameter but probably about six times
brighter than our sun. If we should use
a little human fancy, we might say that
this darker sun was envious of the bright-
er sun, but the darker, being not so large
as the brighter, and being located about
three and one-half million miles from the
brighter, had to content itself with merely
dimming the light until there was not
much left to pass into space, and for a
time it intercepted some of the light that
was streaming into infinity.

If vou were on the roof, with a hose
that had a stoocock at the nozzle, and
you turned off the water, and imme-
diatelv turned it on again, a vacant space
would appear between the nozzle and the
end of the fallinsf stream of water, and

an appreciable period of time would
elapse before the cut off stream could
reach the ground, and that empty space
would remain empty until you again
turned on the water.

Light travels faster than that stream
While you wink, a ray of light might
travel seven times around the earth. For
ages that dimmed light stream has at
regular intervals been coming toward us
at the rate of 175,000 miles a second. We
are not able to realize such rapidity, but
day and night, year after year, from the
time when you were a baby in arms,
when you were going to school, when you
started in business, while you were ex-
periencing the vicissitudes common to us
all, that faint light has been streaming
toward us, continuously, persistently,
regularly, and it will reach us at ten
minutes past nine o'clock on Thursday
evening', March i6th. You can then go
put and see what happened decades ago
in that inconceivably distant space. No
astronomer can tell you exactly when it
happened. He can only say probably
about sixty-two and one-half years ago.
He can tell you to the minute when that
dim section of the light "stream" will
reach this earth. It will be at ten minutes
past nine on the evening of March i6th.
From that time on, for a little over an
hour, the light will steadily increase as
the result of that darker sun going by
the brighter sun decades ago.

Every reader will recognize in this an
astonishing event, an amazing connection
of the present with the remote past, but
there is still another fact even more
astonishing: only a comparatively few
will see this marvelous occurrence. It is
is none the less wonderful because this
dimming of the light stream becomes ap-
parent on the earth so regularly that
those who are fond of observing it have
discovered that its period is two days,
twenty hours, forty-eight minutes and
fifty-five and four-tenths seconds. But
a difficulty that enters is the fact that we
cannot observe it at all times, because the
dimming often occurs by day or when
our side of the earth is turned away from
the star. But do not miss this opportu-
nitv to see this remargable event- If you
will look in the northwestern skv toward
tb?it beautiful cluster that resembles a big
fishhook, that the old observers call by
the more dignified title of "King Per-
seus," then a little to the north you will
see this huge sun. You mav fix vour eve

330

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

upon all the stars in that immediate vicin-
ity, and you will have no trouble to see
the one that winks his eye at you. It has
been thus winkin,g- regularly through the
ages and will continue to do so. That
darker sun will continue to revolve
around its bright companion in an appar-
ent effort to extinguish its rays. It suc-
ceeds temporarily. We see the event only
when the darker sun passes between us
and the bright one. If you care to know
more about this, look up Algol in any
book of stars.

A Reminder of the Southern Cross.

Washta, Iowa.
To the Editor:

Just after Sirius crosses the meridan
in the latter part of February and

lation are mucli brighter, three being
of the second magnitude. Neither of
these crosses has a central star as in
the Northern Cross in Cygnus.

I lived for twenty years thirteen de-
grees north of the equator (Barbados,
British West Indies) where I could
see the Southern Cross, about thirty
degrees above the horizon. And away
up here in the frigid northwest, at this
time of the year, I always hail the cross
that I have described as it brings up
strong memories of my island home in the
tropics.

Fred S. Carrington.

^; H^ ^ ^: ;|:

This statement of Mr. Carrington is
entirely correct throughout. As the
savs, this cross is somewhat too much

SATURN, THAT BEAUTIFUL RINGED PLANET.
A remarkable photograph by Mr. Barnard at the Mt. Wilson Observatory. Sent by the Yerkes Observatory.

March, a little to the south and east of
that star is a cross formed by three
stars of Canis Major : Delta at the top
of the cross is a third magnitude star ;
Epsilon, forming the right hand arm.
a second magnitude ; and Eta to the
left, a third magnitude. The star form-
ing the foot of the cross is Pi of the
constellation Puppis, a third magnitude
star and a naked eye double. On a
clear evening these four stars, about
fifteen and twenty degrees above the
horizon, form a very conspicuous cross.
They have always attracted my 'atten-
tion, reminding me very much of the
Southern Cross, the four stars being
almost in a similar position. The
Southern Cross is not quite as long,
and of course the stars in that constel-

elongated, and it also wants a central
star midway between Epsilon and Eta.
Our Northern Cross has such a star
and is in fact, a very much better pro-
portioned cross than the Southern
Cross. This region of Canis Major is
rich in beautiful star clusters and star
streams. The most beautiful and strik-
ing cluster is almost in a straight line
between Sirius and Epsilon, one-third
of the way down from the Dog Star.
It has a red star near its center and its
structure is most complex and inter-
esting, even in a small telescope. — Ed.

Only give the time to Nature,
That you spend on lesser things;

Like a miracle will seem

The satisfaction that it brings.

— Emma Peirce.

TO KNOW THE STARRY HE WEXS

331

The Interest in Astronomy.

1!Y S. C. IlUXTliK^ NEW ROCIIELLE,
NEW YORK.

In a recent issue of "The Monthly
Evening- Sky Map," 'Sir. Leon Barritt
asks, "What is the matter with astron-
omy ?" Astronomy is not taught in gram-
mar schools nor in high schools, and in
colleges and universities it is elective. He
thinks that the general indifference is
owing to the manner in which the subject
is presented, and to the parents' desire
to have their children follow courses that
have a more commercial value.

Whatever the reason may be. there is
no doubt about the general absence of
the most elementary knowdedge on this
subject, not with the college graduate
only but with the man on the street.
When we consider that no other science
combines the spectacular and the infinite
in such marvelous varieties, the problem
of this almost universal apathy becomes
difficult to understand. There is, how-
ever, a fact that should not be overlooked,
one that I feel accounts in some degree
for this indifference. This is our modern
manner of living. It should not be for-
gotten ,that knowledge of the heavenly
bodies came originally from a pastoral
people. It is of the Arabians, whose clear
skies and desert life made them familiar
with the stars, that it is written. "He
whose roof is heaven, who has no other
cover, over whom the stars continually
rise and set in one and the same course
makes the beg"inning of his affairs and his
knowledge of time depend upon them."

We are an urban people. The glare of
the street lights and the marvelous elec-
trical advertisements that flash into our
faces from the street corners and the
housetoDS deprive the rank and file of the
possibility of searching the heavens for
those other lights that are either entirely
blotted out or are reduced to an insigni-
ficant blur.

For those of us who are lucky enough
to live in the country it is left to enter
into the appreciation of star gazing. It
is a privilege to be in a location that may
be thus utilized. Even a little knowdedge
is a wonderful thing, even only a bowing
acouaintance with trees, flowers, rocks.
What a zest it gives to the act of living!
We observe this and that as we walk
through the fields, and we understand,
possibly not in whole, but at least in part.
So it is with the stars. A complete knowl-
edge is not necessary. Think how impos-

sible that would be. We are actually in
touch visually with the infinite. New
methods, new devices are daily bringing
new discoveries to view and probing
deeper and deeper into the vast recesses
of space. The more we know, the more
appalling is our ignorance, yet we may
quietly enjoy the wonderful panoramic

MR. HUNTER'S OBSERVATORY AT NEW
ROCHELLE, NEW YORK.

display that rolls above our heads on any
clear night, and now and then nod to a
friendly, twinkling eye about which we
do know something, just enough to make
thrilling this acquaintanceship in the
upper vastness.

Except for the technical knowledge,
which is of course necessary, books should
play a minor part in our star work. It
is with a small telescqpe that the beauties
of the starry heavens ma}^ be revealed.
Reading about the delights of travel is
an excellent thing provided .we cannot
travel. To use a telescope is really to
travel. We literally see the wonderful
sights and actually experience all the
thrills. It is difficult to describe the pecu-
liar sensation of sitting' at the eyepiece
of a telescope in the quiet of a cloudless
night to watch the moving shadow of
one of Jupiter's satellites slowdy trailing
across the colored cloud belts, or great
Saturn's shadow edge thrown against the
white surface of the encircling rings.
Although these enormous bodies are
swinging in their orbits with iticredible
speed, and an hundred million miles
away, one is impressed by the feeling that
one is suspended in space from some in-
visible vantage point to watch their noise-

332

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

less passage. The use of a telescope pro-
duces the sensation of being projected
into ispace in the guise of. a softly flitting
spirit. It is the nearest approach imagin-
able to what we might expect would be
the sensation of the spirit after its release
from its mortal habitat.

I have found that definite work is a
great stimulus to one's interest in the

Canst thou liinil tlie sweet influencrf
Job xxxviii, 31.

of Pleiades

stars. There are many notable objects to
'be investigated. These are all classified
and many different fields are available for
study. My interest at present is among
the variable stars. I have a little stellar
family which varies in magnitude from
month to month. These stars I must ex-
amine critically each month to determine
by certain comparisons whether they have
become less or more brilliant, and to re-
port any change in their magnitude. The
work becomes a sort of adventure. The
field must be located and the star found.
Sometimes a star that was bright when
last observed is not visible, having'appar-
ently totally disappeared. At another
time where no star was visible at the last
observation, will appear a beautiful speck
of red or orange light.

It is unfortunate that the best time for
observing the heavens is during Decem-
ber. January and early February — co-

incident with the coldest nights of the
year. At nine degrees above zero I have
stood in my observatory for two hours in
the course of my regular monthly work,
but even cold feet and numb fingers can
scarcely abate the enthusiasm, when the
stars seem almost to speak in their scin-
tillating brilliancy.

I have mentioned as one of the striking
convictions of astronomy the element of
infinity. The Psalmist has said, "A thous-
and years in thy sight are but as yester-
dan when it is past." A look into the
heavens conveys a similar idea in regard
to the Creator's indifference to space. We
cannot conceive of anything that is not
in some way limited, yet just above our
heads, on any clear night, there is a view
that is absoKitely free from any limita-
tions of which the human mind has ken.
No telescope, in combination with that
other marvelous aid, the camera, has yet
probed this evidence of the infinite, and
as we contemplate man's constantly
changing theories of the significance of
the various stellar phenomena' we are
forced to conclude in devout admiration
that surely, "The heavens declare the
glory of God ; and the firmament showeth
his handvwork."

(from the editor).
This question of the lack of popular
interest in the subject of astronomy has
been discussed by a variety of publica-
tions and educators. In explaining its
banishment from the schools, it is not
enough to say that it is a mental and not
a utilitarian science. The schools include
many things that are not directly related
to life. If one were to venture to cross
out everything that is not utilitarian, I
fear that the schedule would be left pretty
nearly Ijlank. ]\Iuch arithmetic would be
eliminated, with considerable grammar,
and such studies as algebra, geometry,
foreign history, with some geography, as
well as a number of others. But the
schools very commendably do not elimi-
nate studies that pertain to strictly mental
training. They have, let it be to their
credit, not commercialized the whole
thing. I am inclined to think that the
trouble, especially in the low'er grades, is
the difficulty of having the child grasp
the subject. In the high school, it has
been made, as it has been made in college-
nlmost wholly a mathematical pursuit.
One feels like deciding- that astronomv

T( ) KX( )\V THE STARRY I IKWEXS

333

THE NEBULA IN PLEIADES SHOWN BY PHOTOGRAPHY.

This photograph and the one on the previous page are from the Yerkes Observatory.

ranks with music as a cultural pleasure
for those that can enjoy it. The trouble
enters when we notice that comparatively
few have the proper mentality for the en-
joyment of "the music of the spheres."

In guiding- visitors at the new Sound
Beach Astronomical Observatory, I am
more and more impressed by the fact that
the telescope is a disappointment to most

persons. They think that a star will be
magnified until it will resemble gorgeous
fireworks, and when they are told that
even the best and largest glasses show a
fixed star as only a fine point of light,
they ask. "What is the use of all this
equipment then? 1 can see as well as
that without a telescope."

The amateur astronomer regards Jupi-

334

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

ter and Saturn and the nebula of Orion
as among the most spectacular things in
the heavens, but the average visitor is
prepared to compare them with the
Fourth of July pyrotechnics. Time and
again, after gazing at that world thirteen
hundred times as large as the earth, with
its four conspicuous satellites, or at that
wonderful ringed world, the spectator
has asked, "Is that all we are going to
see ?"

Recently, in showing the moon in favor-
able circumstances, at first quarter, an
intelligent lady said in a disappointed
tone, "It is quite pretty ; looks like a piece
of lace !'" To think that while she was
looking at volcanoes seventy or eighty
miles in diameter- and at mountain
ranges six or seven hundred miles long,
she could even think of a "piece of lace !"
A clear headed, efficient business man
visited the ohservatory, and thoroughly
enjoyed everything that was shown. He
had read considerablv in astronomv and

could appreciate the signification of whai
he saw. I told him that most persons are
disappointed, that the majority expect to
see the moon as big as an elephant, and
Jupiter and its satellites at least as big as
a railroad train.

"You are disappointed," he said, "be-
cause so many expect so much more than
they can see, and so few seem interested.
You say that curiosity prompts them to
come once or twice, and that a casual
glance seems to satisfy them. I can ex-
plain. This is a place for mental pleasure
and for the seeing of things with a men-
tal eye. Many who have good mental
eyes, or what are usually called brains,
use them all day, and when the evening
comes they desire a change. Another
class has not yet learned to find either
their work or their pleasure in the use
of their brains. The success of this ob-
servatory will depend partly upon your
ability to teach the people to see things
mentally, and largely upon their ability
to find pleasure in such seeing."

The Sound Beach Astronomical Observatory is Com-
pleted and All Bills are Paid

The Total Cost $1,239.63

Total of Contributions 1,042.43

Borrowed from the AA General $ 197.20

(Our friends will kindly aid on this amount that is needed for current expenses
of the general work of The Agassiz Association.)

Classified Contributions.

Sound Beach $ 101.85

Greenwich 221.00

Stamford 152.00

Elsewhere in Connecticut . . 59-00

California i.oo

Maine .20

Massachusetts 176.00

Missouri 10.00

New Jersey 20.00

New York 1 13-50

Ohio 179.88

Oklahoma 5.00

Pennsylvania ii.oo

Texas 2.00

Paid
Telescope and Accessories . .$ 778.00
Clerical Work, Printing and

Postage 98-25

Foundation, Building and

Furnishings 363.38

Total Pledged $1,052.43

Unpaid 10.00

Total Cost .$1,239.63

Continued Contributions.
Masters Edwin Warren and

Robert Newton Lewis,

Greenwich $ i.OO

King's Daughters' Circle of

Sound Beach 5.00

Mr. John H. Sage, Portland,

Conn 5.00

Total

11.00

Collected .$1,042.43

Borrowed from the AA ^^ - , , , , , ^

General 197.20 Previously acknowledged ...$1,041.43

Total Cost $1,239.63 Grand Total $1,052.43

PEDAGOGICAL

335

■^

EDAGOGICAL

Snowflake Paper Cutting.

Erie, Pennsylvania.
To the Editor :

I am pleased to send yon my ])lan
for a snowflake paper cutting lesson,
trusting it may give some one a little
pleasure, as I assure you we have had
much in doing it.

I gave the lesson to the children in
the Fresh Air school, and two weeks
after that, Miss King, the teacher,
asked the children to write about some-
thing they had learned recently. The
day you gave your lecture here and
mentioned snowflakes, she told me of
one boy's composition. At my request
she gave it to me and I am sending it
to you herewith that you may see the
lesson gave a good impression.

*!* 'K -i* 'K -i'

Winter.

Winter is the season that all boys
and girls like. December is the best
month of the twelve, because it brings
the ice and snow.

Snow is like the milkweed seed sail-
ing aroimd in the air, they move so
quietly without a sound. Because the
snowflakes help each other and work
together they make a big drift.

If boys and girls would follow the
example of tiny snowflakes they would
accomplish many things.

Reed Stinson.

* * * * :)c

Beside the interest and attention in
the drawing and cutting. T am sure we
can lead the children not only to love
the beautiful literature of Emerson.
Bryant and Thoreau, but also to learn
something of the laws of nature and in
so doing to be inspired with love and
reverence for the Creator.

My plan for teaching snowflake pa-
l)er cutting is as follows :

T give each pupil several pieces of
thin white paper three and one-half
inches square, pencil and scissors. We
fold the square as in Fig. IT, fold again
as in Fig. Ill and draw a curved line
as in Fig. IV. With the scissors we

cut on the curved line without unfold-
ing the paper. We then fold it in three
equal parts as shown by the dotted
lines in Fig. V, draw as in Fig. I (a),
and cut on the lines. The folded
edges are held firmly together while
cutting and we turn the paper, not the
scissors. The paper is then carefully
opened.

I have a magazine illustration show-
ing Mr. Bentley and the apparatus that
he uses to photograph snowflakes, also
ten of his photographs which I show to
the children and lead them to discover
that each snowflake has six points and
six sides. I tell them that Mr. Bentley
says he has made over two thousand
photographs with no two alike, and
again quoting from Mr. Bentley give
them the following facts :

"Water is nature's most precious
gift to earth, next to life itself. Hence
it is peculiarly fitting that this most
iDeneficent substance should assume
such beautiful and varied forms.

"Of all the water forms snow is the
most remarkable. Snow crystals
'snowflakes) form at various heights
from a few thousand feet to several
miles. Their size is ordinarily between
one-fourth and one-twentieth of an
inch in diameter.

"All have six points and six sides
and the mysterious laws that govern
in cloudland seem to decree that the
rate \of growth shall determine the
structure- Those that grow rapidly as-
sume open, branching forms, while
those that form slowly are more solid."
Before beginning the lesson, the fol-
lowing quotations are placed on the
blackboard :
"Help one another." the snowflake said.

As it slowly sank to its fleecy bed.
"One of us here would not be felt.
One of us here would quickly melt,
But I'll help you. and you help me.
And see ! what a splendid drift there
will be."

336

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

F/>: r.

F'g.'Z. F's:lS f'SW

DIAGRAMS FOR FOLDING AND CUTTING THE PAPER FOR SNOWFLAKE DESIGNS.

There is nothing handsomer than a See that thou bring not to field or stone

snowflake and a dewdrop.— Thoreau.
Delicate snow stars out of the cloud,
Come floating downward in airy play
Like spangles dropping from the glis-
tening crowd.
That whitens by night the milky way.

— Brvant.

The fancies found in books;
Leave author's eyes and fetch your
own,
To brave the landscape's looks.

— Emerson.

Sincerely,

Emma E. Crook.

PEDAGOGTCAT.

337

II III

.\XSN'I.\ AN l.\.

338

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Nature as well as Revelation Reveals
God.

BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW, ArcAdiA : SOUND
BEACH^ CONNECTICUT.

For forty years the motto of The
Agassiz Association has been Per Natu-
ram ad Deum ; that is, to find God, one
should first question nature. Finding in
that respect gives a firmer foundation
than revelation alone. Let nature tell her
own story of the Deity that produced her.
We have always laid especial stress upon
this. Her answer is more influential than
human arguments. We have never dis-
played the slightest disposition to argue
that nature is a revealer of God. We have
deemed it sufficient to let our motto an-
nounce the self-evident proposition.

Within the last few years many pleas-
ing instances have come to the editor of
this magazine, of the manner in which the
Roman Catholic Church is emphasizing
the fact that to read nature before read-
ing revelation is a fruitful method of be-
coming acquainted with God.

After years of careful seeking for any
manifestations in the Protestant Church-
es of emphasis placed upon the observa-
tion of nature as a revealer of God, we
must confess that we have found little.
A few years ago, the Rev. Mr. Priddv of
the Methodist Church, Stamford, held a
prayer meeting devoted to nature. In his
report of this unique eft'ort he spoke of its
remarkable success, but, so far as we
know, the meeting has not been repeated,

Two churches in Stamford, the Pres-
byterian and the First Congregational,
have been favored by their pastors with
sermons on nature as a revealer of God,
and others are promised, or the subject
has been referred to favorably.

The prominence given to the observa-
tion of nature as a part of religious in-
struction in the Roman Catholic Church
has been strongly impressed upon the
editor by the numerous requests that he
has received for lectures to be delivered
at Sacred Heart Convents and similar
Institutions. Within a vear he has twice
visited St. ^Mary's College, Monroe,
Michigan, there spending several days in
calling the attention of almost three hun-

dred pupils to the pursuit, and on the
second visit interesting some six hundred
nuns by similar addresses. Courses of
lectures have been delivered for several
successive years in the Sacred Heart
Convents of New York City, and invita-
tions have been received from convents
in Detroit, Rochester and Providence. No
one that loves nature and believes the
motto of The Agassiz Association can
fail to appreciate, nor to be inspired by
the prominence that these Catholic Insti-
tutions are giving to the observation of
nature and to the study of natural science.

Recently the editor, during a call on
Alessrs. Williams, Brown & Earle, a
prominent firm of opticians in Philadel-
phia, made this inquiry, "Do you think
that microscopy is holding its own?"

The reply, after a moment of careful
thought, was, "I think that the use of
the microscope in strict biology may be
increasing in some of our educational in-
stitutions, but it is decreasing as a matter
of popular interest. I am glad to state,
however, that astronomy is picking- up,
not only popularly but especially in
Catholic Institutions."

Other inquiries elsewhere confirmed
these statements. If there is any one
Institution that has the right,' or even the
desire to put revelation before nature, it
should be the Catholic Church which for
so many years was the sole conservator
of Holy Writ. To the naturalist the en-
couraging fact is that this church states
in the canon adopted at the general coun-
cil in 1870:

'Tf any one shall say that the true God,
Our Creator and Lord, cannot be cer-
tainly known by the natural light of
human reason through created things ;
let him be anathema."

The prominence thus given to the ob-
servation of nature is also voiced in the
January number of "The Catholic Edu-
cational Review," in an interesting- article
entitled, "Physical and Social Heredity."
The writer says :

"Mental life in common with all other
forms of life grows by what it feeds
upon. Now the food required for the
nourishment and development of man's
conscious life is to be found in the fol-
lowing four sources : First, in the truth
and beauty and goodness of the Creator
as reflected in nature ; secondly, in the
direct revelation of the truth and beauty
and goodness of God that reaches the in-
dividual through revealed religion ; third.

PER XATURAM AD DEUM

339

in art regarded as the concrete embodi-
ment of human thoug'ht and action :
fourth, in the manifestations of the
human mind and heart that reach the
incHvidual through the arbitrary symbols
of speech.

"The relations of these sources to each
other and the unity which underlies them
may be illustrated by the following dia-
gram :

God-

Xature
Revelation

Man

Art
Lang-uage

"God is here represented as the single
source of the four mental food elements.
He is at once the author of man's being
and the ultimate source of all that minis-
ters to his life and to his development.
He reveals Himself to man directly
through nature and through revelation,
and indirectly He also reveals Himself to
every child born into the world through
man's works and through man's thoughts
as expressed in human speech.

"Xature precedes revelation even as the
concrete embodiment of human thought
precedes human language."

With denominational matters this
magazine has nothing to do, but with the
motto of The AA — Per Naturam ad
Deum — it has a great deal to do. It is
therefore glad to mention, as an inspiring
example to others, the prominence that
this old church is giving to nature, as a
means of divine revelation, and as a
revelation that leads ad Deum.

Earth's crammed with heaven.

And every common bush afire with

God. — Mrs. Browning:.

"But this I do say, and would wish all
men to know and lay to heart, that he
who discerns nothing but Mechanism in
the Universe has in the fatalest way miss-
ed the secret of the Universe altogether.
That all Godhood should vanish out of
men's conception of this Universe seems
to me precisely the most brutal error, — I
will not disparage Heathenism by calling
it a Heathen error, — that men could fall
into. It is not true ; it is false at the very
heart of it."— Carlvle.

Nature First in Religious Education.

The National Education Association
has recently published a pamphlet con-
taining a prize essay entitled, "The Essen-
tial Place of Religion in Education," the
outcome of an offer of one thousand dol-
lars by a resident of California for the
best essay on the subject. The prize was
awarded to Charles E. Rugh, Professor
of Education, University of California,
Berkeley, California. Professor Rugh
says :

"The specific means for developing the
child's consciousness of kinship with all
things, all persons, and ultimately making
him conscious that he is a child of the 'All
Father,' may be classified under three
heads: (a) The world of things or na-
ture, sometimes called the 'works of God,'
(b) the world of persons, the part of
God's work described as distinctly made
in His image, and (c) His express and
distinctive revelations worked out by
seers and prophets who express their, ex-
periences with God for the benefit of
humanity. The first group is the basis
of the natural sciences and of man's con-
quest of nature."

It will be observed that his classifica-
tion, accepted by the judges, places nature
first ; person, second, and revelation,
third. One of the essays that received
honorable mention likewise places nature
first as introductory to religious instruc-
tion, and amplifies the point as follows :

"For the young child, as for the young
races, nature study is a source of thought
concerning God. Let the teacher connect
every new wonder, as it draws uoon the
child's consciousness, with the idea of
God. At the end of a lesson on flowers, it
will not blunt but it will heighten interest
for the teacher to repeat, and lead the chil-
dren to memorize the biblical passage be-
ginning,'Considerthe lilies how they grow.'
In connection with the study of trees the
teacher may call attention to the kind of
man who, according to the First Psalm,
is like a healthy tree — 'Blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the un-
godly— and he shall be like a tree planted
bv the rivers of water.' After a summary
of the many phases of nature, the One
Hundred and Fourth Psalm may be read.
This psalm is a great song praising the
God who shows Himself in so many
ways ; the central thought is expressed
in. 'O Lord, how manifold are thy works !
Praise ve the Lord.' The Psalms are

340

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

particularly adapted tor study in connec-
tion with natural science because they are
so rich in figures of nature. "

These statements may be accepted as
authoritative for several reasons : First,
the author of the essay containing them
received a large prize. Second, compe-
tent authority passed judgment on the
contestants. Third, the prize was awarded
by the National Education Association,
one oi the highest, most intluential and
trustworthy institutions in the country.
All of which illuminates more brilliantly,
if possible, than they were previously
illuminated The Agassiz Association, its
work, and the motto that it has had for
forty-one years : Per Naturam ad Deum.

"But though God conceal himself from
the eyes of the sensual and lasy, who will
not be at the least expense of thought ;
yet to an unbiassed and attentive mind,
nothing can be more plainly legible than
the itimate presence of an allvvise Spirit,
who fashions, regulates and sustains the
whole system of being.'' — Berkeley.

The Highest Ideals.

"The Rural Xew-Yorker" in a recent
issue has the following" brief, but impor-
tant editorial :

" 'Live and let live" You practice this
and preach it. Why not take it for a
motto? It is about equal to the Golden
Rule.

" Connecticut. H. B. B.

"We would like to amend this motto a
little and make it, 'Live and help live.' It
is not quite enough to keep hands off and
let a brother carry his own burden. Let
us all try to help him carry it."

That is our ideal and should be yours.
That is the reason for the existence of an
Association. All the world should be an
Association. When that idea is put into
practice, there will be no more war, no
more bitter sayings, there will be nothing
but "Peace on earth and good will to
men."

"Earth's most exquisite disclosure,
heaven's own God in evidence!"

— Browniii"".

The object of informal nature study is
to put children directly in touch with the
beautiful and wonderful things which are
within their reach. Its lesson-book is
everywhere, its time is every time, its
spirit is wonder and delight. — Janet
Erskine Stuart in "The Education of
Catholic Girls."

FROM FEBRUARY NUMBER.
This drawing was made and contributed to The Agassiz Association by the Reverend Lewis W. Barney,
Ph. D., Sound Beach, Connecticut.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION'

34^

AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION"

Established 1875 Incorporated, MaesacliUHetts, ls»J iucurpL.ra,tB(i, LonuecLicuL, l»lu

Our Maryland Avenue Chapter.

During the past year, the Maryland
Avenue Agassiz Association Chapter,
Baltimore, Maryland, selected an inter-
esting work — the study of moths. For
our textbook we used Gene Stratton
Porter's "Aloths of the Limberlost." The
book is entertaining, not too scientific —
J\Irs. Porter calling herself "not a natur-
alist but a nature lover" — and the colored
illustrations are beautiful. These photo-
graphs were taken by the author herself,
in the natural habitats of the moths, and
carefully colored to correspond with the
living insects. The shades of even the
tiniest markings are faithfully repro-
duced, so that each picture is not only a
study of nature but a work of art.

Perhaps our practical work has been
the best of all our work. Some of the
members kept the caterpillars under a wire
screen, feeding and studying them until
they spun their cocoons. These will open
in the spring.

We went on field trips in search of the
moths, sometimes returning home trium-
phant with a particularly lovely specimen,
and later for the cocoons,. These we
keep, as Airs. Porter instructs us to do.
in as nearly their natural environment as
possible, giving them some sun, and occa-
sionally a sprinkling that is supposed to
be rain. Think of the treat awaiting us
in the spring !

All our specimens are brought to the
meetings to be admired and studied, and
we have found some beautiful ones. A
field trip gave us a perfect "Pride of the
Lilacs." Attacus promethea, if you wish
to be scientific. A giant Polyphemus we
found under an arc light in a busy street,
and early in June, a Luna moth, the
"Aloth of the Moon." perhaps the loveli-
est of all, was captured on a neighbor's
window pane.

Though our chief interest has been in
the studying of moths, we have not
neglected other things. Our field trips
bring us to many interesting phases of

outdoor life. We keep a sharp lookout
for oddities in nature. We have found
a slender, corkscrew shaped tree that
grew witli a thick vine twisted around it.
the vine is gone, but has left its mark
Loth in tne bark and the shape of tne tree.
In the early part of last year we were
particularly interested in mineralogy, and
collected a number of rocks containing
ore. While we were working along this
line we came upon rocks bearing the
fossil imprints of ferns, some of them
delicate and beautiful.

One of our most interesting, incidental
studies was that of mosses. We were
astonished to find so many varieties. We
showed numerous specimens mounted,
some on cardboard and some on bark,
some of them very odd in appearance.
The branching, satiny kind look lovely
against the brown wood. They kept their
color splendidly.

Another good program was prepared
with glowworms as its subject. Our
ideas of them were vague, so we took the
opportunity for enlightenment. We even
made a field trip at night to look for
them !

We have added some new members to
our Chapter, and are looking forward to
a busy and happy year of study,

Mamie J. ItzEL, Secretary.

"For God appears the greater to every
man in proportion as he has grasped a
larger survey of the creatures : and when
his heart is uplifted by that larger survey,
he gains withal a greater conception of
God." — St. Cyril of Jerusalem.

It is a joy to me to unfold beautv
hidden away in its own modest mask of
commonality. We are "queer mortals."
We tread the carpet and pluck the fruit
in the Garden of the Gods all uncon-
sciously, at times, and then call our-
selves wits, philosophers, and what
not!— Will Webb Tuttle, Muncie, In-
diana.

34^

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Concerning Bears and Deer.

BY JOSKPH W.LIPPINCOTT, BETHAYRES, PA.

By far the strangest thing I noticed
about the wild bears in the Yellowstone
National Park was the fact that, when
they came to the hotel garbage piles to
feed, they paid no more attention to the
crowd of onlookers than if it did not
exist.

Early in the evening a black bear or
two would drift quietly out of the woods
and begin to pick over the tin cans direct-
ly in front of the visitors. One feels a bit
queer when they appear, especially as
they nervously look up every moment or
two and often listen and perhaps scent
the evening breeze, but in spite of fears
you quickly see that they look only in the
direction of the woods, where they and
all the other bears must come from.

I saw one bear dash almost into the
visitor's gallery just because he heard or
saw another bear coming out of the
woods a hundred yards away. At an-
other time two silver tips appeared in the
distance and three of the five black bears
already on the scene slunk towards the
people in very apparent fear and then left
the place entirely, \vith their attention
ever riveted upon the w^oods. This kind
of thing was noticeable every evening and
soon gave one the idea that it was some
member of their family and not man that
the bears felt uneasy about.

Perhaps I would not have thought
about this after leaving the Park had I
not this spring observed the same habit
in wild deer that came to feed in a New
Jersey alfalfa field. The deer, particu-
larly in bright daylight, feared something
that they expected to come from the
woods behind them. The several people
watching from the next field scarcely in-
terested them.

I watched on a number of afternoons
in April and found, just as with the bears,
that it was others of their kind that they
were so intently looking for. Once a doe
came far into the short alfalfa growth
and fed until her nervous ears caught the
sound of two approaching deer. Instantly
she became more agitated, trotted about
and finally ran to them, although they
were in another field beside the woods.
Then, instead of greeting them like
friends, the doe rose on her hind legs and
put them both to rout with furious jabs
of her front feet. The evening seemed
to be spoiled for her for she made no
further attempt to eat, preferring to gaze

into the shadows of the woods. One or
two deer always were nervous until more
came out, but a herd of from six to ten —
the most seen at once — was nearly im-
mune from the woods gazing habit.

Interested in Nature Study.

Miss Smith, a teacher of biology in a
certain high school, relates this incident
in connection with an interest in nature
manifested by a teacher in the public
schools. This supposedly new convert to
the value of nature study came to Miss
Smith, an enthusiastic and thoroughly
proficient teacher of biology, to borrow
a book on nature study.

"What do you wish to study?"
"Oh, never mind what. I just want
any book O'U nature study that you may
happen to have."

Miss Smith, surprised at so general a
request, demanded more explicit informa-
tion. The reply was, "Oh, I am not par-
ticular as to what book, only a big, nice
looking book on any nature subject. I
want it to lie on my desk where it will
look well when the superintendent calls."

Kansas has 80 species of wald mammals ;
N'ebraska 94: Colorado 152; Texas 182;
and California 369.

A prominent American bacteriologist
has lately expressed the opinion that
fertilizers applied to the ground, though
they aid the crops directly, have at
least as much indirect effect by nourish-
ing the beneficent micro-organisms of
the soil.

The Blizzard.

BY CAROLINE CLARK HINTON, HARTFORD,
CONNECTICUT.

Blinding' snow
And wind and cold;
Swaying branches tossed about
Like skeletons upon a string

By childish hands.
Downy balls of snow

Like nests

•Deserted
In the twilight of the autumn's evening.

Upon the vines

The snow is spread,
White arms that curve and stretch,

A shining octopus.
While through the mist

A golden light
That glints and sways and lives;

Snatched from the darkness,

Concentrated.
God's gift to man.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

IX

Ulbat the JIflassiz Jlssociation Offers.

From the Charter of Incorporation :

"The purposes for which said corpo-
ration is formed are the following, to
wit: the promotion of scientific educa-
tion; the advancement of science; the
collection in museums of natural and
scientific specimens ; the employment
of observers and teachers in the differ-
ent departments of science, and the
general diffusion of knowledge."

The Agassiz Association is a Clear-
ing House for information on any
phase of nature or of natural science.
It places at your convenience the total
of all human knowledge pertaining to
the natural world. This it is able to do
by having a Council of experts in every
department of natural science. If any-
body knows it, you may know it by
merely inquiring.

The AA publishes observations, an-
swers questions, identifies specimens
and creates and increases a knowledge
and love of nature. This work is not
limited to its Chapters and Members.
The Guide; to Nature, a monthly mag-
azine, the official organ of the Associa-
tion, is devoted to commonplace nature
with uncommon interest.
LOCALLY.

ArcAdiA offers to Stamford, Sound
Beach and Greenwich, and to visiting
parties from other places, the facilities
of a general natural history Institution :

The beautiful Agassiz Grove.

A well-equipped Reception Room.

Nymphalia. This is a nature study
park, so named because it is the home
of Nymphs of nature study : Love,
Study. Interest, Enthusiasm, Beauty.
Begin with Love and through the se-
ries we find Beauty. "We love things
not because they are beautiful, but they
are beautiful because we love them."

The Forest of Arden — more than one
hundred acres of unexcelled pictur-
esque wild forest and thickets, explain-
ed and explored by personal guidance.

Demonstrations in an apiary.

Instructions in a biological labora-
tory.

Exhibitions with compound and pro-
jection microscopes unequalled else-
where in the United States.

An astronomical observatory with a
six-inch Clark telescope. This tele-
scope is probably the only one dedicat-
ed wholly to the free use of the public.

Ulbat Our expenses liave Been.

In the year ending March 31, 1915,
our expenditures were $6,046.97. De-
ducting Sundays and holidays this is
an average of $19.95 per day.

The President of The Agassiz Asso-
ciation receives no salary as President
nor as editor of The Guide to Nature.
For some of the mechanical and busi-
ness work on the magazine he has re-
ceived this past year $708.44 or $13.62
per week. For the previous seven
years he received not a cent even for
this kind of work. Three members of
the family that assist (some giving
their entire time) have received no
salary. The Bigelow family does not
receive even free house rent. Birchen
Bower and its part of ArcAdiA freely
used by the public is not the property
of The Agassiz Association. The fam-
ily pays for the use of the garden and
the pet house. It will be seen that so
far as the Bigelows are concerned, they
give their time to the Cause to which
the public is giving and is requested to
give financial support.

These services have been unpaid be-
cause there has not been sufficient in-
come with which to pay for them. Ad-
ditional workers will be secured when
the income is sufficient. The equip-
ment could use to advantage many
times the present number of workers.
There is no limit to the general work ;
the local work, too, is pressing for an
increased number of assistants.

Our Income.

1. Membership Fees. You are eligi-
1)le for membership if you approve of
the work as here outlined. Full par-
ticulars upon application.

2. Subscriptions and Advertisements.
The Guide to Nature is growing. It
now has a circulation of three thousand.
Help it grow. You may thus aid and
extend our work.

3. Cash Contributions. These have
come from all parts of the world, and
have been an important factor in sus-
taining the work.

4. Rentals of Parts of ArcAdiA.
From the Bigelow family for garden
and pet house. From Mrs. Blakely for
the site of her Botany Bungalow. She
owns her house, pays rental for land,
her membership dues, and gives her
services freelv to botanical students.

X

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Inspection and Cooperation.

The cashbooks may be inspected by
any Member or Contributor. Every
detail of the work will be made clear
to any one. We need more money,
and have full confidence that, with in-
creased knowledge by our Members
and friends, and by the public in gen-
eral as to the exact situation, it will be
freely given.

Here is a work of merit in the inter-
ests of humanity that should be prop-
erly financed for full efficiency. No-
where else in all the world has so much
been accomplished in forty years with
so little money ; nowhere has there
been greater faithfulness, or more de-
voted service for the uplift, the educa-
tion, the improvement of humanity.

forty Vears Past: Torcper in future.

The Agassiz Association was organ-
ized forty years ago on the grandest
principle that ever associated boys and
girls, men and women. It regards
every individual as supreme, and has
as common subject the Universe and
its Maker. "Per naturam ad Deum" is
its motto today as it has been for four
decades.

The university, not the kindergarten,
has always been the point of view. No
one lines up a class and says, "Here is
the game ; I will show you how to play
it;" no one tells you what clothes you
shall wear, nor what thoughts you
shall think. The youngest child is as
free to see and to tell as is the eldest
member of the Association, or the vet-
eran technical scientist in his learned
monograph, whose joy of seeing and
telling in his way is no greater for him
than is that of the beginner. In fact
the veteran realizes better than the
novice that he is only a beginner, that
there is yet before him much for him to
learn.

The Agassiz Association expresses
itself in terms of peace, civilization,
equality, and dignified self-respect. It
regards no one as a "tough" and treats
no one as needing reformation. It as-
sumes that human nature is not bad
but good. It exalts no one on account
of his wealth, knowledge or station.
The greatest thing to do is faithfully to
serve others. There is no exaltation of

office. No chiefs have charge of inferiors.
Ever}' one is a chief when he unselfishly
gives of the greatest thing in the world,
his ability "to see and to tell," for the
benefit of others, not to confer a favor
in the seeing and the telling, but for the
privilege; of doing it.

The Agassiz Association regards every
member as innately kind The Agassiz
Association embodies the law of love, not
the love of law. Its kindness to man be-
gins when he is a boy. To have him love
a horse, is better than to punish him in
court for having pounded a horse.

The Agassiz Association requires no
course of study. Every member is a
teacher. Even the youngest goes directly
to Nature's storehouse, helps himself, and
for additional joy, points the way to some
one else. A child, as well as a man, may
play on the ocean's edge, and each may
be the teacher of the other, and the joy
of each will inspire the other.

No one outgrows The Agassiz x^sso-
ciation. In old age it is not remembered
as a thing for boys or girls, but the en-
thusiasm of youth grows stronger with
age. As Dr. Van Dyke has truly said:
Let me but live my life from year to
year.
With forward face and unreluctant
soul,
Not hastening to nor turning from

the goal;
Not mourning for the things that dis-
appear
In the dim past, nor holding back in
fear
From what the future veils, but with

a whole
And happy heart, that pays its toll
To Youth and Age, and travels on
with cheer.

When members of The Agassiz Asso-
ciation go to walk, they are not sharp-
eyed with one eye and blind in the other.
"Everything is 'fish' that comes to the
net of a naturalist." A bird is indeed of
interest but so is the tree through which
it flies or where it sings its song.

The Agassiz Association seeks to de-
velop mind and heart. It appeals to the
thoughtful rather than to the thoughtless.

Individual members and organized
Chapters of members are free to do things
in their own way. It has never been in
the glare of great public popularity. The
Agassiz Association considers it more
important to observe than to be observed.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

XI

Cbe BQasm JIssociationandTts I)ome Jfre for Vou.

To create and increase a knowledgf
and love of nature. You are not too rich,
nor too poor : not too wise nor too igno-
rant ; not too young nor too old, to
share in their benefits. *

VISITING DAYS.

To members (and their accompanying
Friends) : All Days. Special personal
attention, if an appointment is made by
tele])hone or otherwise.

To Non-Members (unaccompanied by
Alembers). Wednesdays and Saturdays,
from 3 :oo to 5 :oo P. AI., and at other
times by Special Invitation or Appoint-
ment. ArcAdlA is not a Museum, nor a
Botanical Garden, nor a Zoo. Yet at
times it has a few special interests (under
special study) along some or all of these
lines. Our chief purpose is not to ex-
hibit nor to entertain, but to create a
desire to accept and to follow Agassiz's
advice — -"Study Nature."

Board of trustees.

Corporators: Edward F. Bigelow, Ph. D.,
Sound Beach, Conn., President and Treas-
urer; Hon. Homer S. Cunimings, Stamford,
Conn., Secretary; Waher D. Daskam, Stam-
ford, Conn. Other Trustees: Harlan H.
Ballard, Pittsfield, A'lass., Honorary Vice-
President ; Hiram E. Deats, Flemington, New

Jersey, Business Adviser and Auditor; Dr.
David Starr Jordan, Chancellor Leland
Stanford Junior University, Stanford Uni-
versity, California, Dean of Council; Dr.
Leland O. Howard, Washington, D. C,
Naturalist Adviser; Reverend Charles Mor-
ris Addison, Stamford, Conn.; George Sher-
rill, M. D., Stamford, Conn.

.\G.\SSIZ AS A TEACHER.

HE spoke with intense earnestness and all his words
were filled with that deep religious feeling so
characteristic of his mind. For to Agassiz each
natural object was a thought of God, and trifling with
God's truth as expressed in Nature was the basest
of sacrilege.

The old barn on the island had been hastily con-
verted into a dining-hall and lecture-room. A new
floor had been put in ; but the doors and walls re-
mained unchanged, and the swallows' nests were un-
disturbed under the eaves. The sheep had been
turned out, the horse-stalls were changed to a kitchen,
and on the floor of the barn, instead of the hay-wagon,
were placed three long tables. At the head of one
of these sat Agassiz. At his right hand always stood
a movable blackboard, for he seldom spoke without
a piece of chalk in his hand. He would often give
us a lecture while we sat at the table, frequently
about some fish or other creature the remains of

which still lay on our plates David Starr Jordan in

"Agassiz at Penikese. '

Chapter Organization Expense.

Entrance Fee $1.25

Handbook, "Three Kingdoms"... .75
Engraved Charter, in tube 1.00

ANNUAL DUES — PAYABLE IN ADVANCE

The Annual Dues for Chapter . .

Annual Dues Members of

Chapter Members @ 5c

each , —

Total Necessary Expense to Chap-
ter upon Joining the Associa-
tion

$3.00
$2.00

Corresponding member's expense.

Entrance Fee $0.25

Handbook, "Three Kingdoms" .75

Certificate of Membership 50

$1.50

Annual Dues 1.50

$3-00

Student Members are required to make a
report at least once a year. This report
should contain not only a statement of
work done, but of "the promotion," "the
advancement," etc. See quotation from
Charter. We are to help others as well as
ourselves. Extend the influence of the AA.

The Annual Dues include payment for
subscription to The Guide to Nature.

Cooperating memberships.

Sustaining Member (annually) $5

Sustaining and Honorary (annualljO • -$25
Life Member (paid at one time) . . . .$100

Patron (paid at one time) $1,000

Founder $5,000

Benefactor $25,000

XII

THE GUIDE TO NATURE— ADVERTISEMENTS

The "WOODLIFE " Idea Has
Come to Stay

Architects, Painters, Decorators, Paint
Dealers, and the general public are all en-
thusiastic over Woodlife Shingle Stane —
the kind that is not ready mixed but has
Liquid and Colors separate.

The architect can match any desired
shade. There are i6 beautiful and distinct-
ive colors.

Painters and Decorators find it easier to
handle than White Lead and Colors in Oil.

We are selling large quantities of Wood-
life because it costs less than one-third as
much as ready-mixed paint and lasts longer.

A FIVE-YEAR GUARANTEE.

In order to satisfy our customers as to
the reliability of Woodlife Shingle Stane,
we hereby guarantee that it will wear well
for at least five years on buildings to which
it has been properly applied. Should it fail
to do so, we will furnish new stain free.
The sterling quality of our product enables
us to give you this protection.

THE WOODLIFE COMPANY

188-190 Montague St., Brooklyn, N. Y.

The Alvan Clark
& Sons Corporation

Cambridge, Mass.

MAKERS OF

Astronomical

and

Terrestrial

Telescopes

Correspondence Solicited

&- I'k-

(ausch |omb

Balopticon

gives entertainment as novel, as inter-
esting, as varied and as instructive as
the talking machine gives in its field.
The Home Balopticon projects pictures,
post cards, solid objects, etc. Pictures in cor-
rect position from left to right, not reversed.
Now fitted with special 400-wcll gas-filled
Mazda Lamp, giving illumination superior to
any similar instrument on the market. Abso-
lutely safe and automatic and simple enough
for child to operate. Lenses, mirrors and all
mechanical parts of high quality— not a toy. Ideal
equipment for clubs and small schoolroom as well as
the home.

Costs but $35 — with
aluminum ccatfd wall-
screen included Other
models for various re-
quirements$20andup.

"Fun— and Better"

is an interesting booklet tell-
ing of many novel ways to
entertain with the Home
Balopticon. Sent free upon
request.

Bausch ^ Ipmb OP^iCoi (o.

512 ST. PAUL STREET ROCHESTER, N.Y.

:lffll1lli!llll!lll!llllllilllll|li!!ll!!llllllllllllllllllllllllll^

•-^11

= Si!r'"!!!;i'l!!!;!!!li!!!!!l!;lli;!:l:;!!::!!lll;!;l!!I!lI!l!!iii!!IllI!!I!!Iill!li
biiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuniiiiiiliiiuiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiuiiuiiiim

I!ll!llIIll!lI!!!l!I!!l!!lI!!!:!!!!!!i:!!!!:i:::....,::,..J,:.,,J:i::i!ll!ltllllI!II!!ll!ll!i!!l!II!ilil!IliraiIIIH

GREENWICH

THE EDITION DE LUXE
OF COiNNECTICUT TOWNS

Are You Protected?

Savings Mean Success and the
Man. \\'oman or Child who In-
dustriously saves a Small Portion
of Their Income is Building a
Bulwark of Protection Against
Poverty and Unhappiness. This
Bank Allows a Liberal Rate of
Interest on Savings Accounts.
Give It Consideration

The Greenwich Trust Co

ESTABLISHED 1887

GREENWICH, CONN.

GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT

has good transportation facilities to
New York. You can buy or rent to
good advantage and enjoy living by
the water or among the hills to the
utmost satisfaction.

I have for Sale

Hlegant Country Estates, Shore and Inland
Residences, Farms, Acreage, Cottages and
Building Sites. Also a number of selected
Furnished Residences and Cottages to Rent
in all locations.

v\nuld be pleased to have you call or write.

Laurence Timmons

Tel. 456 Opp. Depot Greenwich, Conn

BEST NURSERY STOCK EVER GROWN

Evergreens Fruit and Ornamental Trees
Flowering Shrubs Hedge Plants Vines
Roses Hardy Perennials ^ ^ ^

Preparing of Plans Laying Out of Grounds Grading
-:- -:- Road Building Tree Work -:- -:-

GREENWICH NURSERIES

DEHN & BERTOLF, Propi.
LANDSCAPE GARDENERS AND NURSERYMEN

GREENWICH, CONN.

10 F*^^ "^^M 0<

THE GUIDE TO XATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS

VII

SHORELANDS

Owned and Operated by

THE SOUND BEACH SUMMER HOMES
CORPORATION

SOUND BEACH, CONNECTICUT, Box 84
NEW YORK CITY, 1 Liberty Street

Summer Bungalows and Cottages for Sale and
for Rent— furnished and unfurnished

Moderate Prices.

Moderate Rentals.

Telephone Connections.

The nerves of the earthworm transmit
impulses at the very slow rate of an inch
a second. Certain large nerves, however,
attain to the more respectable speed of a
vard and a half in the same time. One
hundred feet a second is the rate m man.

The Pleasure of Expression.
There is a joy in expressing one's
self in words, and a pleasure in the use
of one's skill in the act of doing thmgs.
In making a collection, the naturalist
expresses his desire to collect, and it is
often with pride that he shows the re-
sults of that expression to his friends.
The same principle applies to the
photographer that desires to express
his ability to portray nature on the sen-
sitive plate. There' is the same desire
for expression in working with wood,
whether tinkering at repairs about the
home, or in making something new. A
music rack, a shelf, a box or a cabinet
for specimens, a chair, ^r other article
of furniture, is a method of expression,
and in the act of making there is joy.
As one likes to own a good anastigmat
lens or a modern collecting case, so

there is a happiness in having perfect
tools and a convenient place in which
to keep them. Both of these requisites
are supplied by Hammacher, Schlem-
mer & Company of New York City.
Their tool cabinets are a delight to the
lover of tools, and what average man
or boy does not delight in handling and
especially in owning and caring for
reallv 8:ood tools?

To save the fur seals, it has lately been
pointed out, one thing will have to be
done at once : that is. to put the matter
in the control of the Department of Agri-
culture. The Treasury Department tried
it — and made a mess. The Department
of Commerce took over the problem and
(lid rather worse than its predecessor.
iUit the Department of Agriculture, with
its 15iological Survey and its Division of
Animal Industry might do something.
Seals are, after all, not essentially differ-
ent from sheep or cattle or swine. The
methods and the men who handle success-
fully one sort of creature are the best
fitted to deal with another.

VIII

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS.

THE C. 0. MILLER CO.

Atlantic Square Established 48 Years. Stamford Conn.

NEW GOODS AT EVERY TURN
And More Arriving Every Day.

Fashionable blouses, skirts and street gowns are here from the most authenti'-
sources. The little frocks for girls also present novelties that are beautiful to behold
Hosiery, muslm underwear and other new arrivals all hint of the fast approachino
springtime. We can truthfully state that this is the finest gathering of new merchaii-
dise that tbis store has ever brought before the people of Stamford.

A Visit at This Time will be Found Very Interesting.

The — Trolley — Brings — You — to — Our — Door.

THE C. C. MILLER CO.

ESTABLISHED 185:-

THEGETMAN&JUDDCO.

Lumber and Timber of all Kinds

Homes Near to Nature

Skould be so constructed as to give lasting satisfaction.
Dur metkod of manufacturing dependable Imterior amd
Exterior kouse trim from thorcrugkly kil« dried materi«i
DT skilled meckanics insures such satisiactiom.

SPECIALTY: High-Grade HARDWOOD FLOORING THE 5T. JOHN WOODWORKING CO.

Canal Docks. Stamford Conn.

Telephone 781

DIRECTORS
WALTON FERGUSON, Pres. W. W. HEROY.

VV. D. DA5KAM, Vice Pres. F. H. HOYT,

V\". H. JUDD, Sec. and Treas. F. W. BOGARDUS.

J. G. WIGG. General Manager.

tkoroughly KilnDiied amd stored im Steam keatea »uuo
iag until deliverei* to our customers. Our steadiiT ir
creasing trade in tkis specialty proTes tne fact cia
tke country kome is not complete until fitted out win
tkii beautiful aad sanitary furnishing. Old resideiict!
may be greatly imp'-on-ed ky laying tkia floors oTer tit
old o«es.

CANAL DOCKS, STAMFORD, CON^.

Telephone 2180.

/?'

;i:

'^

The LOCKWOOD & PALMER Co.

Wholesale and Retail
Dealers in

HARDWARE

AGRICULTURAL

IMPLEMENTS

House Furnishings, Etc.

TOOLS
JKW Kinds

92 PARK PLACE

(Cor. Summer Street)

STAMFORD - CONN

TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS

jl

Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Connecticut,

Subscription, $1.00 a year Single copy, 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12, 1909, at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897.

Vol

VIll

APRIL, 1916

Number 11

How We Tamed the Flying Squirrels.

BV K. HKRTZBKRG, STAMFORD, CONNEC-
TICUT.

Three years ago a nimilier of l)iru
houses were set out among the trees
surrounding "Knokik Kamp" in High
Ridge. Connecticut. For many weeks
expectation ran high and much good-
natured rivalry was indulged in to get
the first look at the expected tenants.
For a long time nothing happened, but
one day the boy noticed a leaf sticking
out of the opening of the house in the
cedar, and he asserted that the house
had a tenant — that a bird was making
a nest in it. The idea was ridiculed
and he was informed that a leaf had
been blown into ithe opening. Bui
how w^e did w^atch that opening !

The next morning there was no mis-
taking it. The house was occu})ied ;
the opening had been almost closed by
a mass of leaves. What had done it?
We guessed from condor to least fly-
catcher. Nothing was seen to enter or
leave the house, yet the mass of leaves
was daily getting larger. We dared
not take the house down for fear of
frightening off our welcome guest, yet
the suspense must be broken.

One evening w^hen we were indulg-
ing in our usual guesses one of us sav.'
the leaves move in the opening and a
gray head, with large eyes protrude
from the doorway. "A squirrel." "No.

it's too small." But suddenly our vis-
itor darted out of the box and up the
cedar to the topmost branch, and with-
out an instant's hesitation launched
himself into space, to land on an oak
tree a hundred yards away. The secret
was out. Our house harbored a flying

^

■1^

V

i

1^

' /

1

1

•

"^^ ^^Sr*

. ->mi>^

Wk

1

Hr

mgfi

■

^^Hin ; r»-

.. A

"SOOX TOOK Till-: .\UTS I'RO.M BETWEK.X

OUR FINGERS."

Fliotoyraph by .Mr. Jolm .1. Schoonhoven

squirrel. The next morning was spent
in putting up ])rojecting boards from
the railing ancl in a trip to town for
hazelnuts. Fverv eveninsf a visfil was

CopvviRht 1916 bv The Agassiz Association, ArcAdt.-V: Sound Bearli. Conn.

344

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

kept in the hope of getting another
glimpse of our guest. For several
weeks we did not see him, yet every
morning the boards were empty, the
nuts were gone. Finally the little
creatures — there were two, finding that
no harm came to them, ventured out

"Hello! Did you bring my supper?"
The supper was there. Before long he
found it and came again and again
and his parents or brothers and sisters
were with him. This went on during
all the long, lazy, happy summer and
bv fall our "Babies," as we now called

DR. IIERTZBERG'S HOMF NEAR To XAHUI

KNOKIK KA^'iIP."

of the house a little before dark, and
occasionally would show us a flight.
As time went on they became bolder
and one evening one ventured on to
the board while we were sitting near-
by and in a great hurry scampered ofif
with a nut. This was repeated a num-
ber of times, the little fellows coming
oftener and earlier. It was now get-
ting late in the fall and we had to
leave Kamp Knokik. A large stock of
nuts was left and, as the acorn yield
was plentiful, no apprehension was felt
for our guest's winter food supply.

You may imagine our pleasurable
surprise when, the following year, we
found both houses occupied. Nuts
were that evening placed on the boards.
In the morning they were gone. The
next evening a little furry head with
sharp ears and big eyes peeped out
just before dark and seemed to say,

them, came every evening just before
dark and partook of the feast spread
for them. To our intense gratification
they kept coming a little earlier, so that
just before "Kamp" breaking time ar-
rived, the little creatures entertained
us with fifteen or twenty minutes' flight
each evening. So the second summer
came to an end.

Large expectations were held for the
next year. The spring of 191 5 came,
and to Kamp we went, armed with a
big basketful of hazelnuts. The first
look was at the houses. The babies
were still there. A Lucullian feast
was spread for them, and to our amaze-
ment Baby poked his head out of his
doorway about a half hour before dark
and lost little time in examining his
supper. This he did by rushing to the
board, picking up a nut, quickly sitting
on his haunches, and taking two bites

HOW WE FOUND THE FLVIXC. SOllRRELS

345

out of the shell. The friendship now-
progressed rapidly. Our Babies came
earlier and we kept getting nearer and
nearer the boards, when they were
there. One evening one ran across my
shoe to reach his supper. Then we
tried to get them to take a nut from
our hand. This we did by sitting per-
fectly still, the hand resting on the
board with nuts in the palm. In a few
evenings they were eating out of our
hands. They came in broad daylight
and soon took the nuts from between
our fingers. From this on it was easy,
by leaving the boards empty and with
the nuts on the open hand, to coax
them to run over our person. One
evening one mistook my head for the
trunk of a tree and landed full and
square on the place Avhere "only the
hair ought to grow." Now. after
three years of patient effort, our Ba-
bies were fully tamed. There are four
of them.

There is nothing more charming
than to see these gentle creatures cast
themselves into space and in a long
curve sail hundreds of yards through
the air. When desiring to land, they
suddenly flip up the head, drop the
tail, and with a quick, graceful, upward
movement perch head upward on the
trunk of a tree. They are full of tricks
and play together much like puppies
or kittens, scratching and squealing
and chasing one another. Often one
steals the nut from the other's mouth.
One evening before sunset we heard a
great squealing outside the Kamp.
With the exclamation, "Something has
got the Baby!" we rushed out. only to
find his highness perched on his board
and calling for his supper. Another
evening, when all but the last nut had
been taken oft' the board, I saw one of
our Babies come down, get the nut and
run away. Suddenly he reappeared
and tried with all his might to push the
nut between the edge of the board and
the tree. His action was so unusual
that I examined the nut and found it
to be a pignut. The rascal evidently
desired to express his disapproval of
such food by promptly returning i^.
The accompanying flash-light photo-
graphs will show how tame our Babies
are. We can scarcely await the time
when we shall once more see them
poke their little heads out of the open-
ing of their houses at the shaking of a
handful of nuts.

TWO AT ONCE— GETTING WE[.L ACOUAINTHD.

Some Local Geology.

BY W. C. BANKS, STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT.

To trace the origin of our present land
surfaces, and the causes to which they are
due. is an interesting study. The expres-
sion, "the everlasting hills," is a convinc-
ing figure of speech, only, unfortunately,
it is far from being true. All our present
surface features are the result of a long
series of changes, reaching back in time
to an original molten state of the rocks.
However, we need not go quite so far
back, but accepting the present rock
masses as an origin, we will try to deter-
mine through what causes and processes
of sculpturing our landscape has attained
its present aspect. Its most noticeable
feature is the strongly marked north and
south trend of our hills and valleys. This
is due to the fact that during the Glacial
Period the course of the continental ice
sheet was northwest and southeast ; the
drainage too before this time was approx-
imately in the same direction, toward the
ocean, so that the hills and valleys have,
in general, the same trend. The result
was that the ice ploughed out the preex-
isting valleys, and filled and rounded the
irregularities of the hills in the same gen-

346

THE 01'] DE TO NATURE

eral direction. An examination of the
structure of our local hills shows that
thejf are made up of rock masses more or
less rounded and modified by glacial
action, together with enormous masses
of boulder clay or till — the ground
moraine of the ancient ice sheet. Some
of our hills are largely formed of such
derived materials. An artesian well at
Noroton Heights, not far from the Stam-
ford boundary, passed through one hun-
dred and thirty-seven feet of boulder clay
and, at the bottom, through gravel, ap-
parently river gravel , before entering
rock. This, perhaps, was anciently a river
valley, filled and obliterated by the glacial
ice. It would be difficult to reconstruct
in fancy a picture of this region before
its burial beneath the ice, but our hills
and valleys modified and changed, as they
undoubtedly have been, are strongly
marked, and for the most part are ancient
features.

The original drainage direction was
determined by the general slope of the
land toward the ocean, and while it was
probably always approximately as it is
at present, we should remember that some
thousands of feet of rock have been re-
moved from the svirface since first the
waters began to flow from our highlands
toward the sea. The original elevation
probably dates from the Taconic Revo-
lution, at the close of the Ordovician Era,
when the Atlantic border of America was
first elevated above the waters as a long
range of hills. This region also probably
shared in the later elevation at the close
of Paleozoic time, when the Appalachian
Mountains were upheaved from the sea.
It may since have been more than once
submerged, but the absence of stratified
drift makes this doubtful. The modified
drift is of Champlain age, and extends
in a level belt along the shore at a height
of twenty feet or less above high water
mark. The level plain on which the busi-
ness part of Stamford is built, and ex-
tending to the hills, is an instance. This is
an offshore deposit of reassorted boulder
clays and detritus, borne seaward by the
flood waters of the retreating ice sheet.
The surface features of a region are deter-
mined by the nature of the underlying
rock. A soft, yielding rock gives smooth
contours, in striking contrast to the rug-
ged character of the scenery in a country
of trap rock or granite. Our native rock
about southern Stamford and the con-
tiguous territory east and west is mostly

a dark granite, altered by regional meta-
morphism into a banded granite gneiss.
Out side of this particular locality, it is
found widely distributed over Fairfield
County, and is everywhere porphyritic in
character, the feldspar being in distinct
crystals, and g'iving the rock a more or
less spotted appearance. This formation
is largely penetrated by dykes of diorite
trap rock. This is, or was, well shown
near the canal on Henry Street, Stam-
ford. This dike was originally a quartz
diorite. but. sharing in the regional meta-
morphism that altered the surrounding
granite, it has a more or less banded ap-
pearance, so that it is more properly a
diorite gneiss.

Many years ago this locality furnished
some good specimens of epidote that
occurred in a large "pocket" at the con-
tact of the diorite and granite gneiss.
This dark granite gneiss, because of its
jointed structure, produces a character-
istic type of landscape, with rugged hil-
locks and angular masses of dark rock.
From Westcott's Cove north through the
basin occupied by Holly's Pond, we find
another granite gneiss formation. This
is more massive in structure and lighter
in color than the other. It shows many
masses of the coarse grained granite of
the type called pegmatite. Across the
northern parts of the townships of Stam-
ford and Greenwich we find the Berk-
shire schist. This was originally sedi-
mentary rock of Ordovician age, a
sediment deposited when the greater part
of the continent was submerged beneath
the ocean. r)Ut the process of metamor-
phism attending the extensive crumpling
and upheaval of the Taconic Revolution
has altered it to a highly crystalline
schist, and destroyed all trace of any fos-
sils that it may have contained. Beside
the native rock, the surface is everywhere
strewn with rock material of foreign,
origin, borne along by the ancient ice
sheet — granite, quartzite, amphibolite,
and what not. making every stone w^all a
litholoffical museum-

The familiar fact that a pine forest
killed bv fire is followed by hard wood,
has had many attempted explanations.
The latest suggestion is that the ash
from the burned wood makes the soil
alkaline, the pine preferring a more
acid condition. But after a few years,
the potash leaches out, and the pines
start asrain.

RHODODRXDROX FALLS IX THE ^lol'XTALXS

347

Rhododendron Falls in the Mountains.

BY JAMES D. BURTON, OAKDALE, TENNES-
SEE, FIELD WORKER, AMERICAN HUMANE
EDUCATION SOCIETY-

Rhododendron Falls are located in
the mountains at Oakdale, Tennessee,
and belong to a residence known as
"Brookcroft."

The falls are named after the beauti-
ful flower rhododendron which line the
banks of this stream in summer. About
the cliffs and hills surrounding this

it could be made worth very nnich in
any way.

A wonderful transformation has tak-
en place. The grounds have been
cleared, and a bimgalow erected which
is called "Brookcroft." The rhodo-
dendron, holly, hemlock, dogwood, and
many other varieties of trees have been
trimmed* and improved. The winding
mountain stream almost encircles
"Brookcroft" as it makes its way
around rugged and high cliffs, and
gives a beautiful setting to the ]ilace

"BROOKCROFT" AT OAKDALE, TENNESSLl

place may also be found in early spring,
hidden imder fallen leaves, the trailing
arbutus, sweet and fragrant.

Until about a year ago this was an
isolated and neglected mountain ra-
vine. It was almost inaccessible be-
cause of no road. But ^Morgan County,
through a three hundred thousand dol-
lar bond issue, has just completed a
new pike road through this mountain
ravine, and connects with the Dixie
Highway from Chicago to Miami, Flor-
ida. About the time the engineer lo-
cated this road the writer acquired this
property, consisting of about twenty
acres. The citizens here didn't think

Near "Brookcroft" are a trio of
springs which are enclosed in a rustic
springhouse. The creek runs between
the bungalow and the springs, and over
this stream is erected a rustic foot-
bridge.

This is the home of the Field Work-
er of the American Humane Fducation
Society. Until a few years ago he was
the General Secretary of the Railroad
Young Allen's Christian Association of
Oakdale.

Oakdale is a railroad terminal on the
Cincinnati Southern Railroad, extend-
ing through the mountains from Cin-
cinnati to Chattanooga, Tennessee. It

THE GflDE TO XATL'RE

RHODODENDRON FALLS, OAKDALE, TENNESSEE.

is the only municipal owned railroad
in the United States. Railroad em-
ployees, numbering several hundred,
make Oakdale a lay-over point on this
system. The town has about 3,000 in-
habitants.

Since the opening of the grounds
about Rhododendron Falls it is a very
popular place for the railroad men and
their families, and for the mountain
people residing nearby. Several pic-
nics have been held on the grounds.

A bathhouse has been built at Rho-
dodendron Falls, and a number go in
swimming in the clear pool at the foot
of the falls. Provision has been made
for the public to get drinking water at
the rustic springs belonging to "Brook-
croft."

The owner is trying to make the
place one of enjoyment and pleasure to
all who visit it. The children espec-
ially enjoy the outings about this place.

Some of the needs at present are
about 1,200 feet of two-inch piping to
bring water from the falls to a foun-
tain near the roadside, and a few^ bush-
els of grass seed to sow on the grounds
about Rhododendron Falls in order to
make a pleasant retreat for the children
on their outings.

Public subscriptions will probably
be started to make this possible before
any great while. This is one way of
helping the little mountaineers of the
South to enjoy themselves, and to de-
velop strong. Christian characters.

The Aquarium Society of Washington,
D. C.

Nature students in general and those
of the District of Columbia in particular,
will be glad to learn that the Washington
Aquarium Society has recently been
formed under the most favorable condi-
tions possible, thus .giving every promise
of a successful future. Dr- R. W. Shu-
feldt of the Medical Corps of the Army
has been elected the society's active presi-
dent, and we are sure that he will be as
active and enthusiastic in this work
as he has been for many years in a
multiplicity of other scentific pursuits.
Those interested in the aquarium may
correspond with him at 3356 Eigh-
teenth Street, Washington, D. C, for
circulars and further particulars of this
new orgranization.

Studies at the British Museum of
Natural History made on great num-
bers of flies sent in from all parts of
the country prove that, there at least,
what most persons suppose to be the
adult housefly hibernating through the
winter is really nothing of the kind.
The house fly, it appears, and the blue-
bottle as w^ell, pass the cold season as
pupae. What is taken for the adult
house fly proves to be another animal,
an out-door insect, which comes into
houses only to hibernate. Evidently
our "swat the fly" campaign needs
more basis of fact.

LTMXG IN THE COUNTRY

349

Living in the Country.

Each year finds a greater number of
people in America erecting homes in
the country. They are beginning to
Hve in the golden today rather than
in the past, or in the future. They
have come to the realization that iu
the country, and only in the country is
found the simple beauty of nature with
her fragrance, her color, her atmos-
phere of peace, her silent inspiration in
all her myriad forms. And she will
gently find her way into the very soul
of the dweller in the country, and
through this communion he will be
re-created, re-inspired, and re-strength-
ened.— "The Hoggson Magazine."

thrifty management let out to local
sportsmen the right to hunt them and
thus turned a penny toward the funds.
The Herbivora have fared better; but
hay is so scarce that they have to live
on wild chestnuts.

With few institutions is the war
playing sadder havoc than with the
Zoological Gardens. At Budapest
they have ptit the lions on short ra-
tions, and even then have had to feed
them on the least valuable of the sheep
and goats. The seals have had to be
killed for lack of fish. The polar bears
have met the same fate, except that a

Natural Steam Caves.

BY H. li. ZIMMER.MAX, MT. MORRIS, ILL.

In southern California are to be
fotnid the most wonderful steain caves
in the world. They are in the vicinity
of the well known arrow-head on the
mountain side, on the east side of the
Waterman Canyon. They are artifi-
cially formed and consist of tunnels cut
into the blufif from the sides, roofs and
floors, from which the arsenicated
steam issues. The temperature of tliis
steam is 202, the next hottest springs
in the world being at Carlsbad, Ger-
many, 164 degrees. Some idea of the
heat of these springs may be gathered
from the fact that eggs can be nicely
boiled in this water in from, three to
five minutes.

STEAM COMING FROM CAVES.

350

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

All communications for this department
should be sent to the Department Editor,
Mr. Harry G. Higbee, 13 Austin Street,
Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Items, articles
and photographs in this department not
otherwise credited are by the Department
Editor.

A Friend of the Birds.

OUR VISIT TO THK CLOL'CKSTKK HIvKMlT.

It is now more than thirty-one years
since Mason A. Walton came to the
rocky shores of Cape Aim and pitched
his tent on a high promontory overlook-
ing the Gloucester harbor. This site,
which he called "The Eyrie." was on the
outskirts of the settlement and near the
edge of the twelve-thousand acre tract
of woodland which then comprised the
western part of the city of Gloucester,
Massachusetts. Since that time Mr.
Walton has lived the life of a hermit, and
has become widelv known throutih maga-

zine writings and his book entitled "A
Hermit's Wild Friends."

His present cabin is not far removed
from "The Eyrie," although it is snugly
sheltered among the pines, while about
the (looryard and upon the trees nearby
are numerous boxes and feeding devices
for the shelter and accommodation of his
"wild friends," the birds and squirrels.

One cold winter's day — the third of
March, 1916 — while the ground was
deeply covered with snow, we made a
visit to this little cabin in the woods,
finding it a walk of about three-quarters
of a mile from Western Avenue, on the
old, abandoned Salem Road. As we ap-
])roached the cabin we noticed a dozen or
more chickadees, a tree sparrow and a
small fiock of j uncos feeding about in
front of the entrance-

We were cordially received by Mr.
Walton, who talked freely of his expe-

THE HERMIT'S CABIN "SNUGLY SHELTERED AMONG THE PINES.

(mNITHOLOGY

351

■'SHOWED TIIKIR CONFIDENCE FEEDING FR()M HIS HAND."

riences among' the birds of the vicinity,
and gave some interesting" anecdotes in
connection with his observations of their
habits. He stated that "Wabbles," a cer-

CHICKADEES IN THE HERMIT'S CABIN.

tain song- sparrow mentioned in his book,
v^^hich he found in his dooryard more
than twenty-five years ago, was still alive
and about his old haunts during the past
season-
While we ate our lunch in the hermit's

cabin, he opened the door ; placed a table
near the entrance, within the room, and
sprinkling upon it a handful of hempseed,
called to the chickadees, wdiich almost
immediately responded. They alighted
readily upon the table and carried ofif the
hemp, taking sometimes one and some-
times two of the large seeds in their little
l)ills. There was usually but one bird on
the table at a time, while the others

W.MTNC. FOR A.\ 1 .\ \ IIWTM )X.

352

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

waited just outside the door, although
one of these would frequently dart in and
drive away the feeding hird, usurping its
place at the seed. On several occasions
we noted two, and in one instance three,
of these birds within the cabin at the
same time, and they seemed not at all
alarmed or disturbed by our presence a
few feet away.

Mr. Walton then sat upon the edge of
his chair near the open door, and holding
out some seed, again called to the chick-
adees, a number of which showed their
confidence by alighting upon and feeding
from his hand. Several others and a tree
sparrow were meanwhile busy at a
doughnut and other food just outside
upon the ground, while a number were
also feeding upon the pieces of suet sus-
pended from a long pole between two
trees in the dooryard.

When the hermit first came to Glouces-
ter he was in exceedingly poor health,
but has been completely restored by his
life in the woods, and is now hale and
hearty. He is a man of education and
considerable experience, and a firm be-
liever in animal intelligence. While
ornithologists generally do not agree
with Mr. Walton in many of his views,
his long life among the wild creatures
must be considered and he may have seen
many unusual incidents pertaining to
their lives not elsewhere recorded. ^^ e
have found his book delightful reading
and would recommend it to all interested
in wild life.

These bird friends, with others in their
season, bring a great deal of pleasure to
the hermit in his solitary cabin, and our
trip was a happy reminder of the remark-
able confidence which may be won from
our feathered guests, with kindly treat-
ment and a little effort to attract them by
offering food and shelter.

and while it was preserved for awhile ,it
was unfortunately destroyed by mistake
before it could be sent to this depart-
ment to be inspected and photographed.
A short piece of rusty, twisted wire,
about the size of that used for paper
clips was sent us as a sample of the nest-
ing material. The nest is described as
rough and scraggly, with little or no
attempt at weaving the material together,
but concave sufficiently to hold the eggs.
This is indeed a curious nest, and the
reason for using such material seems one
of those vagaries of bird life for which
we cannot account.

Wren's Nest Built of Wire.

Mr. Henry F. Xorcross, of P.ridgeport
Connecticut, writes of a nest of a house
wren, which was built in a tomato can
attached to a tree on the farm of Mr.
Wells W. Lewis of Munroe. and com-
posed entirely of wire. Clarence An-
drews, the lad who made the nesting box,
which was covered with birch bark, knew
nothing of its contents until the matter
was called to his attention. For some
unknown reason the nest was apparentlv
deserted when it contained but one egg.

Brush Hill Bird Club Report.

The first report of the Brush Hill Bird
Club of Milton, Massachusetts, describes
a very complete exhibit held by that club
in the public library and should be found
useful to other organizations contem-
plating such exhibits. Much valuable in-
formation is also given regarding state
and federal laws relating to the birds, a
map of the state bird reservations, and
numerous lists and references of value.

This report contains one hundred and
twenty-three pages and several half-tone
illustrations and should be of interest to
l:)ird-lovers generally, especially those
ha\'ing to do with the organization of
Inrd clubs.

A few copies may still be obtained by
application to the general manager, Dr.
Harris Kennedy, Readville, Massachu-
setts, at fifty cents per copy. — H- G. H-

"The Bluebird," formerly published by
Eugene Swope, is now issued under the
auspices of The Cleveland Bird Lovers
association, with Mrs. Elizabeth C- T-
Miller of Cleveland, Ohio, as owner and
editor. Interesting articles bv Dr. R. W.
Shufeldt of \\'ashmgton, T. Gilbert Pier-
son and Winthrop Packard of the Na-
tional Association of Audobon Societies
and others make up an attractive number
of this little magazine for januarv.

Twenty-eight species of birds are
known to feed upon the cotton boll wee-
vil, which destroys such an immense
amount every year in our southern agri-
culture. This is only one instance of the
great value of birds in economics, and
the more thev are studied the more use-
ful th.ev are found to be.

ORXlTliOLOGV

353

Is It Unwise to Feed the Birds?

BY THE REVEREND MANLEY B. TOWNSEND,
SECRETARY AUDUBON SOCIETY OE NEW
HAMPSHIRE, NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Frequently someone with more zeal
than knowledge denounces the winter
feeding of the birds as unnecessary and
economically unwise. Such an attitude
is a good illustration of the old saying,

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'THERE WAS A LITTLE DOWNY WOODPECKER

AT HIS THANKSGIVING DINNER."

Photograph by Mr. Harry G. Higbee.

".V little knowledge is a dangerous
thing." The latest manifesto along this
line is by a Kansas professor, who de-
clares that feeding the birds has a ten-
dency to diminish their usefulness as
destroyers of insect eggs, pupae and
hibernating adults, as it removes the
necessity that is supposed to keep the
birds hustling. It would seem that
there might be something in this reas-
oning, but what are the facts? Birds
prefer their natural food. Where they
can get that in sufficient quantities
they do not care for food that we give
them. This is proved conclusively by
the fact that only winter feeding proves
successful. When spring comes, the
birds leave our food, no matter how
attractive it may be. Only dire neces-
sity drives them to our feeding sta-
tions.

During the winter many birds have
difficulty in finding sufficient food.
Search as they may, the natural su])-
ply is inadequate. The spark of life
burns low and, alas ! too often flickers
out. With a full stomach a bird can
bid defiance to an}- weather. With fuel
under the boiler, sufficient steam is

generated to keep the machinery run-
ning. Food placed out for the birds
may save many a little life by provid-
ing just the necessary additional fuel
needed to keep up the steam. The first
sharp edge of hunger blunted, the bird
will pay for his dinner by searching the
trees in the vicnity and destroying all
the insects that he can find, for he al-
ways prefers his natural food. It pays,
in dollars and cents, to feed the birds.
Every orchard should at regular inter-
vals have suet fastened to the trees, as
well as bird boxes for nesting pur-
])Oses.

There is pleasure in watching the
feeding birds — their beautiful colors,
their graceful movements, their engag-
ing ways, to say nothing of gaining
their confidence and perhaps persuad-
ing them to light upon us and take
food from our hands. There is a joy
in such companionship, a deep satis-
faction in ministering to a dependent
life.

On Thanksgiving Day, as I sat down
to dinner, I glanced out of the window
into the apple tree. There was a little
downy woodpecker at his Thanksgiv-
ing dinner of suet (we both had suet
pudding that day) and my heart was
the lighter and my Thanksgiving the
brighter becatise I had a tiny feathered
guest to enjoy my bounty. Try it for
vourself and see if this is not so.

The Birds of Connecticut.

Bulletin 20 of the State Geological and
Xatural Hi.story Survey, issued by the
State Library at Hartford, and entitled
"The Birds of Connecticut," is a three
hundred and seventy page book by John
H. Sage, Secretary of the American
Ornithologists Union, Dr. Louis B.
Bishop, and Walter P. Bliss, M. A. An
annotated list of the appearance of the
birds makes up the first part of the vol-
ume, the second part being devoted to
economic ornithology' under the editor-
ship of Dr. Bishop. There is also a valu-
able bibliographv in connection with the
work— H. O. H.'

A new study by the Danish natural-
ist, H. Blegvad. shows that the chief
food of the creatures that live on the
sea floor is the fragments of dead or
dying animals and plants that drop
down on them from above. Next to
this in imjiortance come the growing
plants of the ocean.

354

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

An Unusual Set of Eggs of the Least
Tern.

BY DR. R. W. SliUFlvLDT, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Not long ago in going over the cele-
brated collection of North American and
Australian birds' eggs belonging to Mr.
E. J. Court, of Washington, D. C, the
owner called my attention to a remark-

the one in the upper left hand corner is
the same Qgg as the one in the lower left
hand corner — and so on for the middle
and the last one in the row. The mark-
ings on one side of any one of these eggs
three in the upper row are repeated in the
same sequence in the lower row, so that
as they are shown in the upper row are
bv no means abundant; but when we

AN UNUSUAL SET OF EGGS OF THE LEAST TERN.

able set of eggs of the Least Tern, and
very generously loaned me the clutch for
the purpose of photograph}- and descrip-
tion.

Mr. Court collected this set himself on
the sixth of June, 1914, at Deep Point,
St. George's Island, Maryland. There
was no nest, and the full complement of
eggs was three, as shown in my photo-
graph illustrating the present article. At
the time he was there, a colony of seven-
tv-five pairs of these birds was breeding
on the same area, which is a part of
Maryland I have never personally visited.

These eggs are of a pale creamy white,
with markings, as shown in the cut, of
blackish brown — almost black in some
places ; there are also scattered spots of
pale drab or gray. My photograph shows
each of these eggs on two views. The

come to turn the eggs over it will be
observed that each and all of them exhibit
a big blotch on the reverse side, and of a
pattern shown in the illustration.

Perhaps the most extraordinary appear-
ing egg of this set is the one in the mid-
dle of the two rows. On one side it ex-
hibits but a few and small scattered spots
as markings, while on its other side these
spots are still smaller, but to these we
find added a great, square, central patch
of a deep blackish brown, which gives the
egg a very extraordinary appearance.

I will be interested to know whether
any other collector of birds' eggs in this
country has ever come across a set of the
Least Tern's eggs in any way approach-
ing this one in the matter of peculiar
markings ; it so, I should very much like
to hear of it.

ORXITHOLOGY

355

Bird Movies.
Mr. Herbert K. Job, of New Haven,
Connecticut, Ornithologist of the Na-
tional Association of Audobon Societies,
spoke February 24 at the McKniley
Manual Training School at Washing-
ton, D. C, under the auspices of the
Audubon Society of the District of Co-
lumbia, and showed four reels of mo-
tion pictures taken by himself portray-
ing wonderful scenes of wild bird life.
United States Senator George P. Mc-
Lean, of Connecticut and his Secretary,
W. H. Sault, were in the audience and
the Senator was enabled to see himself
as others see him. In other words, he
was in the pictures as a "Movie Star."

One reel of the pictures was of wild
ducks and geese on the great wild life
reftige of Louisiana taken on a trip
early this winter in which Senator Mc-
Lean was a party. Their present abun-
dance is largely due to the McLean
Federal Law protecting migratory
birds, of Avhich Senator McLean was
the author and father. Mr. Job and
Mr. Pearson, Secretary of the National
Audubon Societies, invited him to go
on this trip to see for himself the re-
sults of his law.

These preserves include some 335.-
000 acres extending over 75 miles of
coast line and wild ducks and geese by
scores of thousands spend the winter
in security here. The policy oF estab-
lishing these reservations was begun
by the National Audubon Society, and
the McLean Law comes in as a mighty
ally for the success of the whole move-
ment. These Audubon films are to be
shown all over the country by arrange-
ment with the various film companies
to promote the work of the Atidubon
Societies, and to interest the public in
Avild birds and game and their proper
conservation.

suggestions as to its proper control.

As a summary of the immense amount
of material gathered from wide sources
in the preparation of this report some
very significant facts are brought out re-
garding the bird-catching habits of cats,
and it would seem high time that some
legal preventive measures were taken in
this matter.

This bulletin, which contains one hun-
dred and twelve pages and is well illus-
trated, should be in the hands of not only
every lover of birds I)ut every owner of
cats.— H. G. H. •

The Domestic Cat.

ECONOMIC BIOLOGY BULLETIN NO- 2.

An exhaustive report with the above
title has just been issued by the Massa-
chusetts State Board of Agriculture,
under the direction of Edward Howe
Forbush. State Ornithologist- It con-
tains a history of the cat from its earliest
known records ; its usefulness to man
and place in the home ; its economic value
in suppressing noxious rodents and its
importance as a destroyer of useful birds
in this and other countries, with some

A Snowbird Enjoyed a Visit within a
Home.

Flemington. New Jersey.
To the Editor :

Monday night, a bird which I do not
identify, but which we call, together
with several others, snowbirds (j uncos)
wanted to get in the house. He tried
for an hour or more and finally I let
him in. He seemed to be perfectly at
home in the house and next morning
I let him out. Is not this unusual ?
Yours truly,

Hiram E. Beats.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

I have never personally known of
such an instance. Perhaps some of our
readers have had a similar experience.
Birds seek all sorts of places for shelter
in severe weather and under certain
conditions, but not knowing either in
this instance, w'e can give no light on
the subject. — H. G. H.

One should sleep alone. Then the
body is equally warmed and equally
exposed on all sides. To sleep next to
another person, the body is unduly
w^armed on one side, while it is exposed
on the other side, which slightly de-
ranges the action of the entire nervous
system. — "The Columbus Medical
Journal," Columbus, Ohio.

We are apt to think of the crinoids,
or sea lilies, only as fossil creatures. A
recent monograph of the United States
National Museum, however, shows that
they are by no means imcommon on the
floor of modern oceans. In fact, the
world over, they are about as abundant,
both in species and individuals, as are
their near relatives the starfish and the
sea urchins.

356

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

THE HEAVENS IN APRIL.

Two New Comets. How Comets Are
Captured. The April Shooting Stars.
Mars Still In Excellent Position for
Observation.

BY PROFESSOR ERIC DOOLlTTLE OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

The most striking of our evening
constellations is now the beautiful
group, Leo, which shines almost ex-
actly on the meridian in the south.

stretches two-thirds of the way across
the southern heavens, bearing the Cup
and the Crow on its back.

The observer who is familiar with
the brighter constellations will find it
most interesting to trace out the
Lesser Lion, which is made up of all
the faint stars lying between Leo and
the paws of the Bear, at E and F,
Figure i. And to the west of this he
will find the equally faint Lynx, a
quite extended group including all
stars from Leo Elinor to the region H.

)RTH

SCSUTt

Figure I. The Constellations at 9 P. M., April 1. (If facing south, hold the
map upright. If facing east, hold East below. If facing west, hold West below. If
facing north, hold the map inverted).

Above this, we find the whole region
about the zenith covered by the Great
Bear which has now attained its high-
est position in the heavens, while
below Leo the verv long Water Snake

Figure i. This constellation is. quite re-
markable for the large number of
double stars which it contains ; there
are no less than fifty of these which
are visible in a quite small telescope.

TO KXOW THE STARRY HEAVEXS

357

The star at K, for example, is made up
of two beautiful suns, three seconds
apart, of which the larger is greenish-
white and the fainter one blue. A some-
what similar beautiful double pair is
in Leo at L, while the brilliant Regu-
lus has a deep blue companion, one
minute away, which is itself a double

^ ?{: ^ :^ ;}:

The April Stars.

To the east of Leo, there is the very
large summer group \^irgo, which for
the first time this year is seen to have
completely entered the evening sky.
The beautiful Spica is the most strik-
ing object of this constellation. This
remarkable star is now known to be
revolving about a dark and unseen
companion with a speed of fifty-six
miles a second. It thus passes com-
pletely around its orbit, which is six
millions of miles in diameter, in the
course of only four days. The system
is very like that of the well-known
Algol, at M, Figure i, but the path of
Spica lies in such a position that we
never see the dark companion pass
between the bright star and us, and so
cut ofif its light, as so frequently hap-
pens with Algol. It is in the region,
N, of this constellation that there are
found more of these wonderful shin-
ing clouds called Nebulas than in any
other equal area of the sky.

North of Virgo the observer will at
once notice the great golden star,
Arcturus. This is at the foot of
Bootes, the Driver, who with up-
stretched arms is forever driving the
Bear before him in its ceaseless jour-
ney around the Pole. And below
Bootes is the beautiful Northern
Crown, while still nearer the ground
there has now fully appeared the
group Hercules, with its wonderful
cluster of sixty thousand stars, at R.
In short, the whole southern and east-
ern heavens are so crowded with ob-
jects of interest, that we need not regret
the withdrawal of the brighter winter
stars, which is now proceeding so rap-
idly in the west.

;|5 jjs ^ ;is >}:

A New Periodic Comet.

There are two new comets in our
northern heavens, both of which are
extremely faint objects and only visi-
ble in larger telescopes. Nevertheless
the first of these is of great interest be-
cause it has been found to be following

so very small an orbit around the sun
that it is destined to continually re-
appear in our heavens in the years to
come. Many most interesting specu-
lations arise from a study of these
periodic comets, especially when they
move in paths so small that they may

Figure

The path of the new comet about the sun.

be observed from the earth during a
great part of their motion.

The path of the new periodic comet
is shown in Figure i. It was discov-
ered at the Cape of Good Hope on last
December 2, at which time it was very
near the western end of the Belt of
Orion. Its apparent motion carried it,
first through Taurus, and then into
Gemini ; during the present month it
will move from the latter constellation
into the faint group of stars known as
the Lynx.

When a new comet is thus found
moving among the stars, it is only
necessary to determine accurately its
position on three dififerent nights ; know-
ing these three positions the mathe-
matician can compute its exact path
in space and tell where it Avas to be
found in the heavens at any desired
date, either in the past or in the
future. Nearly all comets fall toward
our sun from an immense distance
away, swing around that body, and
recede into space never to be seen by
us again. The paths of such comets is
a curve called a parabola, which close-
ly resembles the curve MPN, Figure 2.

The long computation necessary to
find how a comet is moving is much
shortened if we assume in the begin-

358

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

ning that its path is a curve of this
kind. Continued observations on the
present comet soon showed, however,
that its motion could by no means be
accounted for on the assumption of
such an infinite path. A complete com-
putation soon revealed that its orbit
is a very small and narrow ellipse, AC,
extending; from bevond the earth's

later planetary disturbances have since
altered this path to the position BC.

Computation shows that the new
comet passed close to Jupiter in 1913.
The pull upon it by the Giant Planet
at this time must have very greatly
altered its path, changing it into the
new, small orbit along which it is mov-
ing now. Whether before this disturb-

Figiire 3. Showirg how a comet may be "captured."

orbit to a very slight distance beyond
the orbit of Jupiter. The comet passes
completely around this path every six
years ; it was nearest the sun on last
January 30; and is now rapidly draw-
ing away from the earth.

How the New Comet Was Captured.

A comet is a great nebulous cloud,
composed of meteoric matter, gases,
and cosmic dust, which falls toward
our sun from the depths of space. It
is therefore a visitor, and it can visit
us only once unless it is disturbed in
its motion. If, however, it happens to
pass sufificiently near one of the plan-
ets, the gravitational pull of this body
may completely alter its path, and may
either send it out of our Solar System
faster than it entered, or it may cause
it to move in a closed orbit and thus
prevent its ever leaving us again.
Thus, when Tuttle's Comet first fell
toward the sun, along the path MPN,
Figure 3, it passed so near to Uranus
that the disturbing pull of this planet
caused it to follow the path AC, and

ance its path was a parabola, so that
it entered our system only three years
ago, or whether it is merely one of the
older periodic comets whose path has
thus been changed, we do not yet
know. Further computations will un-
doubtedly, however, soon settle this
point.

The continued observation of these
periodic comets at their successive re-
turns is of the highest interest and
value. In at least one case, that of
Encke's Comet, the motion was found
to be disturbed along part of its orbit,
a disturbance which cannot be due to
the pull of any known body in our
Solar System.

The April Shooting Stars.

This is one of the few conspicuous
showers of the year, and though not so
well known or so numerous in stars
as those of August and November, it
is still a most interesting phenomenon
for the naked eye observer. It should
be looked for on the nights from April
20 to 22, and if possible at a late hour

TO K.\( )\\' THE STARRY HEAVENS

359

of the evening; it cannot, indeed, be
seen to the best advantag-e until after
midnight.

If the observer will face the north-
east and patiently watch the region of
the sky near the constellation Lyra,
he will at intervals see a white, swiftly
moving star dart outward from near
the point D, Figure i, and move in any
direction across the sky. The later the
hour of the night the higher this region
will have risen from the ground, and
the more satisfactory the observation
will be. It is unfortunate that on these
dates the moon will be shining in the
eastern heavens and that it is but little
past full. This will make the observa-
tion of the fainter shooting stars of the
shower difficult or even impossible.

This shower of so-called shooting
"stars" is caused by the passing of our
earth through a great stream of me-
teoric particles which are moving
around the sun in the path MPN,
Figure 2. This is the path followed
by the comet of 1861. The great stream
is probably only the remains of this
comet, which has been stretched out
along its path by the tidal action of
the sun.

Very probably this same action is
gradually destroying all periodic com-
ets, or rather, it is changing them from
compact clouds into long streams of
material. It may be mentioned, how-
ever, that when the new comet is thus
drawn out along its path it will give
rise to no additional shower, for our
earth does not pass through the orbit
of this comet. The orbit, (AC, Figure
2) is inclined to the plane of the orbit
of the earth by an angle of more than
fifteen degrees.

The Planets in April.

Mercury cannot be observed during
the present month. At the beginning
of April it is in the morning sky. and
though it passes to the east of the
sun on April 14, it will not reach its
greatest distance and so emerge from
the sun's rays until May 12.

Venus, the most beautiful and con-
spicuous object now in the heavens,
cannot fail throughout the present
month to attract the attention of every
observer. It will attain its greatest
distance east of the sun on April 24,
and though a most brilliant object
then, it will continue to grow brighter
until May 27. In the telescope the

planet is now seen to be very slightly
more than half full.

The path of Venus among the stars
during the coming months is shown in
Figure i. While on the whole it moves
eastward among the stars, an interest-
ing fold occurs in the path during June.
On account of this, Venus, will pass
Saturn three times ; namely, on May
23, June 22, and September 6. The
first and last of these will be interest-
ing conjunctions, at the time of the
second one the planets will be too
nearly lost in the sun's rays to be ob-
served with advantage.

Mars is still in excellent position for
observation, but it is steadily receding
from the earth. Its distance from us
will increase from eighty-six millions
to one hundred and ten millions of
miles during the present month, and
it will therefore appear to grow con-
tinually smaller and fainter. The polar
caps and larger markings, can, how-
ever, still be well seen.

Jupiter enters the morning sky on
April I, and throughout the month re-
mains too near the sun to be well
observed.

Saturn is near the center of the con-
stellation Gemini, in excellent posi-
tion for observation.

That our weeds and wild plants are so
largely foreign species is said to be the
reason that this part of the American
continent was formerly forest-clad. The
old plants, therefore, do not flourish
in the present day conditions, and their
place is taken by European plants from
imforested districts.

They'll come again to the apple tree,

Robin and all the rest.
When the orchard branches are fair to see

In the snow of the blossoms dressed;
And the prettiest thing in the world will be

The building of the nest.

— Margaret E. Sangster.

Redbud.

Pink fairies are peopling the sweet April
woods.
They flit in and out 'mong the trees;
Or so it wfould seem as we'er motoring by,
And surprise them in sunlight and breeze,
breeze.

They are holding high carnival now while
they may.
Awaiting their fair woodland queen,
Who soon will be reigning in billowy white
In the fresh forest fastnesses green.

— Emma Peirce.

36o

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

EDITORIAL

Let Us Be Thorough.

Our readers will recall that delightful
story ("Great Expectations") by Dick-
ens, in which Joe and Pip engage in the
delights of correspondence. Pip, sitting
in the chimney corner with his slate, ex-
pended much effort on a letter to Joe in
the opposite corner. He had an alphabet
on the hearth at his feet for reference,
and after laboring for an hour or two he
printed an epistle of about four lines in
which "caps" and "small caps" were de-
lightfully and impartially mingled. Pip
delivered the slate to Joe, who received it,
Dickens tells us, "as a miracle of erudi-
tion." Then occurred the following
dialogue :

" T say, Pip, old chap!' cried Joe, open-
ing his blue eyes wide, 'what a scholar
you are ! Ain't you ?'

" T should like to be,' said I. glancing
at the slate as he held it : with a misgiving
that the writing was rather hilly.

" 'Why, here's a J,' said Joe, 'and a O
equal to anythink ! Here's a J and a O,
Pip, and a J-O, Joe.'

"I had never heard Joe read aloud to
any greater extent than this monosyllable,
and I had observed at church last Sunday,
when I accidentally held our Prayer-
book upside down, that it seemed to suit
his convenience quite as well as if it had
been all right. Wishing to embrace the
present occasion of finding out whether
in teaching Joe, I should have to begin
quite at the beginning, I said, 'Ah ! But
read the rest, Joe.'

" 'The rest, eh, Pip?' said Joe, looking
at it with a slowly searching eye. 'One,
two, three. Why, here's three Js, and
three Os, and three J-O, Joes, in it, Pip !'

"I leaned over Joe, and, with the aid
of my forefinger, read him the whole
letter.

" 'Astonishing !' said Joe, when I had
finished. 'You ARE a scholar.'

"'How do you spell Gargery, Joe?' I
asked him, with a modest oatronage.

" 'I don't spell it at all.' said Joe.

" 'But supposing you did?'

" 'It can't be supposed,' said Joe. 'Tho'
I'm oncommon fond of reading, too.'

" 'Are you, Joe?'

" 'On-common. Give me,' said Joe, 'a
good book, or a good newspaper, and sit
me down afore a good fire, and I ask no
better. Lord !' he continued, after rub-
bing his knees a little, 'when you do come
to a J and a O, and says you, "Here, at
last, is a J-O, Joe," how interesting read-
ing is !' "

*****

What would one say if literature were
taught in our schools only to that extent ?
What kind of appreciation would there
be in the present deluge of books and
magazines, if we were to go no further
in our reading than to say, "J-O, Joe,
how interesting reading is!" Yet the
painful part is, that Joe's method of read-
ing is not altogether a paraphrase ; it is
too often a sad reality.

Some modern methods of reading
nature, are on a parity with Joe's method
of reading Pip's letter. We have trouble
in interesting people generally in nature,
l)ecause the subject in general, notwith-
standing the earnest efforts of some mem-
bers of our Association, is not properly
understood. We find, from remarks
made by visitors at ArcAdiA, that the
true method of studying nature is not un-
derstood in the slightest degree nor even
dreamed of. We do not believe, and do
not teach, that everyone must spend, as
I have known a student to spend years
in studying earthworms, and half a dozen
years in studying a bumblebee cut into
thin slices. It is necessary to progress
beyond Joe's stage in the art of reading
to become a technical student of compara-
tive literature; but to take an enjoyable
interest in nature, it is not necessary for
everyone to become a technical scientist.
Yet nature should be read by everybody,
extendedly, thoroughly and as enthusias-
tically as one may take delight in reading
general literature, or current books and
magazines.

A short time ago a cultured person
asked two or three simple questions that
had nothing to do with nature study, but
with the method of caring for an aqua-
rium. These were answered, when the

EDITORIAL

361

inquirer drew a long breath of relief and
said, "Oh, my, you must have to know a
big lot to run an Institution of this kind.
It almost makes my head ache to think
what a lot of study must be needed !"

I have several times visited schools,
where I have been told in advance that I
would go into ecstacies over the delight-
ful teaching of nature study there pur-
sued by a thoroughly skilled instructor.
I have found many teachers that met my
expectations, though even heightened by
the advance eulogy, but in some I have
been, alas, sadly disappointed. What do
I usually find? A fruit jar, with about
an inch and a half of water in it, a little
sand, a spray of a green plant, and two
sickly tadpoles. On the wall, near the
teacher's desk, may be pinned one cocoon,
probably of the Cecropia, and one butter-
fly, usually the monarch.

Not a long time ago I found in a school-
room a "Collection" — I am spelling this
with a capital to do justice to the pride
wath which the word was spoken — that
consisted, by actual inventory, of one
hornet's nest, seven pieces of minerals,
and one piece of wood with a fungous
growth upon it. When I was told that
this was the result of the children's work
during one season, I thought of Pip and
poor Toe Gargery :

"When one spells J-O, Joe, how inter-
esting reading is !"

We are told in the recent lamented dis-
sension between Mr. Seton and the Boy
Scouts, that that organization manifests
not enough outdoor interest but too much
militarism. We need not enter into the
controversy further than to say that the
Scouts certainly do not have enough of
reading in the book of nature. It is
claimed that there is an astronomical re-
quirement, and a few others connected
with outdoor life, but they bring to mind
Joe's assertion. A similar criticism may
be made of the Camp Fire Girls, an asso-
ciation that bv its very name connotes
an outdoor organization. The re-organ-
ized order of the Woodcraft Indians I
sincerely hope will demand more in their
astronomical requirements than the mere
ability to recognize the Great Dinper and
T^nipris. Ye T^ds ! Think of that! An
organization for the living of an outdoor
life required to know what even a child
is suooosed to know — the Great Dipper,
and the nivotal point of the celestial
sphere ! We feel sure that that require-
ment will be changed for the better in the

near future. As it is, the requirement
should be recorded in two paragraphs
and so worded that J will begin the first,
and O the second.

Recently two girls called at our office
and requested permission to go into the
Agassiz Grove. I found that the call was
to meet a school requirement to observe
four, or possibly six, birds. I said, 'Come
out here. We can get those birds 'right
off the bat' — chickens, ducks, English
sparrows and starlings. You may see
plenty of them out of the back door. If
you want to take a postgraduate course in
order to become thoroughly erudite in
this interesting ornithological reading,
look yonder ; spend a moment in the
brain-racking process of watching that
crow above the golf grounds, and that
downy woodpecker eating suet. There
you have it — the wdiole requirement."

Every member realizes that there is
nothing superficial in The Agassiz Asso-
ciation. We believe that the book of na-
ture is interesting reading, and that it is
worth while to go beyond the rudiments.
J-O, Joe, may be interesting reading, but
do not forget that Joe must be followed
and completed by a family name.

Recently our Glenbrook Chapter spent
an evening in The Welcome Reception
Room. I walked with them from the
room to the trolley car. and while en
route we learned to recognize the follow-
ing, so that every boy can now point them
out, and I am sure, will remember them :
Orion, Taurus, Gemini, Ursa Major,
Ursa Minor, and Perseus. At the time,
three planets were conspicuous in the
heavens; it took us about half a minute
to memorize Jupiter, nearly west ; Saturn,
nearly south ; and Mars, nearly east. We
also learned in that short walk to the trol-
ley car the position and appearance of
several stars : Sirius, Procyon, Aldebaran,
Castor, Pollux and that great require-
ment. Polaris.

This lesson was really learned by those
enthusiastic boys ; the time taken for the
whole course was not more than ten min-
utes as we sauntered along the road, stop-
ping now and then to look upward.
E\'eryone enjoyed that walk : not one said,
"You must know a big lot. It makes my
head ache to hear all those different
things." To learn such things is not more
difificult than to learn that the names of
the vivacious girls whom you meet are
Jane. Sue, Sally and Phoebe, or boys
whose names are John. James, Phillip

362

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

and Sam. "Whew ! Tell nie eight names
all at once. Aly, but you must know a big
lot to know so many people. It makes my
head ache just to think of it."

If you believe this statement is over-
drawn, come in the Sound Beach Obser-
vatory and listen to the difficulty in teach-
ing a lesson on the four very conspicuous
satellites of Jupiter: lo, Europa, Ganny-
mede and Callisto. I wish they had been
named Jane, Sue, Sally and Phoebe !

It is astonishin,g how many people are
prevented from having a "speaking ac-
quaintance" with all the constellations and
most of the principal stars, because the
mental effort is regarded as a great bur-
den instead of a simple little pleasure.

You meet two red-headed girls and are
told that one is Dolly, the other, Dorothy.
Do you then look frightened and say :
"They both have red hair, and their
names are so much alike. How can I
distinguish the one from the other?"

Shining almost due south are the two
dog stars, one the big* dog, Sirius, and the
other, the little dog, Procyon, and yet you
say, "You must know a big lot if you
know those stars apart. They are both
dogs aren't they? How can you remem-
ber which is which?"

Suppose you meet two boys. One is
John, the other is James ; both have
freckled faces and are of about the same
size and height. Would any person of
common sense say, "You must know a big
lot to be able to distinguish one boy from
the other?" Then why do you say,
"There is Cepheus, and there is Perseus,
both kings, are they not? How do you
know which is which — no, I mean they
are not very far apart in the sky."

It is a common impression that a study
of nature is uncanny, and deals with the
supernatural, with things not in touch
with our everyday life. Recently our
stenographer, sitting- near an open win-
dow in the office, overheard this conver-
sation : "That is ArcAdiA. I want to go
in there sometime."

The reply in awe-stricken tones was,
"Don't you dare do it. I wouldn't go in
for anything in all the world. They have
a lot of dead things in there."

After all, what is natural science ? Is it
not, as Huxley said, merely organized
common sense? What we want among
the students of nature everywhere is not
only a few friends but many; not only a
few speaking acquaintances with whom
these friends are on friendly terms, but

"lots" of them. So read widely and atten-
tively. Cultivate an acquaintance, in a
common sense manner, with the friendly
constellations, the single stars, the planets,
the trees, the birds, the butterflies ; with
moths, minerals, frogs and grasshoppers,
but do not, Oh, I beg of you, spend a
whole evening and laboriously work over
evolving four lines of hieroglyphics and
then pass that on to an admiring friend
who will say, "Oh, my, what a lot of na-
ture study you have ! Why you really
have a tadpole and a butterfly, one con-
stellation, and Polaris, also."

"J-O, Joe ; how interesting reading is."

A Plea for the Scientific Study of the
Sciences.

At a meeting of the Pennsylvania
State Science Teachers' Association, at
Harrisburg, Prof. H. A. Surface, State
Zoologist, made a strong and logical
plea for scientific study of the sciences.
He spoke extemporaneously and prac-
tically as follows :

I have in mind to call the attention of
the science teachers of this State to the
real status and importance of the
sciences versus nature study, agricul-
ture, or any of the arts based upon the
sciences. A decided movement is now
on foot to introduce agriculture into
the schools. This leads us to analyze
the situation and ask "What is agricul-
ture?" It is not "a science," but is the
practical application of the teachings of
several sciences. Therefore, it is an
art. The study of the sciences upon
which agriculture is based should be
preliminary to the study of agriculture,
and while we hope to see the time when
agriculture will be taught in the
schools, 3^et we trust that will not be
until arrangements are made to have
the pupils first study the fundamental
sciences of physics, chemistry, geology
and biology.

There is not one fact in the entire
realm of agriculture that is not founded
upon the principles of some of the
sciences, and the rational teaching of
the sciences would not only fit the
learner for an agricultural pursuit, but
also for other professions in which a
knowledge of the sciences is needed.
To study agriculture means to study
the application of those fragments of
sciences which converge in the art of
agriculture, or the application of those
principals of the sciences which per-

EDITORIAL

363

tain to soil productivity and plant and
animal propogation, and the student is
thus limited.

Agriculture is a grand and complex
subject, involving the applied knowl-
edge of some features of physics, chem-
istry, astronomy, meteorology, mineral-
ogy, general geology, physiography,
physical geography, botany, zoology
(including, of course, entomology),
evolution, anatomy, physiology and
hygiene. If the chief of these subjects
were taught rationally based upon their
relationship to human needs, and the
practical application of their teaching
emphasized, the student would be able
to make use of his knowledge, not only
in agriculture, but in any field toward
which he might wish to turn. Thus a
student of the sciences is broadened :
he is equipped with a means at once of
reaching farther than is permitted with-
in the narrow scope of the practical ap-
plications that comprise only one line
of human activity.

The chief value of the sciences lies in
the development of a great plan of clas-
sification in relationship, as shown in
Nature and called Taxonomy. When
systematic botany is taught as such
the pupil at once sees the relationship
of plants, as expressed in orders, fami-
lies, genera, species, and subspecies.
The same is true in the study of other
natural sciences, and even in the in-
organic sciences. In astronomy the re-
lationship of planets is so definite that
some were discovered in searching for
them in the place where exact mathe-
matical calculation showed they should
be found. In chemistry certain rare ele-
ments have been discovered only long
after it was well knoAvn,by their respec-
tive places in natural classification,
that such should exist, and there are
places now known for others yet to be
discovered. It means a great deal for
the learner to take up a systematic
science and be made properly aware of
such facts. In not other study than in
systematic science can the beauties of
these subjects be thus emphasized.

In teaching the sciences we teach the
entire structural plan of the subject as
a unit, and thus in studying the funda-
mental classification exnressed within
a subject, one obtains a bird's-eye view
of it as a whole. In studying more
minutely the difi'erent branches of a
science he sees the relationship of its

dili'erent parts to one another, and of
this particular science to others, i his
view IS not to be obtained in any other
way than through a rational scientific
study of the sciences, i his does not
mean that the economic features of the
subject should be lost, but rather, that
by rational teaching those principles
which are of economic value can be
emphasized ; but other principles,
which are today not considered of great
value, may also be taught, and their
value may be discovered and used at
some time in the future.

A person who has studied the sciences
properly and rationally is equipped to
go into practical agriculture and under-
stand for himself the relationship of
the new complexities which he may
meet. He is not only equipped for this,
but also prepared to take up the sev-
eral other arts which are based more
or less upon the sciences which he has
studied ; while the one who has studied
agriculture only, is equipped to take
up but this one art, or closely related
subjects, and he is trained to follow
only in the routine in which he has
been taught. He has not learned the
broad relationship of the sciences com-
prising the art, and naturally he is un-
qualified to make use of their applica-
tion to other subjects.

If the admission of nature study and
agriculture in the schools is to mean
the crowding out of the fundamental
sciences, such as physics, chemistry,
botany, zoology and geology, we as
science teachers are justified in looking
upon it with alarm. It is our duty, as
persons particularly trained in these
subjects, to see that they have proper
inspiration and reception in our schools.
If we teach them fairly and emphasize
at proper places their practical teach-
ings, there would be no need of the in-
troduction of those subjects that are
fragmentarily based upon such sciences
until after the pupils are qualified to
take them up as advanced subjects,
rather than to reverse the natural se-
quence, and attempt to make them the
means of entering into a study of the
practical fields of human activity.

Xature study has its place as a means
of interesting verv young puoils in the
world of Nature about them, and it also
has it proper educational value as the
l);isis (if much other work, such as draw-
ing- and language. Pupils certainly pre-

364

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

fer to draw the things they see com-
monly about them, and they can talk or
write best of the things of which they
know most- But the purposes and
methods of nature study must not be con-
fused with those of science. Neither is
nature study agricultural even in its
elementary form. When the pupil reaches
an age that he is to study agriculture, he
can better understand it by having been
taught rationally and plainly some of the
fundamental principles of the sciences
which are recognized as its foundations.
My plea then is, not so much against
nature study and agriculture, as for the
sciences first. These can be taught as
elementary as may be desired, and in
properly teaching them we are giving
instructions not only in agriculture, but
also in dozens of other arts or practical
fields in which the pupils thus become
prepared later in life, if they wish-

Summer Sessions for Delight.

Two superior courses are ofifered stu-
dents of marine biology — one by the old
and extensive laboratory at Woods Hole,
Massachusetts ; the other by a younger
but as efllicient laboratory at Cold Spring
Harbor, Long Island- The laboratory at
Woods Hole will soon hold its twenty-
ninth session, while the one at Cold
Spring Harbor will soon hold its twenty-
seventh. For particulars and circulars,
address the laboratories at the addresses
given. Full particulars will be sent in
an attractive pamphlet-

These laboratories are .great American
factors in promoting an interest, in biol-
ogy. The editor has enjoyed a session
at each laboratory, and knows that the
facilities are unexcelled, the instruction
pleasing and efficient, and the surround-
ings ideal for a vacation at the seashore-

We have among our readers a number
of cultured and educated people who do
not realize that either of these labora-
tories is especially adapted to them. Per-
haps they think of them as something for
the college professor or special student,
something to supply credits toward a
learned degree. They are that, but they
are more. They are thoroughly, enjoy-
able places for using one's brains at the
seashore, as well as in having good food.
good bathing and the sight of pictur-
esque seaside surroundings.

We number among our readers many
who are accustomed to spend their sum-
mer at fashionable hotels at vjirious re-

sorts. Many of these are genuine nature
lovers. It has perhaps not occurred to
them that here is an opportunity to have
nature study that is worth while and
under competent supervision. If you are
tired of the trite round of ordinary activi-
ties at the fashionable seaside hotel, try
at least one session at one of these labora-
tories- You will find it a delight of your
life.

To teachers and students of biology,
the editor need say nothing. These labo-
ratories are known to all of them as the
lie plus ultra of a summer vacation.

What is Beauty?

Beauty and goodness are to be found
everywhere when we forget and over-
look the ugly and the bad. There is
nothing in all the world that has not
some beauty and goodness. This
would be a suburb of heaven if people
would stop making it the opposite.

These thoughts came to mind as the
result of a little experience that I had
a few evenings ago with four cultured
ladies from Greenwich. They had
telephoned for special appointment at
the Astronomical Observatory. I
therefore had planned to show them
the best at my disposal.

I first turned the telescope upon
Saturn. Their enthusiastic words
were gratifying. Then we tried the
Orion Nebula. They did not know
that there was such a beautiful thing
in all the heavens. That too gratified
me. After seeing the "Jewel Boxes"
of Perseus, they seemed eager to use
all the commendatory words in the dic-
tionary. Their enthusiasm knew no
bounds. As the climax and the closing
event of the astronomical exhibit, I
tried Castor. It seemed to be a new
idea that a star can be two in one, and
I do not know when visitors have been
so pleasingly and appreciatively ex-
pressive.

They then visited the Laboratory
where I showed them a few microscop-
ical marvels. Arranged diatoms seemed
to be a vision of a new world-
This was succeeded by the tritest of
"Oh, my !" slides, and my callers lived
up to their reputation. In the last few
minutes, as they were about to leave
me to overtake a train, I told them I
would show the acme of the evening's
exhibition. T placed under the lens,
and carefully adjusted the light, one
of my best slides. It was a jov to hear

EDITORIAL

365

their words of delight. "I had no idea
that there is anything in all the world
so beautiful as this. Come here and
see it."

The second lady said, "What mar-
velous structure ! What beauty ! How
you must revel in this study of nature !"

The third came. "What is that? I
have never seen anything quite so
beautiful. You have indeed kept the
best for the last."

Sphinx-like I remained silent and
still. Then there came an almost unan-
imous cry, "What marvelous beautry !
I have never seen anything so interest-
ing as that last view. It will live in
our minds for days. Please tell us
what it is."

As they passed through the door,
and for a moment stood on the walk, I
said. "It is a bedbug."

Is He a Philosopher or a Fool?

A man as bald as a billiard ball went
into the barber shop at the Hotel Statler.
Detroit, and found there a skilled but
Sphinx-like barber that uttered not a
word, not even of greeting as the cus-
tomer took the chair. After the shaving.
the bald-headed man said, "In lieu of
comb and brush as applied to other peo-
ple, you may just wipe ofif my head with
a towel." These words unsealed the
barber's lips. He said, "No, sir : all that
get shaved in this shop receive the same
treatment, and you will have brush and
comb like all the others. We believe in
treating everybody alike. If I even
touched your head with a towel I should
charge you for a shampoo ; that is the
rule of the shop."

"Rut," astonishedly exclaimed the bald-
headed man. "There is not the slightest
occasion to use brush and comb on me.
Your rule does not apply in this case."
But the barber said, "Suppose you had
gone to the manicure, and had lost one of
your fingers, would you expect her to
make a reduction for that?"

"Like many another logician," the bald
man said, "your argument is faulty : the
cases are not parallel. You should put it
this way: Tf you, Mr. Customer, had lost
all }our fingers and had gone to be mani-
cured, would you expect a reduction?'
Your philosophy is rank foolishness."
But still the barber insisted, "W^th even
the slightest use of the towel it would be
a shampoo, according to the accepted

rules of the shop. A little shampoo, or a
big shampoo, or a long shampoo, or a
short shampoo, all amount to the same
thing. It is merely the customer's prefer-
ence as to whether he should have any
kind of a shampoo. Even a single sweep
of the towel over your head would be
rated as a little shampoo, at full price."

Then said the customer, "This, I see,
is a technical shop. You are a stickler
for the rules. I insist upon having all to
which my payment for a shave entitles
me." The barber accepted the situation,
although he repudiated his own logical
conclusion in doing so. He dashed on
the bay rum and rubbed the head with the
ends of his fingers as vigorously as he
doubtlessly had done for forty years on
heads like Paderewski's and the football
players'. Then as gravely as if he were
manipulating magnificent tresses, he
combed the imaginary hair, and brushed
it back in gracefully flowing but imagin-
ary curves. He had done his duty.

Thanks, Mr. Barber, for your philoso-
phy or foolishness. Your bald customer is
a lecturer on the philosophy of the school-
room and you are not the only one who
applies general rules irrespective of indi-
vidual cases. "Master Pupil, you have
come to my schoolroom. It is an impartial
olace. Though you lack brains, though you
lack physique, though you are precocious,
though you are advanced far beyond the
class, it is my duty to apply to you the
regulation comb and brush, our hirsute
equipment in intellectual pursuits. This
schoolroom knows nothing but brush and
comb. It has applied them for forty
years."

Though the times have changed and
the authorities are considering a new
treatment for certain educational prob-
lems, though new features are inserted
into the curriculum, still, the Sphinx-like
teacher, mute to modern suggestions,
ignorant of modern innovations, will still
apply the brush and comb. He will not
adapt himself to new studies, and he will
not leave much doubt as to whether or
not he is. like that barber, a philosopher
or a fool. The barber's philosophy is
folly. We are sure the reader will in-
stinctively apply to many occupations and
especially to many a retired business man
who has used the brush-and-comb method
of money getting assiduously for forty
years or more, until he can recognize and

366

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

accept no other treatment nor adaptation
to a changed situation. The brush and
the comb shall be applied in his retirement
as it was in active days, and the bald man
may well inquire, in many occupations.
"Is it philosophy or folly?'

Good Things Out of Nazareth!

Every naturalist, and especially every
meteoroloigist is familiar with the photo-
graphic work with snow crystals and
frost forms done by Wilson A. Bentley
of Jericho, Vermont. He began his
career along' that line when he was only
a boy and has devoted his attention to it
with a persistence and a skill equal in
some respects to those of Edison. He
too is self-educated ; no college can claim
him.

Recently the editor, while visiting the
schools of a western city heard from the
drawing teacher of her interest in Mr.
Bentley's photographs and of her use
of them in her teaching. She regards
them as works of art, exquisite, and
beautiful beyond description. Imagine
her astonishment when another teacher
expressed surprise, saying, "Is it possible
that you use those photographs in the
school work of a city like this? Don't
vou know that Mr. Bentley is not a col-
lege educated man !!!!!!!"

The Best Magazine in the United
States.

Can anybody decide which is the best
magazine in the United States? Maga-
zines cover so many and so various fields
of activity that among many of them
there cannot be much comparison. For
example, there can be no comparing of
a magazine devoted to horses with one
devoted to postage stamps, or another
to school-teaching. But there can be.
and there is, such a thing as the best
magazine, for the reason that it takes
the best from every other magazine- I
fancy that if a really good article should
appear in any magazine on horses, post-
age stamps or pedagogy, you would find
that article reproduced in "The Literary
Digest," a periodical that stands head and
shoulders above any other magazine that
is attempting, or has attempted, to give
a summary of the thought and teaching
as expressed in all classes and types of
journals.

It has been truly said that every per-

son should know everything of some-
thing and something of everything. This
magazine gives the readers the cream of
everything worth thinking about. You
will here find discussed not only what the
newspapers are saying, how the politi-
cians are whacking each other, how the
war is progressing, who has made a new
scientific discovery, but also what writers
are achieving fame in the world of fiction
and of poetry, and what is the current
need of religious and social service. In-
deed, it often ofifers thoroughly practical
advice as how to spend money or how to
get along without it.

But what is the use of trying to praise
"The Literary Digest?" We might as
well talk of the sun's beneficial rays.
Everybody is familiar with the good
qualities of both, or should be.

Professor Robert M. Yerkes of Har-
vard University, probably the foremost
animal psychologist in the country, makes
a plea for more attention to the apes,
baboons and monkeys. We know, he
points out, something about their bodily
structure, but almost nothing about
their mental operations. Yet these
creatures are nearest of all brutes to our-
selves, and the study of them would prob-
ably teach us more about ourselves than
would that of any other of the lower
animals. The Germans have a special sta-
tion for the studv of apes, located in the
Canary islands. Professor Yerkes argues
for establishing a similar laboratory some-
where in Southern California.

The newest earthquake recorders are
so sensitive that if a person sit quietly
in a chair near one, and then change
to the side opposite, the earth's crust
will spring sufficiently under the chang-
ing load to show on the record. No
wonder, then, that an approaching
storm is indicated by a rising of the
crust under the diminished pressure
of the "low."

A recent study at Cornell University
shows that in the hibernating woodchuck
the body temperature falls from the nor-
mal ninet3^-eight of the warm-blooded
animals to a little above forty. At the
same time, the carbon dioxide in the
blood nearly doubles. Four to six
months is the natural diu'ation of the
winter sleep.

LITERARY NOTICES

367

LITERAK

NOTICES

The Embryology of the Honey Bee. By
James Allen Nelson, Ph. D. Prince-
ton, New Jersey: Princeton Univer-
sity Press.
This book was needed; Dr. Nelson has
well supplied that need. We owe a debt of
gratitude to him and to the Princeton Uni-
versity- Press for giving- us this permanent
record of an intensely interesting scientific
investigation. The apiarian magazines have
had much to say about it, the embr3'ologist
will find it valuable, but we especially de-
sire to call attention to it on account of its
interest to the microscopist. The book gives
him something to do along a fascinating
line of investigation. The drawings ma}- be
easily understood and followed by even the
novice in microscop3^ as they are beauti-
fully plain and clear. The book is one of
the most delightful guides that have come
to the reviewer's desk.

The Charl.\t.\x's Prophecy. By George
Klingle. Boston. Massachusetts:
Richard G. Badger, Toronto, Can-
ada: The Copp Clark Company, Limi-
ted.
While this book does not come within
the immediate scope of The Guide to Na-
ture we are glad to give it notice because
of the well-known work that the author
did in the department that she formerly
conducted in this magazine, under the title
of "The La Rue Holmes Nature Lovers
League." She is a nature lover, and a stu-
dent of considerable ability and much en-
thusiasm.

"The Charlatan's Prophecy" is a roman-
tic love story, well worth reading, not only
for entertainment, but for its educational
value. The scene is laid in the Thirteenth
Century, during one of the most exciting
periods in the history of Venice.

The American Boys' Book of Bugs^ Butter-
flies AND Beetles. By Dan Beard.
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania, and London,
England : J. B. Lippincott Company.
"Is there a boy with soul so dead
Who never to himself has said
*I like the woods and swampy places
More than stiff shirts and whitewashed faces?
I love all bugs, fish, worms and mice
Live outdoor things I think are nice ;
To follow Dan on walks and hunts
Will make a man out of a dunce.
And 'tis for this I say to you
Go buy his book and read it through.' "

Dan Beard stimulates boys to go out into
the woods and fields to develop a love of the
beauties and a curiosity concerning the mystery

of nature, to observe and understand the
ways of living things. The man who does
this is the man of whom parents are glad to
hear as they realize that his books must be
of more real value to their boys than are the
common and multitudinous stories of athletics
and crude adventure.

Dan tells the boys in his own inimitable
way of the fun and value that is derived in
making a collection of insects. If the boy
has this book, whether he is in the suburbs,
the far country, the mountain or the seashore
he will be happy ; he will have plenty to do.
It is not only in the summer that fun may be
had with the little winged and armoured
creatures, for in the winter some of the most
fascinating discoveries of cocoons and insect
life may be made.

The especial aim is to tell the boy the value
of a collection of bugs, butterflies, and beetles,
the habits of the most important members of
the different tribes, and the best methods of
capturing and preserving the specimens.
}^Iaking this collection will be the most useful
one a boy can make. The birds are the friends
of men — collecting their eggs and shooting
them may well be considered a crime — but
the bugs are usually enemies, they ravage our
gardens, poison our orchards, and kill the
proudest monarchs of our forests. Let all
boys read this book, become impregnated with
the divine fire, and take sides with the birds
in a relentless war upon the army worms, the
gypsy moths, the potato bugs, and all the rest
of the host of pillagers that prey upon our
food, our lumber and our flowers.

A curious variety of the common
fresh water clam, Unio complanatus, is
reported from western Maine. The re-
gion is one in which there is no lime-
stone, and where even the fieldspars
are virtually all soda. The result is
that the creatures find almost no lime
in the water from which to build their
shells. Therefore they thicken the epi-
dermis of the normal shell to about
twice the common amount, and often
embed grains of sand in it. The shape
of the shell, also, is somewhat dififer-
ent from the commoner form, being
almost identical with that of Anodon-
ta iiwrgiiiata. The variety is especially
abundant in Oxford Coimty, Maine ; it
occurs, however, sparingly, at other
points in the granite area of New
England where lime is wanting.

368

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

p;

).

(ORRESPONDENCE

^ ^'S^ AND Information

Dan Beard's First Interest in Nature,

[In "Literary Notices" of this number
mention is made of Dan Beard's recent
book, "The American Boys' Book of Bugs,
Butterflies and Beetles." Reading that book
suggested writing to the author and in-
quiring how he first became interested in
insects. He tells us in this letter that he
began as a baby watching flies on the win-
dowpane. — Ed.]

Flushing, Long Island.
To the Editor :

The little things of the world play
an important part back in the dawn of
life, that part of one's life of which we
are only conscious because of certain
well remembered experience The ris-
ing sun of life seems to strike and illu-
minate the minute things in place of
the big things and these illuminated in-
cidents are the ones we remember in
after years. My memory tells me of
spending much time watching the flies
on the windowpane ; I thought they
were pigeons, because to my baby
mind and sight imtrained to perspec-
tive, the pigeons outside, flying among
the housetops, appeared to be the same
size as the flies on the windowpane —
both were alive and both excited my
baby interest to that degree that I can
still recollect them, although the time
previous and considerable space fol-
lowing are blank pages.

Then again I can remember sitting
on the front steps of a house on Long-
worth Street, Cincinnati ; it was the
fourth of July and I was experimenting
with lightning bugs and wondering
why I could not set oflf a firecracker by
the light in their tails. I must have
been three years old or probably less.
Both these incidents excited my inter-
est in the study of insect life.

The next occasion which has left its
impress upon my memory was in
Painesville. Ohio, where I attended the
little red brick schoolhouse in the grove
and where I was flogged for breaking
my slate over a colored boy's head.
The Western Reserve, it must be borne

in mind, was a section of the country
settled by Abolitionists and the colored
children went to school with the white
children, a thing to which I was un-
accustomed, so when they seated a col-
ored boy at the desk with me, I thought
it was an intentional and gratuitous
insult and smashed my slate over the

DAN P.EARD.

poor lad's head to the great delight of
the scholars and the horror of the
teacher. A lath was taken from the
wall where the plaster was broken off
and with that the teacher flogged me.
I went home and told my mother all
about it ; to my amazement she
laughed. She understood the situation,
I did not ; she patted me on the head,
gave me some cookies and said noth-
ing more. The next day I played
hookey from school and spent the time
in the cornfield watching the ants. In-
deed I became so absorbed in my ant
study that I neglected to watch the
time and come home when school was
out ; in fact if I remember aright I was
late for dinner, as the luidday meal was
then called.

CORRESPONDEXCE AND INFORMATION

369

But inv good mother understood
this situation also,, and putting her
arm around me, she gently said : "You
must hurry through your dinner and
go to school this afternoon." That is
the only reference she made to my
truancy and that was the only time in
my life I played hookey from school.
But I really learned more in the corn-
field than I did at the little brick school-
house, and thereafter all insects pos-
sessed a permanent charm and interest.

It was after this my mother taught
me where to look for the chrysalides
of the Monarch butterfly or, as we
called them, the milkweed butterfly,
on the underside of the top rail of the
white, paling fence in front of our lit-
tle cottage. These green and bejewel-
ed chrysalides were to me fairy cre-
ations ; I thought them even prettier
than the butterflies themselves. After
that, I became interested in the beetles
on the grapevines and the study of the
grubworms and their transformation
into the beetle. Later, as a young man
in the city engineer's office in Cincin-
nati, I made a habit of collecting all
the caterpillars and putting them in
the drawer of my drafting table. All
the other surveyors used to add to that
collection ; it was then that I spent
some of the first money I ever earned
in buying a "Packard's Introduction
to the Study of Insects."

I had no desire to be a scientific en-
tomologist, I only wanted to know the
habits of these creatures and to be able
to identify them at sight. I looked up-
on them as one of the branches of nat-
ural history and an important branch.
The birds, the beasts, the reptiles and
the plants were all equally attractive,
but there was no Packard's Introduc-
tion to the study of birds, beasts or
reptiles. However I did secure Dana's
geology which was of great aid to me
with the fossils with which the hills
of Cincinnati abounded.

Ever since those days, I have looked
upon the insect world as the kindergar-
ten and grammar school for nature
study ; little things always attract
little folks ; a little horse or pony, a lit-
tle man, like Tom Thumb or Commo-
dore Nut, a tiny woman like Mrs. Tom
Thumb or Minnie Warren, a wee little
coach like that in which these dwarfs
used to drive through the city streets,

all possess a greater charm for the chil-
dren than do any giants or the big ani-
mals like the moose, the elk or the buf-
falo. As for the elephant, that has al-
ways been a source of terror to little
people.

A little playhouse will attract the
attention of all the children who may
pass by, while a magnificent palace, up-
on the groimds of which the playhouse
may be situated, will be unnoticed by
them. Fairies have more charm for
children than giants; hence.it is that I
am satisfied that in the study of nature,
the natural way and the proper way is
to begin with the insects while the stu-
dents are very young. As they grow
older, the larger animals will be of in-
terest to them. But wild flowers, ane-
mones, bloodroot, jack-in-the-pulpit
and violets are more charming and
more attractive to children than the
most magnificent forests or even the
big trees found in the mountains of
California.

Insects interested me when bears,,
deer and buflfalo would have frightened
me. Even Santa Claus' rig, in order
to please the children, is described as-
consisting of "a miniature sleigh and
eight tiny reindeer, with a little old
driver."

This is a psychological phase of the
childish mind which has not been taken
advantage of heretofore in nature
study, but which induced me to write
my books on "Bugs, Butterflies and
Beetles," for the boys.

Dan Beard.

A new disease of the orange and
other citrus fruits is reported from
Florida, introduced apparently from
Japan.

The Roval Ontario Museum has
lately acquired a set of minerals from'
Baffin Land, which lies west of Baffin
Bay in about the latitude of the North
Magnetic Pole. The specimens include
scapolite, rose quartz, serpentine, spi-
nel, actinolite, graphite, cordierite and
garnet. The deposits of the last three
mav be commercially valuable. The
rocks are in general about like those of
Canada and northern New England —
largelv gneisses and limestones of Ar-
chean age.

370

THE GVIDU TO NATURE

Meditation Couch.

Warren, Ohio.
To the Editor :

This picture suggests a resting place
in a forest of spruce trees, but there
are only two rows of trees, each row
fifteen hundred feet long and the trees
six feet apart. They were set out years
ago as a windbreak for a pear orchard.
Approaching to within a few feet of the

the head, one in the middle, one at the
foot, and two pieces of burlay spread
over them, my couch is complete, and
you may look at its picture and be en-
vious.

The mosquitoes have not troubled
me. If they do, I will put on my bee
veil and gloves.

Yours very sincerely,

W. W. Eathrop.

MEDITATION COUCH.

trees, on the left in the picture, is a
large field of tomatoes. On the right,
six or seven feet from the foot of the
couch, is a row of beehives of which
the writer is manager. On Sunday he
leaves the city and with his dinner in
a basket and such reading matter as
he likes he comes to this restful place
on the "Whiting Farm" a mile and a
half from Warren, Ohio. There he can
listen to the hum of the bees, the song
of the birds, and see the blue sky and
the tumultuous clouds through the tops
of the evergreen trees and read and
sleep to his heart's content.

The couch was made in this way.
When in the spring I cut the grass
around the beehive, I allowed it to dry.
With it I stufifed three old burlap bags,
and put them in the little honey house
where I store my bee tools and extra
hives and everything that I want to
keep dry.

On Sundays, when I go to see the
bees, and am ready for my recreation.
I take two hive covers and place them
against the tree to form the slanting
head of the cotich. With one bag at

A Letter from the Tropics.

La Ceiba, Honduras.
To the Editor :

1 realize that 1 have parth' promised
to write something about the natural his-
tory of this summer land, but I have been
here for only a short time, and the sub-
ject is too extensive to warrant more than
a vignette — a bird's-eye view — in one
letter.

There is a wealth of material here for
the naturalist, as well as for the mere
lover of nature who professes no scien-
tific attainments. The writer can claim
to be only an appreciative seeker after
knowledge, but he is keenly alive to the
"spell of the tropics."

A scientific friend envies my opportu-
nity to roam among the interesting things
that I find here, and I envy the scientific
training that would enable me to profit
from this opportunity. Yet to the earnest
seeker after knowledge there is always
opportunity to pursue independent inves-
tigations which may possibly enlarge the
sum of human knowledge. It may be trite
to say, but it is eminently true that the
world is full of wonders. This is empha-

CORRESroXDEXCE AXl) INFORM \TI( )\

371

sized nowhere mcjre emphatically than
among" the insects, in which the writer
feels an especial interest. Here, for one
from the temperate zone, there is an un-
bounded field for study and research. A
lifetime would not begin to be sufficient
to exhaust its possibilities.

At one's first visit in the tropics, the
very weeds that one tramples underfoot
possess a strange interest. The whole
environment is new, different, full of the
charm that envelops mystically the un-
known— the unexplored.

hrom the day when, at early dawn, the
steamship's hoarse whistle signaled its
approach to the land and brought me to
my feet to peer through the fading
shadows of the dying night at the indis-
tinct, cloud screened mountains, I have
been busy, when time from business per-
mitted, with the keenness of the novice
in the study of nature's mysteries, and
in becoming acquainted with my new en-
vironment. That first day I learned to
realize wdiat all dwellers in the tropics
know — the rapidity with w^hich day
comes on, and the equal haste with which
the curtain of night falls. Expecting
nothing but rain at that time of the year
— it w-as early in November — we found,
as the distance between the ship and the
land melted away, that over there beyond
the cocoanut palms fringing the beach
the day was fair, whatever the night may
have been. The introduction to our new
home was promising. It did not matter
that for three weeks there had been an
almost continuous downpour of rain.
Now the sun was shining, though clouds
still shrouded the mountains that were
alluring in their verdant loveliness.

Honduras is a fair land. To the natur-
alist it is full of wonders, many wonders
still to be uncovered. Whether this be
the best or the least favorable season — I
am writing just before Christmas — I can-
not say from my own experience, but the
array is so wonderful that I am content
to take things as they come. Flow-ers
bloom, fruits ripen, birds flit among the
trees and gay butterflies dally among the
flowers now, as they do the whole year
through, and if, when the rains are over,
more life should manifest itself, then this
must be a busy world indeed.

Most persons picture a burning sun,
blistering sands, parched throats, swelter-
ing days and stuffy nights, when thinking
of "the tropics." The tropics have all
such; but here it is not so bad. The

nights are cool and one sleeps under a
blanket, or maybe two, with the thermo-
meter at seventy or seventy-two degrees,
and to-niglit, at eight o'clock and with a
cold wind and drizzly rain, it is sixty-
seven degrees. The noonday tempera-
ture in the shade is eighty degrees, occa-
sionally a little warmer, and if it be rain-
ing perhaps not more than seventy de-
grees. l)Ut the sun is hot.

I had always supposed that a seabeach
in a land like this would be strewn with
marine treasures, the argosies of the
waves bringing tribute from the deeps,
strange shells of colors rare, seaweeds
with which the queen of the mermaids
might deck herself, unheard-of wonders
and endless surprises. But it is nothing
like that. The beach here is clean and
bare ; only a few wave worn pebbles,
sand crabs and a shell now and then
rubbed perhaps into a faint memory of its
original glories by the friction of the
sands. On the islands off the coast, faint-
ly discernible in clear weather, there are
shells and mosses, corals and sponges,
but here the north winds seem to whip
all life 'into nothingness. It is on the land
that one finds his treasure-trove. And
some day perhaps I may be able to tell
you something about it, although it is,
in truth, difficult to know where to dip
into the abundance of material that pre-
sents itself on every side.

Francis J. Dyer.

Curious Behavior of a Plant.

Our common "water net." Hydro-
dictyon reticnlatnm, is rare in England.
Reports, however, come of its very sud-
den multiplication, so that workmen
have to be set to raking out the masses
and piling them in heaps on the shore.
Then, in less than a month, the entire
grow^th disappears, so that careful
search fails to reveal so much as a
single plant.

One wonders whether ]\Ir. G. G.
Wells, in his story of "The War of the
Worlds," did not get from this his idea
bf the "red Aveed" introduced from
Mars, increasing till it choked the
streams and then perishing almost in
a nisfht.

Is not January the hardest month to
get through ? When you have weathered
that, you get into the gulf stream of win-
ter, nearer the shores of spring. —
Thoreau.

Z1^

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

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AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

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Established 1875

Incorporated, Massachusetts. 1892

Incorporated, Connecticut, 1910

For Progressive Work.

Chapter 1063 of The Agassiz Associa-
tion was organized in the Durham, North
CaroHna. City High School early in
December, with a membership of thirty-
seven. The following officers were
elected: Chapter President, Bert Cun-
ningham, Teacher of Biology ; Secretary,

pleasure and information. To accomplish
this we are individually studying various
plants and animals and reporting on them
to the Chapter. We are taking and read-
ing The; Guide: to Nature; as well as
"Bird-Lore." We have also been inter-
ested in reviewing the lives of great men
in science. Agassiz has called forth our
admiration. We all love the things for
which he stood. The second of our two

j%^^

OUR PROGRESSIVE CHAPTER O 1- DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA.
Holding their Charter.

Margie Rogers ; Treasurer, Samuel
Murry; Assistant Treasurer, Mozelle
Wilkerson. Committees were appointed
to look after the executive, programme
and social features. Wallace Bunn was
selected as the operator of the projection
lantern.

Since our organization we have held
weekly meetings, and have had reports
on vaccination, flies, typhoid fever, ants,
molds and tuberculosis. Some of these
were illustrated with lantern slides.

We are this year working for two
special objects. The first is personal

objects is to lay the foundation for pro-
gressive work that shall make the high
school a center of civic biology. To accom-
plish this we are collecting and classifying
as far as possible the plants and animals
that we can obtain, thus starting what we
hope will be a permanent museum.

We expect to take an active part in any
civic biological problem, and we believe
that prevention is better than cure. We
hope to be able to report some interesting
developments in the near future.

We are enclosing flash light photograph
of the Chapter.

Bert Cunningham.

THE AG ASS I Z ASSOCIATION

With Our Local Chapters.

In the January number of Tiiii Glidi,
TO Nature extended reference was
made to our Five Fires Chapter of
Greenwich. The recently elected of-
ficers of this Chapter are: President,
Mrs. C. D. Lanier; Vice-President, Ed-
win W. Lewis ; Recording Secretar}-,
Becky Lanier ; Corresponding Secre-
tary, Robert Lewis ; Treasurer, Roger
Cameron Edson ; Curator of Collec-
tions, George L. Storm, Jr.

The Putnam Chapter of the Green-
wich Academy has recently reorgan-
ized with the following officers : Pres-
ident, Bethiah F. Waterman ; Vice-
President, Louise Brush ; Recording
Secretary, Constance Taylor; Corres-
ponding Secretary, Amolie Scholer-
mann ; Treasurer, Elizabeth Richard-
son.

A second Chapter, known as the
Putnam Junior Chapter, has also been
organized in the Greenwich Academy.
Of this Chapter the President is Con-
stant MacRae ; Vice-President, Elea-
nor Pier ; Secretary, Elizabeth Ander-
son ; Treasurer, Margaret Houston.

A Chapter organized in the Rogers
School of Stamford has elected as its
President, Frank Hickey ; Vice-Presi-
dent, Vincent Smith ; Recording Secre-
tary, Thomas Butler; Corresponding-
Secretary, Hattie Coblentz ; Treasurer,
John Greaney.

Recent Additions to Our Membership.

Corresponding :

Winifred Sackville Stoner, Jr., Wil-
mington, North Carolina.
Mr. Isaac O- Frederick, Harleysville,

Pennsylvania.
W^illiam Pratt McLaren, Stamford,

Connecticut.
Mr. William R- Lodge, Cuyahoga Falls,

New York.
Miss Barbara Schmidt, Harrison,
Sustaining:

New York.
Mr. Ludwig Schwiers, Lower Lake,
California.
Mr. Herbert H. Miller, Norwood,

Massachusetts.
Mr. Louis Agassiz Shaw, Peterboro,

New Hampshire.

Item from a Local Newspaper

Dr. Edward F. Bigelow, of .\rcAdiA,
entertained the Holy Name Society of
St. Catherine's church, of Riverside, on
Monday evening at Welcome Reception
Room. Dr. Bigelow's lecture was one of
the most interesting and instructive he has
thus far given at ArcAdiA. Father Cole-
man made some remarks pertaining to the
Agassiz motto Per Naturam .\d Deum
which is a sermon in itself- .\bout fifty
were present. A fine musical program
was rendered. Scherzo by Mendelssohn,
Marche ]\lignonne by Poldini were the
selections pla}ed by Miss Viola Worrell
at the piano Miss Demarest delighted
the guests with the following songs :

Winter Song Fay Foster

Shepherd Cradle Song Somervell

I Hear You Calhng Me Marshall

The Moon Drops Low Cadman

The Naughty Chrysanthemum .... Saltes
— Grecni^'ich Xcws and Graphic.

The Bureau of Fisheries is experi-
menting with raising shad in ponds as
a fresh-water fish. Results thus far
are encouraging, the young fry mak-
ing about twice the growth as in the
ocean.

Snakes and the Mexican War.

Troubles along the Mexican boun-
dary have resulted in a peculiar snake
condition. W'e find it difficult to ob-
tain large specimens of the western
diamond-back rattlesnake, owing to
the fear of collectors to venture within
that bullet-infested region. A collector
in Texas who zig-zags back and forth
across the boundary line wrote us re-
cently as follows : "I can't catch any
big rattlesnakes now. On my last trip
the only thing I got was a collection of
bullet holes through my new Ford car.
They said they didn't shoot at me, but
this didn't make me feel any better."
The collector mentioned brings in as
many as two hundred rattlers in a
week's trip ! He does not bother to
pick up specimens under four and a
half feet in length ; and many of them
are over six feet long and twelve inches
in circumference. These big rattlers
seem imbued with the fighting spirit of
the region. When first placed on ex-
hibition they rattle continuously for
hours. The Texas collectors sell their
rattlesnakes in novel fashion, charging
not according to the length of the indi-
vidual. After selecting specimens of
the required size they weigh them, and
sell them at thirty cents per pound!
— "N. Y. Zoological Bulletin."

374 THE GUIDE TO NATURE

FOR GROWTH AND EFFICIENCY Miscellaneous Contributions to

ArcAdiA.

Members and Other Friends Who have Mr. S. C. Hunter, New Rochelle,

Aided in the Expenses of The New York : sun diagonal for telescope.

Agassiz Association. The Greenwich Library, Greenwich,

Mr. Ellis B. Noyes, Virginia — - Connecticut: five scientific books,

balance of $i.oo per month Mr. R. M. Allen, East Orange, New

for one year $ 5.00 Jersey: microscopical mount of wolf

Reverend Charles Morris Ad- spider.

dison, Stamford 5.00 Mr. H. E. Beats, Flemington, New

Miss Dorothy A. Baldwin, Jersey : three waste baskets similar to

Massachusetts 5.00 several previously supplied.

"Neighbor," Sound Beach .... 10.00 Mrs. George Peirce, New York

"Land Aid," Massachusetts 50.00 City : interesting botanical specimens.

Miss Frances H. Errett, Ohio 50.00 ■

Mr. Samuel P. Avery, Connec- "To Change this Weakness into

ticut— $25.00 and $50.00.... 75.00 Strength."

"Interested Visitor," Stamford 2.00 [extract from a member's letter]

Mrs. O. H. Stevens, Massa- I confess that the connection of theo-

chusetts 2.00 retical studies with the real life that

Mr. H. E. Valentine, Massa- is throbbing around us in our imme-

chusetts 1. 00 diate neighborhood, is not alive enough

Miss Helen Zipfel, Connecticut i.oo at least in my case, and that it is a

"A Lover of Astronomy," Mas- strong desire in me to change this

sachusetts — at $25.00 per weakness into strength. Therefore I

month 225.00 have gladly become a Member of The

Mr. Walter Neumuller, Sound Agassiz xA.ssociation.

Beach 2.00 I am strongly interested in opening

Mr. Frank J. Myers, Pennsyl- my children's and my pupils' eyes to

vania 8.50 tbe wonderful Book of Nature around

Honorable Zenas Crane, Mas- them, of which they are an integral

sachusetts 50.00 part themselves, and to protect them

"Wishes for Success," Stam- from becoming mere theoretical book-
ford 25.00 worms, as I had been one during a cer-

Mr. Ed. Sandreuter, Stamford 10.00 tain period of my life.

"The Right Spirit," Stamford 20.00 But of course a one-eyed man is a

Chapter No. 1015, Glenbrook, poor guide for the blind ones, and

Connecticut 3.00 therefore I am longing to get the old

"Timely Assistance," Massa- bookworm dust off my mind and es-

chusetts 100.00 tablish more immediate connections

The Fairhope League, Green- with Mother Nature. — L. Schwiers,

wich 5.00 Teacher, Lower Lake, Lake County,

Mr. B. M. Ayres, Stamford .... 5.00 California.

Mr. Henry Miller, North Stam-

ford . 25.00 He Sets a Good Example.

Kansas City, Missouri.

$684.50 Dear Dr. BigeloAv:

Aid on the Loan ($197.20) from the The March issue of The Guide to

AA General to the Fund for the Nature at hand. Turning its pages,

Astronomical Observatory. I find, on page 334, that you owe the

Mrs. Charles Tarbell Dudley AA general fund nearly $200, borrow-

Greenwich $10.00 ed for the observatory. I enclose check

Mr. Charles A. Brunn, Kansas for $10.

City, Missouri 10.00 You have done splendid work in se-

curing the observatory. AA members

$20.00 and friends should permit you to bal-

ance your books without a deficit.

Just as we go to press the remainder Wishing you abundant success, I re-

of this loan, with a surplus to the AA, main,

has been paid by an amateur astrono- Very truly,

^.|gj. Chas. a. Bruun.

ARCADIA PAGl"

IX

What is in the Name "ArcAdiA"?

'A\ hy .lo you spell Akc \i)iA with three
capital A's?"

Answer: "JJecause that is its name. "
'A\hy did you give it a name that re-
quires that unusual spelling? W hy did
you not call it merely Arcadia without
the three capitals?"

These questions in various forms have
>come from many readers and from local
friends.

We selected ArcAdiA, with the special
spelling', much against our will, because
we recognized that it might be regarded
as freakish and as breaking the rules of
orthograph}-, but, after careful considera-
tion, we were unable to find another word
that would exactly express our idea.

If w^e were to take the word as it was
originally used, and as it is now used in
many places, it would be far from ex-
pressing the complete idea and the funda-
mental principle for which this ArcAdiA
stands. The old Greek Arcadia is de-
fined as "a picturesque district of Greece,
inhabited by a simple, pastoral people,
distinguished for contentment and rural
happiness. Hence, any region or scene
of simple pleasure, rustic innocence and
tuitroubled quiet." The inhabitants
were "fond of music and dancing," and
the god of Arcadia was Pan.

We like the picturesque beauty, the
simplicity, the contentment and the rural
happiness ; we like the simple pleasures
and the untroubled quiet, but that is far
from all we wanted to exi:)ress. There
are thousands of households in rural dis-
tricts that live in simplicity and content-
ment.

We had no thought of transferring that
Greek name to our Institution, for the
word expresses only a part of what we
would have it imply. We see no way to
use the word in its original form and to
add the qualities that we wish these head-
quarters of The Agassiz .\ssociation to
represent. Most persons forget that

Arcadia was presided over by the mytho-
logical Pan. The Arcadia of Greece
w^as coarsely atheistic. It was presided
over by an imaginary god of pasture,
flock and field. He was represented with
the body and head of an elderly man,
the hind quarters, the horns and the ears
of a goat. Terror was ascribed to him,
and from his qualifications we get our
modern word, panic.

The essential element of this Institu-
tion is to take fear out of the heart and to
show young and old that there is nothing
to fear from that old mythological panic
point of view. The aim of this Sound
Beach .A.rcAdiA is to inspire love for
nature through investig'ation and thor-
ough study. We have no cognizance of
an imaginary god that may, for his own
amusement, throw us into a panic when
the thunder growls in the distance or the
wind lashes the trees ; we accept God as
our guide and leader. Our nymphs are
Love. Study, Interest, Enthusiasm and
Reautv. \\'e therefore do not want to
take the term .Vrcadia with what it con-
tai'.is. We should like to lead the simple
life and enjoy a nearness to nature with-
out the atheism and the periodical panic.
We cannot use the word to signify what
the Greek Arcadia signified. So we will
incorporate into it the scholarly, religious
spirit of that grand man, Louis Agassiz,
for whom our Association is named. In
his memory it stands, not only for sim-
plicitv and innocence, not only for pas-
toral beauty, but for a sincere behef in
a living Deity, and for an intellectual and
heartfelt interest in nature that shall
combine that interest in nature with an
interest in religion. Agassiz said. "A
phvsical fact is as sacred as a moral prin-
ciple." We wanted a name to represent
all this, and we must therefore have it
somewdiat like a monogram. We have
selected ArcAdtA. It embodies the old
idea and the new. If anvhody can suggest
another word that will embrace these
aualifications and express the idea of sim-
Ttlicitv and of innocent happiness, com-

X

THE GUIDE To NATURE

bined with Louis -Vgassiz's scholarly
ideas, and transforniiug- the old panic
idea into thoughts of love, then we shall
be glad to receive it.

ArcAdiA, therefore, with its own par-
ticular spelling, means this particular
Institution at Sound IJeach. The insti-
tution stands for all the beauty and the
happiness of the original Grecian Arca-
dia, and, as indicated by the capital A's
in its name, has as the beginning, the
principal aim and the central point of
view — the first and the last, the first and
the middle, and the middle and the last —
The A A (The Agassiz Association)
permeated and threaded into all nature.

Any correspondent or any publication
that uses the name of the Greek Arcadia
is using a name that does not apply to us.
The old Arcadia has been transformed
as the old Saul was transformed into the
loving and devoted Paul.

There is no law, Mr. Editor, applicable
to us, or to any of our correspondents, to
stop our use of the term ArcAdiA, the
headquarters of the world-wide Agassiz
Association, situated here at Sound
Beach, Connecticut. It is ArcAdiA ; it
is not anything else. We spell it with the
three capital letters, not to be freakish,
but for the reasons that we have given.
It has been used for nearly six years.
Most newspapers and correspondents
have accepted our spelling, but there are
some that still say that he should be called
Zacharias when we know that his real
name is John.

We often see the necessity of coining
a new word to meet a new situation. A
man may take two family names, put a
hyphen between and a capital letter after
the hyphen. In reality it is only one
name.

Two newspapers merge into one and
invent a ne\v word, as, for example,
"Globe-Telegram" — one word with a
capital in the middle of it.

Coining new words is a well-known
pursuit. Take, for example. The Uneeda
Biscuit Company. Who gave the Com-
pany authority for the nhonetic spelling
of you by the letter U? It is generally
recognized that they have a right to do
that, and the public acknowledges it by
buving their wares.

Originally a certain bird found in the
lowlands was called a meadow lark, but
all the ornithological books combine the
two into one, and the bird is now the

meadow lark,, with not even a hyphen in
its name.

Previously to the establishing of this
institution at Arc/\diA we do not believe
that there ever was a similar representa-
tive of ideas similar to ours. We do not
know of such. A new thought became a
practical application, and necessitated a
new word. ArcAdiA is such a word ; it
it not the transference of an old name
used hundreds of years ago, and repre-
senting something radically different.
From the old. heathen idea of xArcadia,
we have taken the good, discarded the
objectionable; have added the recogni-
tion of the true God. ArcAdiAn, but
not pagan.

An Astonishing Fact Regarding
Clover.

Professor Nobbe of Tharandt, Ger-
many, finds that when clover seed is
put in water, only about half the seeds
germinate. These, he discovers are
those which have the thinnest coats.
The rest remain dormant indefinitely.
But even after a quarter century soak-
ing, scratching the surface with a pin
point ruptures the resistant skin, and
the seed sprouts within a few days.
This, apparently, explains why clover,
and various well-known weeds, once
they get started in a soil, keep on com-
ing up year after year, although none
are permitted to blossom.

It is said that lawns, once planted to
clover, no matter how closely clipped,
will keep on throwing an occasional
clover plant for more than a hundred
years.

The so-called "flying spiders" do
most of their flying in autumn during
the Indian summer. What they really
do is to take advantage of the fact that
whenever cold nights are followed by
sunny days, with the sun low in the
sky, every vertical surface of fence,
wall, or building exposed to the sun-
shine becomes much warmer than the
general mass of the air. There forms,
therefore, late in the forenoon, against
the warm surface, a little ascending
current of warm air. The spiders take
advantage of this fact, throw out a yard
or two of web and are wafted oiY, some-
times for miles, till the air cools and
drops them in a new place.

A QUEER TRAIT OE TH

l.'.MAX MIX!)

XI

A Queer Trait of the Human Mind.

Modern scientists have tried to tell us
wliv we are afraid in the dark, saying that
this defect comes to ns from the cave
man. Still others ask why a dot;- turns
and why he howls in pain or in delight
around several times before he lies down,
when certain musical notes are repeatedly
sounded. It may be that these traits are
inherited from the primitive wolf-dog
that made its bed in the forest for the
night, and that the notes arouse inherited
recollections that extend over innumer-
able generations to the primitive note of
the barking wolf-like dogs.

It is interesting to select some such
characteristic and to discover or at least
to try to ascertain the plausible explana-
tion. For twenty-five years I have been
trying to find the cause of an etymologi-
cal idiosyncrasy of the human mind. I
have made my observations among the
illiterate and the cultured, the young and
the old, and find that the misspelling of
the terminal syllable of the word stereop-
ticon is almost universal.

Everybody pronounces it "con," but
most people spell it "can." I wish some
of our scientists wdio are fond of investi-
gating the causes, w-ould tell me whether
the original cave man had a "can" that he
later developed into a stereopticon. I
should like to know whether the first
stages of the man that succeeded the
"missing link" had what is called a "can-
can dance." Something must have hap-
pened somewhere along the line to ex-
plain that "can" in relation to the seeing
of objects projected on the screen.

Recently, at least six correspondents,
all familiar with the stereopticon and
some of them extensive users of the in-
strument, or at least of stereopticon
slides, have overflowed with this "can"
idea. We have kindly pointed out, in
somewhat emphatic terms, that there is
no authority for such spelling of this
word.

So I have concluded, that like the ro-
tating action of the dog. it must revert to
some previous event in human experience.
I therefore make especial request in be-
half of compositors, printers, proof read-
ers, stenographers, and others interested,
that our archaeologists and our paleon-
tologists think deeply and carefully and
seek a specimen of the j^rimitive "can"

man of "the growler" ages.

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among prehistoric bones he will find cir-
cumstantial evidence of the "can-can
dance" that still .TOes merrilv on.

The familiar "ripple marks" formed
by the wind blowing across an area of
dry sand have been found to travel for-
ward, under a strong breeze, as fast as
seven feet an hour.

Sand dunes do most of their shifting
during the winter. A ridge which ad-
vances only one or two inches a day
during the summer may speed up to
five feet a day in the cold months.

In each special region of blown
sands, the front faces of the advancing
dunes seems to stand at a character-
istic angle, according to the size and
character of the sand grains and
amount of moisture in the soil and air.
Those at Ipswich, Massachusetts, make
always an angle of thirty-two degrees
with the horizon.

The characteristic aroma of hops
grown in different parts of the world
proves not to be due to soil or climate,
but to be a fixed quality of the several
strains. Bohemian and .\merican hops
grown side by side in Denmark each
manifested its distinctive and peculiar
Possibly odor.

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THERE is nothing that impresses one so completely
with his own insignificance as the contemplation of
the wonders of the sidereal universe. The egotism
of even the most famous of mankind must surely
vanish when he views those vast worlds hurtling their way
through the limitless voids of space. It is noteworthy that
all men who come closely in touch with nature are modest
and unpretentious, so long as their researches are conducted
in the simple spirit of learning the truth for its own sake.
It is only when actuated by worldly motives of greed and
desire for fame that they lose that splendid humility which
characterizes the sincere scientist when in the presence of
the sublime wonders of the infinite cosmos. — Henry Handy
McHenry in "Popular Astronomy."

Volume VIII MAY 1916 Number 12

PUBLISHED BY

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION

ArcAdiA: sound beach, CONNECTICUT

EDWARD F. BIGELOW, Managing Editor
Subscription, $1.00 a Year. Single Copy, 10 Cents

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33 «

8944 (F['/7/j Basting Line and Added

Seam Allowance) Dressing Jacket

and Cap, Small 34 or 36, Medium

38 or 40, Large 42 or 44 bust.

Negligees are among the fascinating garments of .vhich
no woman ever had too big a supply. Each new one and
each pretty one is sure to find its place. This charming
little model represents so little labor that it easily can be
added to the list. It consists of just the front and back
portions that are tucked prettily at the shoulders but is
rendered entirely distinctive and novel by the arrange-
ment of the wide frill. The little cap which accompanies
it, is dainty and becoming. In the picture, both the
jacket and the cap are made of fine white batiste with
trimming of embroidery, but you could copy this model in
crepe de chine or in georgette crepe, in a flowered batiste
O! in a fine cotton voile, in a soft tub silk or an any
similar material.

For the medium size will be needed 2 1-4 yards of
material 27 inches wide, 1 1-4 yards 36 or 44 with 4 1-2
yards of lace or embroidery for the frill. For the cap
will be required, 5-8 of a yard of banding 4 inches wide
and 1-2 vard of lace 2 inches wide for the neck frill.

The pattern 8944 is cut in three sizes, 34 or 36, 38 or
40, 42 or 44. It will be mailed to any address by the
fashion department of this paper, on receipt of ten cents.

Try

for

IVIen's Xogs

Suits and Overcoats to measure

Gleaning, Repairing and Pressing

a Specialty

Best Hat Values Obtainable in the

Celebrated C & K

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196 Atlantic St.

Stamford Connecticut

From a Stamford Poet.
Mr. Marvin R. Doty, the well-known
humorist and reciter of Stamford, has
caught the spirit of "poetry." He looks
toward Arcadian territory and locates
his scene in Sound Beach. This is the
way in which the muse appeals to him :

A HORNET, one day at Sound Beach.

Was sunning himself on a peach,
When along came a picker
Who dropped the fruit quicker

Than scat, and then uttered a screech.

VI

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— ADVERTISEMENTS

PERCY D. ADAMS

Attorney and
Gounsellor-at-Law

New York

Connecticut

REAL ESTATE
NOTARY PUBLIC

Sound Beach, Connecticut.
1 Liberty Street, New York City.

Telephone Connection.

Sound Beach for Residence.

The entry of this magazine at the
Sound Beach post office was June 12,
1909. Since then the home of the maga-
zine as well as of the editor and his
family has been in this charming bit of
earth, in some respects tlie finest to be
found. It would be difficult to discover
anywhere so attractive a combination of
seashore, picturesque residential sections,
and, a little farther northward, a country
and scenery as wild as they were in the
days when the Indians fought their bat-
tles or chased Laddin ofT the precipice.
It would be a praiseworthy accomplish-
ment if everyone seeking nature at her
best and a convenient commutation re-
sort should put into practice the Sound
Beach slogan :

Sound Beach on Long Island Sound

My summer home shall be;
Or, better far, all the year around,

And that sounds good to me.

Sound Beach has two helpful institu-
tions in outdoor life, its ArcAdiA and
its Golf and Country Club, side by side
in a convenient and attractive part of the

Save Your
Eyes

now and you may save your life
later. Many accidents are due to
poor eyesight.

Eyes examined,

Glasses designed,

made, Fitted and

Adjusted.

EVERYTHING RIGHT

OUR GUARANTEE

(Our Ti^ade-Mark.)

W. A. MTLELLAND

INC.

Optometrist Opticians

345 ATLANTIC STREET

Stamford - - - - Connecticut

community. Anything desired for resi-
dence may be obtained by addressing the
Sound Beach Summer Homes Corpora-
tion at Sound Beach, Connecticut (Box
84), or at No i Liberty Street, New
York City. The editor is personally
acquainted w^ith the management of
Shorelands and also with its attractive
houses and he is convinced that in Shore-
lands are to be found some of the most
pleasing and convenient situations along
this part of the coast.. If you have not
yet arranged for a summer home, ad-
dress that corporation for further par-
ticulars.

A Puzzler.

"Now, sir," demanded the cross-exam-
ining lawyer, "did you or did you not,
on the date in question or at any other
time, say to the defendant or anyone else
that the statement imputed to you and
denied by the plaintiff was a matter of
no moment or otherwise? Answer me,
yes or no."

The witness looked bewildered, "Yes
or no what ?" he finally managed to gasp
out. — The Youth's Companion.

Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA; Sound Beach, Connecticut,

Subscription, $1.00 a year Single copy, 10 cents

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12, 1909, at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897.

Vol

VIII

MAY, 1916

Number 12

War on the Wolves of the Sea.

BY AMANDA SMITH GRAIN, SOUND BE;ACH,
CONNECTICUT.

A new war — a war on "The Wolves
of the Sea," namely, the shark and all
its family, who are the living subma-
rines waging an old and ceaseless war
on the food fish, which at this particu-
lar time have become a vital asset to
the table of the land and our economic
conditions. From Maine comes the be-
lief that the rapid depletion of our food
fish is due to the shark and dog fish,
and not to the loss of the frye by their
unaccustomed deep of the sea.

James J. Condon of the United Ang-
lers League, along with C. A Davis,
Chairman of the Maine State Fish
Commission are among the leading
spirits in the movement to fight these
destroyers of our food fish, which in-
clude almost all of the shark family,
particularly the variety commonly
called the "dog" fish, which variety
must not, however, be confounded with
the fresh-water dog fish found in in-
land waters. The dog fish is known to
every salt-water angler and net-fisher-
man. A great deal has been written,
also considerable legislation enacted,
to control the netting of menhaden or
what are best known as bony fish, by
the use of large and finely equipped
steamers, with the idea that these steam-
ers using the immense purse nets, also

take large quantities of eatable fish,
which of course, went in with the catch
of menhaden to the fertilizer works.
These wasted food fish are, how^ever,
adult fish and small in numbers, while
the dog fish is capable of destroying
the small fish by the thousands, and it
is safe to assume that a three foot dog
fish will consume in the season more
small fish than all the eatable fish net-
ted by the largest fishing steamer in
the same time.

The entire shark family have borne
the reputation of being what is com-
monly called "man eaters" and in most
minds the food of the w^olves of the
sea is hardly associated with our num-
erous small food fish, such as mackerel,
herring, blue fish, etc., nevertheless it
is just these that provide the greater
part of the shark family with their sub-
stance.

The white shark or man eater is the
best known and with the blue shark
attain a length of twenty feet and
strange as it may seem, these two are
exceedingly destructive to food fish,
following the schools of food fish, even
into the nets of the fisherman, where
they do, at times, a great deal of dam-
age. The dusky shark closely related
to the former is the most common of
the larger sharks on our coast.

Apart from the small and most com-
mon variety, the dog fish is the small

Copvn'Kht 1916 bv The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn.

376

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

LANDED AFTER A LONG FIC.ITT.

sand shark, also a voracious fish feed-
er. While all the larger varieties are
destroyers of food fish, by far the most
common and numerous are the "dog"
fish, which swim in schools or packs
in pursuit of their food

These destroyers are of two varieties,
the "smooth" dog and the "picked"
dog, the former being very abundant
south of Cape Cod and ranges in size
from two to three feet. The picked
dog ranges chiefly on the upper New
England coast and is somewhat small-
er than the smooth dog, but what it
lacks in size is made up for by num-
bers. No doubt the reason why we
should feel the effects of the depreda-
tions of these submarine destroyers of
our eatable fish to the extent that is at-
tributed to them is that, with exception
of very limited organized fishins: for
them chiefly by the State of Maine,
there is no effort made to use or de-
stroy them.

In England there is a well organized
fishery for these varieties. The livers

furnishing oil, the skin being used in
place of sand paper for certain uses,
while parts of the flesh are dried and
sold on the markets and known as
"Falkstone" beef.

On the coast of Russia, Lapland,
Norway and parts of Greenland, the
shark fisheries are of importance.
Particularly in Norway is the indus-
try carried on extensively by a large
fleet of vessels of from twenty to thirty
tons burden. These boats go as far as
I GO to 150 miles oft" shore and fish in
water to the depth of 250 to 300 fath-
oms, the hooks being baited with salt
seal flesh, and when the fish is hooked,
it requires the efforts of three men to
drag in the quarry by main strength
until its head is above water, when
another man proceeds to knock the fish
on the head with a large wooden mal-
let.

Generally speaking, the method on
our coast for taking the larger varie-
ties is to still fish using a large hook
baited with salt pork attached to a line
about the size of a common clothes line,
generally made fast to a convenient
post or spile, then when the bait is
taken, the fun begins. Attaching a
baited line to a small floating keg is
another method, but in this case a
launch in attendance is necessary in
order to. chase up the keg when the
fish hooks himself. A great many
large sharks are now taken for sport
by the use of the ordinary tarpon rig,
consisting of a heavy rod and reel,
holding as much as 600 yards of line.

As shark fishing and in particular,
for the "dog" fish variety has never
been followed up as a business, except
off the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia,
there will be a lot to learn as to their
habits and the best and surest way of
getting after them with the sole object
of their extermination as far as such is
possible. It is one thing for a com-
missioner to make plans to rid the seas
of these pests who are devouring one
of our most important table supplies,
■ — but it is altogether another proposi-
tion to accomplish this, — first it is no
small matter to catch and destroy the
vast numbers, considering that the
"original crop" so to speak, has never
been depleted to any extent by man.

Along the New England coast the
sharks and dog fish have become so
numerous during the past season that
all kinds of fishing has been very poor.

WAR ON THE WOLVES OF THE SEA

377

and the waters of the western end of
Long Island Sound have been infested
with the larger varieties as well as the
small. A young woman who was div-
ing in deep water at a resort near New
York disappeared, and when the body
was recovered it was clearly shown
that she had been seized by a large
shark.

On the other side of the globe, the
shark fisheries are carried on exten-
sively in India, Africa and in China,
the catch running as high as 100,000
fish in a season, which are used to sup-
ply the demand for sharks' fins.

Aside from the oil extracted from
the livers which by the bye, is used to

A WOLF OF THE SEA WKKIHING 275 POUNDS.
Caught off the Island of Nassau and photographed
from a rear-hy boat by Mr. George H. Thamer of
Stamford, Connecticut.

adulterate cod liver oils, the flesh of
the larger fish is ground up and used
as poultry food.

The Canadian government recog-
nized the depredations of the shark
family and have for sometime waged
war on these depredators, especially
along the coast of Nova Scotia, where
a bounty of 40 cents per hundred
weight is paid for all fish delivered to
the rendering plants, where these
scourges of the sea are converted into
oil and fertilizer.

That we have spent large sums and
established the most up-to-date hatch-
eries for the purpose of the propaga-
tion of food fish, the truth remains,
that we have done but little or nothing
towards the protection of the fruits of
these hatcheries, dumping the small
frye overboard and trusting to luck
and quantities for returns.

If our agricultural stations should
expend their efforts in distributing
seed that was raised at great expense
to be sown and then abandoned to
rear itself without cultivation, care or
protection of any kind, it would be
analogus to the results of our system
of fish culture — and that the efforts of
the United Anglers League and the
Maine Commission in their endeavors
to interest the authorities of all the
Atlantic States and the National Gov-
ernment to assist in ridding the ocean
of these "Wolves of the Sea" should
receive the support of every one in in-
fluencing their legislative bodies to
take substantial and prompt action for
the protection of the food fish on which
we so much depend and which is grow-
ing in importance every day in our eco-
nomic life.

Legislation along these lines has
been almost entirely devoted to the
protection of fish against the depreda-
tion of man who is in reality its least
enemy.

After two hours of fishing, the shark
in the accompanying picture was
caught. It was six and one-half feet
long and weighed close to 275 pounds.
The line and hook were too light to
land the shark, so a heavy line was
noosed over its body, so it could be
landed with safety. This is a fair
sample of the sharks that have been
so common on the New England coast
the past season.

378

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

An Astonishing Hailstorm.

Spring Hill, Tennessee.
To the Editor :

An eighty-five acre cornfield near my
home was ruined by a hailstorm on
July ist. I send a snapshot of the de-
vastated field. Some of the hailstones

usefully directed. In Kissimmee,
Florida, a four foot 'gator recently
cleaned an obstructed sewer pipe. The
municipal water works manager, after
racking his brain to devise a way in
which to open the pipe, decided to use
the 'gator for the purpose. The pipe

WHAT A HAILSTORM DID TO A CORNFIELD.

were ten inches in circumference ; five
weighed four pounds. Several people
had their arms broken by blows from
the stones. One negro had his skull
fractured. When you take into con-
sideration the thickness of a negro's
skull this was truly remarkable.
Yours truly.

Ben G. Davis.

An Alligator Cleans a Sewer Pipe.

BY THOMAS R. B./^KER, PH. D., WINTER
PARK, FLORIDA.

The usefulness of the alligator in
supplying us with his blotched and
wrinkled hide for commercial purposes ;
his proverbial posing on logs on Flor-
ida lakes and river shores, thus giving
interested tourists an opportunity to
see him at full length, and the sportive
ones to shoot at him ; and the infant
'gator's meek submission to captivity
in northern aquariums or yard pools,
where he lives miserably for a short
time, are well-known facts.

But the alligator as a business as-
sistant is unusual. For probablv the
first time his sluggish energy has been

was eight inches in diameter and as
long as the city block. With a little
urging the reptile wriggled into it and,
after a four hours' tussle in the un-
savory environment, reached the dis^
tant manhole in a lively condition, and
received considerable deference on
account of his valuable service, for he
had done what skilled workmen had
been trying to do for several days, and
had failed.

Although frogs commonly come up
every few minutes to breath, recent
experiments prove that they are able
to remain under water for an entire
week, while occasional individuals
can remain submerged for nearly a
month. Breathing in these circum-
stances, is done through the skin,
which acts as a gill. Curiously, even
after weeks of fishy life, the frog seems
not to suffer from lack of breath so
much as from general ill health. In
some unknown way, nearly pure nit-
rogen forms in the tissues and swells
up the body till the creature can no
longer dive.

THE OUTDOOR WORLD

379

A May Day Out-of-Doors.

BY SARA V. PRUESKR, DEFIANCE, OHIO.
AUTHOR OF ''our DOORYARD FRIENDS."

"If today a pagan wreath I wear,"
don't blame me too much for a vaga-
bond am I, following the call of bird
through wood and field over hill and
river. And who would not on a May
day like this shun the narrow confines
of a room that seems but a prison cell
and slip out of the open door that pro-
vides an easy way of escape. So today,
I leave the world behind — the city's
clash and clatter, its roar and rumble,
and into the out-of-doors I go where
I find a place among the living things
of the universe.

Everywhere in the great horizon,
the tender green touches the blue of
heaven and only where the habitation
of man has introduced his domicil does
one see any break in the blue-green col-
or line that forms the eye-boundary of
the landscape.

Almost, I had lost the call in the
whirr of passing machines, when a field
lark sings his clear, whistled song —
three plaintive notes float from the
meadow beyond. Again, the world is
left behind and I push on to the cher-
ished goal — the country.

A Baltimore oriole crosses my path,
then sings to the nice ear of his mate
from the maples that border the road-
side. And from the same trees float
the soft, liquid notes of a warbling vir-
eo. Wrens trill madly from post and
tree.

TVie air is full of music. A bluebird
halts on an old stump, and warbles a
sweet "trua, la, la, la." In its blue
black, an exquisite bit of harmony is
seen with the blending of the violets
below and the blue sky overhead. The
male cowbirds utter their hoarse twit-
ters in the tall trees along the way.
They and the crows are blackest crea-
tures seen. Yet black stumps and char-
red tree trunks are seldom their rest-
ing places, but oftener do they sit in
the upper tree tops, where their creak-

ing notes send a shudder through the
woodfolk. A pair of towhee buntings
is busily engaged in the thicket,
scratching away the last year's leaves
and probing about for insects. Song
sparrows trill their various roundelays
to every passer-by, and the field spar-
row sings its ditty over and over again.
Sweeter than all, is the vesper's simple
chant ; not too loud or too low, he sings
tenderly a few strains ; then drops
down among the sedges. The little
chipping sparrows flit about the low
bushes, and in one of them I find the
beginning of a hair-lined nest, hidden
away among the green leaves. Blue-
jays screech and scold in the trees and
the robins carol their love songs to
their responsive mates. Clear as a
flute, comes the call of the gray-crested
tit from the wood beyond. A cardinal
whistles a tune to his true love not
far away. Suddenly, a phoebe lights
on a bare, gray branch, singing its short
sweeping notes with a dash and vigor
that startles one with its action. A
red-headed woodpecker gives a loud
shriek as he flaps against a tree trunk
where he plants his colors, like those
of the German flag inverted — red,
white, and black In pleasing contrast,
to his shrieking calls are the contralto
notes of the white-breasted nuthatch,
as he climbs methodically up a tree ;
then uttering a low squeal he's ofT to
another one. The squall and mew of
the catbird takes me to the tangled
wayside growth, where I listen to bis
song — a spontaneous outburst of rich,
rolicking music.

Above the andante and allegretto of
weaker notes, rises the strong passion-
ate medley of the brown thrasher. He
is a choir to himself, singing each part
with the skill of an artist. In the thick-
et of thorn bushes, is his brooding
mate. Not a sound escapes her as she
sits cautiously watching the intruder.

The gate to the Avoods swings open,
and I enter. A cow-path leads to the
thicker growth and T follow it. Warb-

38o

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

lers only a few I see, but I hear the
thin, high-pitched notes of the yellow
warblers as they flit about in the top
of a thorny locust. A Maryland yellow
throat sings from the thicket of under-
brush. The common myrtle warbler
is on duty cleaning up the leaves of a
white oak. The yellow patches of his
coat showing plainly; one on the
crown, another on the rump, and one
on either side of his breast. From a
clump of isolated trees on the edge of
the wood, I hear the Black-burnian's
song. Like a miniature Baltimore ori-
ole, his black and rich orange uniform
attracts one's attention. His song, like
others of his kind, is fine and rather
shrill. "Tsee, tsee, tsee" he sings, —
not sweet, but rather inspiring. A red-
start flies across the trail. The rich
salmon illuminating the shadows like
a lightning bug that starts his fire in
the darkness after sundown.

The calls of the woodfolk would lead
me on and on into the very heart of the
big woods, but duty calls and I must
retrace mv steps homeward. A vaga-
bond am I, but one more secret of the
wild is mine. When the call comes
again, I shall heed it, for joy. peace and
rest come from following it.

Trees and Friends.

BY GERTRUDE O. PALMER, LAWRENCE,
KANSAS.

"If thou art worn and hard beset
With sorrows that thou wouldst forget,
If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep
Thy soul from fainting and thy soul from

sleep,
Go to the woods and hills! — No tears
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears."

Longfellow — "Sunrise on the Hills."

However lonely and far from home
and friends we may be, we are never
really friendless if we can have the
companionship of a tree, — a full grown
tree that has had a chance to express
itself completely. As one approaches
the shelter of the wide-spreading bran-
ches, he is conscious of a comforting
presence, of a cordial welcome, which
casts from him his care and worry and
makes his spirit glad. The branches
which beckoned at his approach, nov.-
in their swaying and rustling, murmur
words of comfort and sympathy to
him ; they move about as if to make
him comfortable and whisper in his ears
words which he feels he alone can un-
derstand. There he can rest and gain

back strength and courage for the con-
test of life.

From his comfortable seat at the
foot of the tree he looks out at the
other trees of the woods and pastures,
the hillside and the river-bank, seeing
in their varying sizes and forms the
characteristics of his many friends.

That small, rounded box-elder tree
and its neighbor, the compact little
quince, make him think of one or two
comfortable, self-satisfied, materialistic
friends of his whose thoughts and
needs never transcend their circum-
scribed, limited range.

But out in the middle of the pasture
stands a tall, wide-spreading oak, which
speaks to him of another friend, —
deep-natured, broad-sympathied, and
high-minded, strong, symmetrical and
noble.

Near-by, on the river-bank gracefully
bending and swaying, is a weeping-
willow, or rather in his mind's eye, that
languid, artistic, dependent friend of
his, no less dear to him than the tall
great oak. Under its silvery tresses is
offered a shelter more secluded and
charming than under any other ; a view
of the world more softened and beau-
tiful.

But far away on the hill-side, towers
another tree, another friend, whose
gift of comfort and shelter is not by
protection but by a message of inspira-
tion,— the tall and slender pine, like
his mystic, aspiring, poetic frend. In-
deed his willow speaks to him in poetic
music, but in soft and gentle music of
the heart, not like this one whose songs
are sung from the cool, strong heights
of the spirit. The true pine when given
room to grow, offers no broad recep-
tion hall at its feet, but spreads low,
wide branches to the ground, forbid-
ding the intimac}' of the willow and the
oak. When seeking its company, one
pauses near it at a proper distance
from its' prickly-leaved branches, o'"
lies in the shade behind it, listening in
rapt meditation to the harp high up in
its top, — to the lyric or ode of his friend
who lives constantly in the higher life
of things, or who if looking down sees
the lower only from above. In the
spicy scent of the cool, soft breezes
that blow through the branches, one
breathes of his atmosphere of inspira-
tion of keen spiritual life ; he indeed
offers his gift of love, the highest of all

THE OUTDOOR WORLD

381

the others, the gift of aspiration for that
which is purer and higher.

Thus do all the trees speak to one
who can hear them, thus do they repre-
sent the spirits and company of his
own far-away friends, thus do they
each bestow upon him their tokens of
friendship, and he returns to his labors
with a shining face, radiating the peace
and power of one who has not been
friendless or alone.

How Flowers Work, and What They
Do.

BY HERBE;RT W. FAULKNER, WASHINGTON,

CONNECTICUT.

As the spring has really come at last.

we will begin our excursions in search

of our old friends, the wild flowers, and

STAMEN P.ISTIL of WilD IRiS

I 3/\R PERRY

PlSTlL A STAMtNS

o-^' ■Rose. Po<*oni/s

Pistil of ptTCHtR- plant

STA MEN c]

see what new accjuaintances we can make
this season.

But in order to make oiu- studies truly
profitable we must not be satisfied merely
to know what the flowers are, but must
also at the same time try to find out what
they do. Flowers are not merely beauti-
ful living creatures ; they are also exquis-
ite and wonderful mechanisms whose
workings are most interesting. Their
mechanisms are for the making of seeds
or for their distribution. Now in the
making of seeds two substances must
combine. Just as in chemistry two chemi-
cal substances must combine to form a
crystal, so in botany two vegetable sub-
stances, the pollen and the ovule, must
combine to form a seed wihich shall live
and grow. The pollen, as we all know,
is a yellow powder, and the ovule is like a
little green bead. The pollen is produced
by little bags or anthers on a long, slen-
der filament ; the two being the "stamen."
The ovule is formed and concealed in a
green vase, the "pistil," with a long" neck,
the "style," opening at the top in the
"stigma "

The pollen is carried from the anthers
to the stigma by various agencies, such
as the wind, the bees and the birds, but
it has been found that it is better for the
race of plants to have the pollen carried
from the anthers of one flower to the
stigma of another, for this makes the
young seedlings more robust and better
able to fight the struggle for existence
This shifting of the pollen from flower to
flower is known as cross-fertilization, or
cross-pollination, and Dame Nature takes
the greatest pains to make sure that the
pollen is crossed. She invents the most
ingenious mechanisms for the purpose,
employs insects of every variety, lures
them with every charm of color, odor and
nectar, and takes advantage of each one
of their peculiar habits and tricks to make
them work for the good of the flowers.
But there are very few books which tell
us anything about the strange mechanisms
of flowers and the habits of the insects
which visit them.

The botanies seem to confine them-
selves to the mere recoignizing and classi-
fving of our flowers, treating them as
soecimens. not as living creatures, with
schemes and ambitions. Yet the subject
is so full of interest that I hope my read-
ers will accomnnay me in manv excur-
sions this summer and will question a
host of our native flowers as to those

0°^

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

schemes and ambitions and try to find
out the secrets of their Hves.

It is always fun to collect something,
such as stamps, coins, postcards or dried
flowers. But let us begin a new kind of
collection^ — one composed of the mechan-

ORCH15 SPECTABILIS

ism of the tlowers. This will consist of
sketches of the various parts, showing-
how they work, and before the season is
over we shall have a line of inventions
and discoveries to rival the Patent Office.
We shall find the stamens and pistils of
our plants exhibiting extraordinary vari-
ety and modifications, and will discover
that each grotesque twist and distortion
of these organs is to help along the main
purpose of the cross-fertilization of the
flower

In the sketches here given will be seen
several stamens and pistils of quaint and
odd forms. In May you will find several
flowers which bear their pollen on one

plant and form their seeds on the other.
Gather and examine some jack-in-the-
pulpits and you will find minute pistillate
flowers on the "clapper'' of one bell and
staminate flowers upon another. The jack
which makes the pollen fades before the
season is far advanced, while the pistil-
late flowers develop into gorgeous bunch-
es of red berries.

Examine the barberry flower with a
strong magnifying glass and you will
find it to be arranged like a minute sea
anemone. Gently introduce the point of
a pin into the cup of the flower and you
will observe the spreading stamens curl
toward the center as if alive and they will
shed their pollen on your pin as they
would do upon a bee's head. This bar-
berry flower is a veritable sensitive plant
and thus senids its charge of pollen away
to another flower upon the furry coat of a
faithful messenger.

In May, too, we have the showy orchis
whose lovely blossoms with purple hoods
and white bibs suggest the head of a
monk with his cowl. Here the pollen is
in the form of two clubs, and these are
found in two small pockets where they
can attach themselves to the head of an
insect visitor You can "play the bee"
by using the point of a match or a pencil
and can withdraw the pollen masses from
their pockets just as the insect does.

Next month we will take up in greater
detail the ways and means of cross-fertil-
ization of the flowers, and study their
msect friends as well.

The roots of forest trees begin to grow
in April and continue up to winter until
the soil becomes too cold. During dry
summers, there may be as much as five
weeks of resting period when no growth
occurs.

A single bullfrog, Raaa catcshiana, is
reported by a correspondent of "Science"
to have been seen to stalk and devour
five black swallowtail butterflies within
a half-hour. As the insects hovered
about the bank, the frog left the water,
crawled toward its prey, covered the last
foot of distance with a single jump and
caught the butterfly in its mouth. The
observation is claimed to be unique.

In coronation robes

The sunset clothes our heights,
And the moon with them doth share

The splendor of her nights.

— Emma Peirce.

ORNITHOLOGY

383

ORNITHOLOGY

iSll

m

All communications for this department
should be sent to the Department Editor,
Mr. Harry G. Higbee, 13 Austin Street,
Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Items, articles
and photographs in this department not
otherwise credited are by the Department
Editor

Our Distinguished Visitors from the
Northwest.

From the western part of the great
province of Alberta, — the home of the
evening grosbeak in the Canadian
Northwest, — lo the little group of our

being set ofif by the conspicuous wings
of black with a large patch of white,
and a black tail. On the top of the
head is a black patch nearly surround-
ed by a broad yellow band which runs
just over the dark hazel eye and across
the forehead ; while the large, thick
bill is pinkish-white. The general col-
ors of the female are soft grayish-
brown, with greenish-yellow about the
neck and shoulders, and faint dark-
er streaks on the back and top
of the head. Their black wings

FEEDING ON THE DRIED FRUIT OF THE JAPANESE CRAB.

New England states on the Atlantic
coast is about three thousand miles,
yet now^ and then these beautiful birds,
which but rarely visit the United States
except in winter, wander in small
flocks to our shores, to the delight of
bird-lovers wherever they may appear.
The evening grosbeak, — about the
size and build of our well-known rose-
breasted grosbeak," — is a strikingly
handsome species ; — the general mark-
ings of the male being a bright yellow
on the shoulders, sides, rump and bel-
ly ; shading to yellowish-brown on the
lireast. throat and back : these colors

and tail are conspicuously marked with
white spots and blotches, and the bill
shows a decided tint of greenish-yel-
low.

During the past winter an exception-
al number of these birds have been
reported in the eastern states, although
with the exception of the notable
flights of 1890 and 191 1, but few spec-
imens have been previously reported
from this part of the country.

Lexington, Beverly, Brookline, Mil-
ton, West Roxbury, Boston, Leomin-
ster and Lancaster are some of the
places where small flocks have been

384

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

EVENING GROSBEAKS AT REST AMONG THE llTRCHES.

seen this winter in Massachusetts.
Meriden, N. H., had a flock of thirty ;
Lebanon, thirty-six, while Concord,
Nashua, Woodsville and Hanover were
also visited. We have received reports
of these birds from Port Chester. N.
Y., Bennington, Vermont and West-
brook, Maine, and it will doubtless be
found that the invasion has covered a
much more extended area than here
mentioned.

The beauty of these birds ; their ap-
parent fearlessness of man, and their
regular visitations to certain feeding
grounds, have made them objects of
special attraction wherever they have
become known.

'SECURELY CAUGHT IN THE STRONG MESH.

The accompanying photographs were
taken by the writer at Lexington,
Massachusetts, where pilgrimages
were made to study the small flock
visiting that town.

Here a flock of six birds came regu-
larly about eight o'clock in the morn-
ing to feed upon the dried apples of a
Japanese crab ; this tree being abun-
dantly laden with the small cherry-
like fruit which remains in clusters at-
tached to the twigs throughout the
winter. They were reported as feeding
])reviously upon the clinging seeds of
an ash-leaved maple nearby, and after
having practically stripped this tree of
its seeds, they resorted to the crab.
I also observed them later feeding on
berries of the poison ivy ; upon birch
seeds, and upon the pits, or stones of
wild cherry. These pits, they would
turn in their powerful bills until they
were placed just right, when they
would easily crack them open, reject-
ing the hard outer shells and eating
the soft inner pulp.

Their manners in feeding and mov-
ing about were leisurely, and they
seemed to pay no attention to obser-
vers a few yards away. No notes were
heard from these birds while feeding,
but in each instance, just before taking
flight, a low, chirping call was given
In' one of the males ; then answered by
the others, when they would suddenly
all take wing at once, flying in a com-
]iact flock, with a strong, slightly undu-
latins: flisfht.

ORNITHOLOGY

385

While at rest in the birches, these
birds would occasionally utter a soft
warble, similar to that of the pur])le
finch.

As the birds flew from this grove,
an unusual incident occurred which
nearly resulted in the death of one
of the fine males. A high, chicken-wire
fence nearby was evidently not seen,
and this bird, flying violently against
the wire about eight feet from the
ground, became so securely caught in
the strong mesh, with its head and part
of one wing through the wire, that it
it could not move either way. Releas-
ing the unfortunate bird, I had the
pleasure of holding this beautiful spec-
imen in my hand and closely examin-
ing it, and also of finding that it was
able to fly; learning later that it had
joined its fellows and was observed
with them daily, suffering only the loss
of a good many of its fine feathers.

Several evening grosbeaks have been
reported to have been caught by cats.
and a number of the flocks have some-
what diminished in number since first
observed. It is probable that their
natural environment in the great north
west has caused them to be fearless of
man and his civilized surroundings,
and that they have yet to learn that
"eternal vigilance is the price of life," —
especially for beautiful, forest-bred
creatures when they visit our city
vards and suburban waysides.

Bird-Fishers.

BY H. STUART DOVE. M.R. A. O. U. MEM-
BER TAS. FlEED NAT. CLUB, WEST DEVON-
PORT, TASMANIA.

The other afternoon I was watching
some crested terns (Sterna bergii. Lichf.)
taking fish from the waters of Bass
Strait, which divide Tasmania from Aus-
tralia. The birds were evidently follow-
ing up small fry, for they dived only a
short distance out from the 'beach, in the
shallow water just behind a breaking
wave. One of them seemed much more
exoert than his fellows, for he would go
in half a dozen times in five minutes, and
aDparently secure his Drey each time : the
others, perhaps only once in three or four
minutes.

Nothing could be more graceful than
the evolutions of these "sea-swallows"
with lonsr wings and forked tails, twist-
ing- and tnrnino- ?s they made their de-
scent as if follo'^'ing every movement of
the fish which was marked for their own

One would frequently take up his station
just opposite where 1 was sitting, and
hover, kestrel-like, with rapidly vibrat-
ing wings, at a height of about twenty
to twenty-five feet above the water ; the
black-capped head bent down, the eyes
searching for prey beneath. When head-
on in this way he reminded me of nothing
so much as a gigantic hummingbird
hawk-moth hovering in front of a Innicli
of blossoms.

Several seasons ago I was privileged
to witness a wonderful spectacle in the
invasion of these waters by thousands of
large gannets {Siila australia, Gould).
Although I have repeatedly watched these
fine birds diving oft" the coast of New
South Wales and elsewhere, yet I never
remember seeing them in such great num-
bers as on this occasion.

There is a quiet stretch of sea water
resembling a large lake just to the east
of Devonport breakwater, by which it is
sheltered from the prevailing "wester-
lies." Into this, on a fine afternoon, the
gannets would tumble by dozens and
scores from a good height in the air,
reminding the observer of a huge shower
of snowflakes as the beautiful white
plumage glistened in the sun's rays. It
was marvellous how they avoided strik-
ing each other when they descended in
such numbers and with such velocity, —
each apparently oblivious of everything
except that one small object which it had
sighted beneath the surface. The greater
the depth, the higher does the bird ascend
in order to gain sufficient impetus to reach
his prey. The descent is a literal "head-
er," the gannet usually entering the waves
nearly vertically, and with a distinct
splash : a perceptible interval elapsing be-
fore he reappears some little distance
away, giving his yellowish beak a twist
backwards and forwards after swallow-
ing his prey.

The gannet usually sits for a few
seconds upon the water before taking an-
other turn aloft, thus differing from the
tern, which takes to its wings the moment
it reaches the surface. When diving in
shallow water close to the rocks, the gan-
net begins its descent from a height of
ten or twelve feet only. In making the
dive the wings are not closed, as is usual-
ly supposed, at the beginning of the de-
scent, but remain exiianded until the l^ird
is close to the surface, and apDarently
assist in guiding it to the exact spot. It
then claps them suddenly to the side of

386

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

the body, and the admirable adaptability
of its shape to the aquatic life may be
well seen just as it enters the water— the
long beak, head, neck and body stretched
out rigidly in one straight line; the legs
and wings tucked closely in — everything
arranged so as to offer as little resistance
to the water as possible. Few prettier
sights can be imagined than a company
thus engaged in diving on a fine spring
afternoon, — the bright sunshine above
and the blue waters of the Strait beneath.
In the case of the terns, the dive is a
much smaller affair, the birds not enter-
ing the water to any depth, and in some
cases only half submerging itself. It
rises immediately on the wing again, and
the prey must be swallowed directly it is
seized, for I have not been able to see
anything held in the beak. Thus it differs
from another "bird-fisher," the cormo-
rant, which usually comes to the surface
and adjusts its captive to a comfortable
position for swallowing. On a river near
Table Cape, on this coast, I saw a cor-
morant rise to the surface with a small
flounder held in its beak, which it made
vigorous attempts to gulp down, but in
vain : it then flew to a tree some distance
away, where doubtless the unfortunate
captive was soon battered into a more
convenient shape.

Bird-Lore's Christmas Census.

The sixteenth annual bird-census
conducted by "Bird-Lore" was taken
as usual at the Christmas season, and
its results published in the January-
February number of that magazine.
A summary of the one hundred and
sixty-four reports there given shows
the general scarcity of winter residents
or irregular visitants coming from the
north, while many birds expected to be
farther south have spent the winter in
localities that would seem to indicate
that the climatic conditions had little
to do with their movements.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania seem
to be about the northern winter range
of the bluebird. Flickers, song spar-
rows, myrtle warblers, robins and
meadowlarks appear to be wintering
throughout our north-eastern states in
greater numbers than formerly. Star-
lings seem to be extending their range,
though most abundantly reported from
New York and New Jersey. Cardinals
were reported from many places ; two
as far north as London, Ontario. Wolf-
ville, N. S., reported a vesper sparrow.

A catbird, a kingfisher and a Carolina
wren were reported from Long Island,
N. Y.

A single flock of two thousand cow-
birds were seen in Nashville, Tenn.
Crows, though comparatively scarce
in the northern states, were reported
in large numbers in the middle south-
ern states, — showing a slight migra-
tory movement. Five thousand were
reported by one observer from Cul-
peper, Va. Very few bobwhites were
reported in any of the lists. Millbrook
Ontario, reported thirty red-polls, and
a few others were reported from Con-
necticut.

A party from Los Angeles, Califor-
nia, reports the largest number of birds
seen in a single day, — numbering 9,131
individuals, representing 121 species.
The observing party was divided into
eight sections. One hundred and six-
teen species were reported from Santa
Barbara, California.

One of the most interesting lists was
that of Dr. Winsor M. Tyler, of Lex-
ington, Mass., who, with two others,
observed thirty-two species, number-
ing 1,188 individuals at Wareham,
Mass. This list includes eleven blue-
birds, tw^enty song sparrows, two pine
warblers, tw^enty-four meadowlarks,
three vesper sparrows, two savanna
sparrows and a kingfisher.

Migrations of the Bobolink.

The bobolink, being a lover of damp
meadows, has for many thousand years
been shut off from our Pacific States
by the barrier of the arid lands. At the
present time, however, the progress of
irrigation has established fertile spots
throughout the region by way of which
the birds can cross. Small colonies,
therefore, are beginning to nest each
summer on the western side of the dry
rountrv almost to the coast of the
Pacific.

Apparently, however, the birds con-
tinue to migrate by their old route, go-
ing first north on their former track
and then turning west, instead of cut-
ting straight across by the nearest
wav.

Oh mountains vast and high,

That touch the blue of sky,

Thy battlements, so stern and cold.
The setting sun has turned to gold,

Xow with his glory vie.

— Emma Peirce.

ORNITHOLOGY

387

A Study of the Louisiana Water
Thrush.

BY IDA E. EICHIIORX, liARNESVILLE, OHIO.
(Photograph by C. C. Steele.)
Last summer we had a splendid oppor-
tunity for studying among picturesque
surroundings, the home life of this wild,
thrush-like bird, where a cool stream
helps to make an ideal location. It wades

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A YOUNG LOUISIANA WATER THRUSH SOON
AFTER LEAVING THE NEST.

about in the shallow water in search of
food and seems to have some of the traits
of sandpipers, especially the habit of
"tipping up," and making serious bows,
very much emphasized by pert, little calls
of "chink!" The male birds flies up and
down the glen every ten or fifteen min-
utes, giving his familiar call as he dashes
back and forth.

One beautiful morning in May, we
were watching and waiting for birds,
when suddenly a bird flew up on a fence
post and sang a song, wild and clear, but
sweet. Going closer we saw four or five
more birds of the same kind wading
about getting an early breakfast. One
pair of them decided to locate their home
on the bank of this pretty stream, giving
us an unusual opportunity to study them.

Wandering down the stream one day,
we suspected from the actions of this pair.

that we were in the vicinity pf their nest.
We searched, but in vain. If we went up
stream they went down : when we went
down, they darted through the bushes
and we would hear their "chink ! chink X'
behind us, and see them standing in the
water, bowing us a polite but most em-
phatic good-bye. The next day we re-
turned and hid in a clump of high weeds,
but neither of the birds seemed to be at
home. Suddenly we heard the now fainil-
iar call of "chink ! chink !" We remained
very quiet and motionless, and were re-
warded by hearing a chorus of little
fellows calling lustily for their lunCh,
After the parent birds had flown down
the glen again we started to search where
we thought the nest must be, but what a
hunt it was, for by this time the young
birds had heard us and were as still as
mice. Finally we found the nest under
an overhanging bank of the stream. It
was a rounded-out place, lined with
grasses and leaves, and contained five
almost grown birds. The day before we
had passed it a dozen times and had
stood on the path not a yard above it.

We could not return for several days be
cause of the heav}- rains. On Decoration
Day the rain ceased and we went back,
but the birds had flown. However, we
pulled away the over-hanging grasses and
photographed the nest. Mr. Dawson in
his "Birds of Ohio," makes the statement,
"There be those who claim to know the
nest of the Louisiana water thrush, but
the author is not one of them." So we
wanted some proof of actually having
found the nest.

By the time the photograph of the nest
was secured the parents had returned and
by their comduct we decided that the
little birds were very near. After search-
ing we found only two of them and by
this time the old birds were frantic with
fear. They tried to draw us away by
feigning broken wings, flying down the
stream dragging their tail and wings in
the water, and making pitful calls and
pleadings.

One young bird we found perched on
a branch, on a very steep bank. After
the camera had been placed near this
bird, as the other one was not in a desir-
able location, the mother bird changed her
tactics, and darted up the bank, endeavor-
ing to brush the little bird off the branch
with her wing; then she flew up into the
woods dragging her apparently broken

.^.88

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

wing, and returned in a few minutes to
start all over again.

After cutting dowiii some saplings we
finally succeeded in taking the little fel-
low's first photograph, and how nicely
and patiently he posed, for we about an
hour obtaining it.

We are looking forward to the return
of the water thrushes this spring, when
we shall surely observe and study their in-
teresting habits even more closely than we
did last year. We wonder if this bird will
be among them, or if he will make his
home near some other little stream.

The Whippoorwill.

BY KDWIX L. JACK, PORTLAND, M.MXK.

That the whippoorwill is of nocturnal
habits and is provided with a wonderful
plumage of protective coloring and has
a love for the more solitary woodlands,
are the three main reasons whv so few

brooding, so closely does the whij^poor-
will clin.g- to her eggs, and so much does
she resemble a dead snag on the ground,
that a person may frequently approach
within four or five feet before discover-
ing her. When the bird does leave her
eggs it is done so quickly and quietly as
to be almost uncanny. Like a shadow
and without a sound she rises into the
air on a pair of swallow-like wings and
vanishes among the foliage.

The whippoorwill makes no attempt at
nest building, a slight depression on the
ground, on an old log or rock, serving
as a receptacle for the two creamy eggs
which are thickly speckled with brown,
relying on her own protective col ring-
to shield them from danger.

A peculiarity of the whippoorwill in
rearing her young is that if the nest is
discovered the parent birds will move the
young to another location even when only
a few davs old. The vouuig birds here

NEST AND EGGS OF WHIPPOORWILL

people are acquainted with the birds.

Throughout the day they remain hid-
den in the seclusion of the deep woods,
but as the sun sinks toward the horizon,
when the hermit thrush, that incompar-
able songster of the woodlands, mounts
his choir loft and chants his vesper song,
when the day is slowly fading into the
mystery and tranquillity of an evening
late in June, then the whippoorwill begins
his activities. Flying on swift wings, he
goes sailing over the lowlands in his
search for insects which he catches in
his gaping mouth, and as he rests sends
forth his weird cry, "whip-poor-will,
whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will"

If confronted in the daytime while

illustrated, when only five davs old, were
found at least eight feet from the original
location of their nest.

Young whippoorwills are a light tan
color and remain in the downy stage for
some time before the pin feathers develop.
They have queer little feet which appear
to be w^eak, for these birds never light
on a small limb to which they would be
oblig'ed to cling. A wide limb or rock,
or frequently the ground itself, serves
as a resting place.

The whippoorwill is often mistaken
for the nighthawk which it resembles in
many ways, but may be distinguished by
the three outside tail feathers which are
white-

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38';

YOUXG WHIPPOORWILLS SIX DAYS OI.I).

• Set previous pagel.

A Humming Bird's Nest.

BY KATE M. ROADS, HILLSBORO, OHIO.

The brilliant plumage combined with
the diminutive size and agility makes
the "ruby-throat," one of our most
charming and interesting" summer vis-
itors.

Motior. is always associated with them,
but close observation shows that they
frequently rest, and especially is this
true at the nesting^ season.

\ single individual before a bright
blossom holds our undivided attention ;

but one sunsliiny afternoon it was kept
at its highest pitch by watching several
pairs of these bewitching fairies as they
dipped tlieir slender bills into the spurred
petals of the hixuriant Aquilegia which
jutted out from every crevice and crariny
of the "Xiagaran" limestone which forms
the steep hillside.

As the males flitted from flower to
flower the metallic ruby-red throat
sparkled like a gem in the dazzling sun-
light.

The discovery of a nest on June 24,

I TiiiiialiiiBMiBi

NIGMTMAWK

WE niMi-:x HEAR Till-: W HI l-J'UORW U 1 , I'.l' I SEE THE MGHTHAWK

390

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

1912, was due perhaps as much to the
nest itself as to the excited and irritable
movements of the birds, not more than
fifteen feet away.

Frequent visits had been made and
their actions observed by several per-
sons, but all had failed to discern their
purpose until after the nest had been com-
pleted and the eggs deposited. About
ten feet from the ground, a lichen adorn-
ed nest was "saddled" on' top of a small
"lichen-less" maple limb where two small
twigs projected, — one on either side. This
wonderful bit of bird architecture was
made of plant down "delicately woven
with very small fibers" into a down};,
flexible cup-shaped nest. Notwithstand-
ing its flexibility, it retained its shape
until after the young had flown. It was
ornamented externally by bits of over-
lapping lichens. Its outside diameter was
one and one-half inches and the inside
diameter one inch at the top ; the outside
height being one and three-eighth inches
and the inside height, three-fourths of
an indh.

The other birds were determined to
destroy this home, but the mother's agility
and formidable weapon, her bill, served
her well, putting to flight in one day a
robin, flicker and blue jay. The quick
fiery temper of the parents was shown
best after the advent of the youmg when
they would attack anything.

When the nest was approached the
mother bird would fly off ; perch upon a
near-b}' lim'b, and when she thought she
was unobserved would slide on with a
swift gliding movement.

At their first flight they left us to return
no more.

A Village Bird Warden.

The New England town of Dover,
Mass., has the first bird warden ever
appointed by a municipality in the
United States. During the two years
he has been in office there has been a
very noticeable increase in the num-
ber of birds in that section. At the
time when the warden was appointed
the townspeople were asked, to co-
operate with him by allowing their
land to be posted against gunners,
trappers, and snarers ; by reporting
the presence of red squirrels ; also re-
porting stray, wild or unowned cats.
The people were urged to erect bird
houses and feeding boxes.

The bird warden erected a largfe

number of bird houses at the edge of
the woods and swamps and around
fields and orchards and placed them
through the village near dwelling
houses. During the winter feed boxes
with grain and suet were provided.
Several hundred "No Hunting" signs
were erected with most satisfactory
results. A tract of 1,000 acres of land,
located near Dover and owned by Mr.
Richard W. Hale, of Boston, has been
set aside as a State bird sanctuary. —
National Humane Review.

Attention !

Meriden, Conn.
To the Editor :

In these days of general distribution of
useful knowledge and advice through
publications, nothing else than the indif-
ference of the people is responsible for
great changes in the wild life and vege-
tation, which we now have great reason
to regret. The change may be first made
by accident, for personal gain regardless
of results to others, or as an experiment,
but it is the indifference of the people
that is responsible for not correcting by
personal effort and legislative action any
disastrous change while there is yet time.

Foreign insects and weeds are robbing
our vegetation of its foliage and food-
Corporations have built dams, and cities
are emptyin.g sewerage into public rivers,
which has resulted in a public loss of the
Atlantic salmon, sturgeon, alewives and
a large part of the shad- The English
sparrow has spread over the continent,
and the starling is about to do the same,
all because of the indifference of the
people — many members of The Agassiz
Association included. This is an un-
pleasant announcement, but who can
deny its truth?

In the February issue of The Guide to
Nature I asked for witnesses who would
testify either for or against the English
starling in America by writing to me an
account of their losses or benefits by
reason of these birds. This would mean
an expense of about three cents for post-
age and paper, and not over fifteen min-
utes' time. I do not know the circulation
of your magazine, or the number of Aas-
siz students who study it thoroughly, but
of the hundreds who probably read my
article I have received but two answers.
Both are pathetic appeals, from different
states, to save our native birds from these
invaders, and indorse mv own observa-

ORNITHOLOGY

391

tions that the bluebird and woodpeckers
are doomed unless action is taken against
the starlin:g.

I believe that the cause of the great
indifference of the people in these sub-
jects of national importance is that
nature study is not playing a sufihciently
important part in our educational sys-
tems, even including the high schools.
The great bulk of our eastern population
is interested in the pursuit of the
almighty dollar through mechanical in-
dustries, but a greater proportion of the
rising generation must be interested
mainly in a happy and healthful life, in
the production, from natural resources,
of their daily bread, or there will always
be war.

My appeal is for your assistance to
save ovir native birds from the invading
starling.

Lester W. Smith.

Unfortunately many who claim an in-
terest in nature have no vital interest
which stirs them to action- They are
only superficially interested and do not
care to make any effort in this great
w^ork- They want the w^ork done and are
often loud in their praises, but they will
not exert themselves to share in it, much
as it may affect them or their future
living. An amount equal to more than
ten dollars for every man, woman and
child in the United States and its posses-
sions is the annual loss by destructive
insects to our agriculture, yet how many
bestir themselves to any serious consider-
ation of this fact and that bird conserva-
tion and proper laws would eliminate a
large part of such loss?

Our magazine has a present circulation
of about three thousand copies, spread
over the United States and some to
foreign countries.

During the past six months an effort
has been made to secure the help of or-
nithologists in making this department of
lively interest and a practical help to our
magazine. Considerable expenditure has
been put upon it and Dr. Bigelow has
been generous in allowing us space. We
greatly appreciate the response from our
contributors. We can increase our use-
fulness by having more items from a
wider source- Original observation is
what we want. Let us all help.

The "starling question" is by no means
settled, and it is not yet too late to settle
it. Notes covering a wide range by many
observers are necessarv to determine

practical results. Never mind what you
think about the starling, but write Mr.
Smith what you have seen and what you
kiun,' about it.— And DO IT NOW.

— H. G. H.

Swifts and Weather.

West Devonport, Tasmania,

Australia.
To the Editor: —

Some notes under this heading ap-
peared in The Guide to Nature for
August. 1915. On the evening of the
twenty-fourth of February, 1916, a
considerable flight of the spine-tailed
swift was noticed from half past six
until seven o'clock, the birds passing,
not in a compact mass, but in a strag-
gling way, as is their wont. I could
detect them in the west, rising as it
were from the horizon, coming gradu-
ally overhead, then passing away to east
and southeast, feeding as they went,
as could be observed by their move-
ments. They flew at various heights,
from thirty feet up to three or four
hundred, and must have devoured
large quantities of insects during their
passage. Their appearance was coinci-
dent, as before, with atmospheric dis-
turbance, a heavy thunderstorm having
occurred on the previous day. On the
afternoon of the dav on which they
were seen, heavy black clouds were
visible to the westward, from which
direction they came. By the papers
next day we learned that a tremendous
dampness had been experienced in
that quarter.

H- Stuart Dove.

More Wrens' Nests of Wire.

Benton Harbor, Michigan.
To the Editor :

One of the first things that I noticed
in your April number was the article on
wrens' house furnishings of wire. For
tw^o years wrens have built in .some bo'ttle
or dipper gourds of mine, also in a small
box house, and in all cases the nest was
mostly constructed of wire. I never read
of a similar instance until your magazine
came to hand. In the gourds a big hand-
ful of wire^staples much twisted wire
(as from chicken fence netting), hair-
pins, nails tw^o inches long and appar-
ently as heavy as the birds themselves —
also a little yarn that I had put out for
them and a few twigs were used. It
was suggested that the gourds were so

392

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

deep they needed a hig^i foundation, but
the bird box had the opening near the
floor and yet nearly the same amount
of wire was used. So I have ahiiost
decided that the birds use the wire for
ventilation. The fact, however, is inter-
esting and it is one house cleaning time
in which 1 am much interested, to see
what is inside of each wire nest.

Grace H. Poole.

Another Unusual Wren's Nest.

^Meriden, Connecticut.
To the Editor :

In the April number of The GrjiDE To
Nature the item entitled, "Wren's Nest
Built of Wiie,"" especially interested me
as I had a somewhat similar builder ui)o:i
my premises last summer.

Late in May a solitary house wren
visited a small bird house that 1 had
placed in a wild cherry tree, ?nd after
a careful examination began to carry in
building material. Wrens had used this
house the year before, and I had carefully
cleaned it, hoping that they would lease
it for another season. Consequently I
v/atched with great satisfaction as the
male sang his glad song and busied him-
self in constructing the nest. But his
mate appeared to be missing.

Eor several days he worked about the
place, but if he brought a prospective
bride the home or the prospects could
not have been satisfactory for the nest
remained unoccupied.

In November the bird house was taken
down and the nest building material was
found to contain twenty-six pieces of
rusty wire from poultry netting, three
nails and two safety pins besides the
usual supply of twigs.

If wrens continue to search for metallic
building material, they will become the
favorite birds of the junk dealers this
summer.

Lester W. Smith.

Fearless Prairie Horned Larks.

Uniontown, Penna.
To the Editor :

About the middle of March, after
most of the birds had returned from
the South, we had a sudden cold snap
accompanied by a heavy fall of snow
and many of the birds Avere driven
into the outskirts of the city in search
of food. While returning home on the
evening of the 15th, I noticed feeding

with the English sparrows in the street
a pair of unusual birds, which I sur-
mised to be a species of the horned
lark. The male was light grayish in
color, with black bands on the head
and throat and a small tuft of black
feathers on each side of the head, re-
sembling horns His mate was darker
in color and lacked the horns.

Both birds were very tame and, when
I stood motionless for a few minutes,
they hopped up within three feet of me
and' seemed absolutely fearless. When
a wagon or street-car passed, they
would fly up with a little "tsee" and
soon settle to feeding again. I do not
know whether these birds are consider-
ed rare or not, but I have never before
seen them in this vicinity.

Robert C. Miller.

^ ^ ■^ ^,: ^,:

These birds were probably prairie
horned larks, and while usually inhc.b-
iting old pastures and barrens, should
not be uncommon in this general local-
ity.—H. G. H.

Since the burning of the Dominion
Parliament building, both branches of
the Canadian legislature have had to
be housed in the nearby Museum of
the Geological Survey.

The Italian government has at length
waked up to the long-standing crime
of slaughtering song birds for food. '^^
law went into el^ect on January first
prohibiting the shooting of all song
and insectivorous birds through the
kingdom. Since Italy is in the path of
the annual migrations, the results of
this new legislation may prove far-
reachins:.

The remarkably warm January of this
year in eastern United States had its
counterpart in England. The records of
the Greenwich Observatory, which are
virtually complete for a century, show
that the past January outdid the famous
January of 1834 by a whole degree in
average temperature, equalled the still
more remarkable January of 1841, and
has not been matched within two degrees
in any year since. Five times, in Eng-
land, in the last thirty years, Aprils have
been colder than this January. In seven-
tv-five vears only two Decembers and one
Februarv have been as waruL

a^ Sw ■s5?i

THE IXTEREST IN INSECTS

393

Animal Intelligence Again.

BY HEXRY O- FALK oF SCKIPI'S IXSTITU-
TION FOR BIOLOGICAI, RESEARCH OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

[illustrations by STUART s. taber].
I was mildly puzzled. I had seen
flies, spiders, and moths in the house ;
occasionally also a flea, a so\v-bug, or
a centipede ; but that cra\vling thing
on the wall of our dining room looked
like some shapeless parazoan. Closer
attention showed that the focus of mv

T^s-'^^e

"THIS 'LANGI'AGE- IS SPOKEN WITHOUT
EDLXATION."

interest was only a harmless piece of
cake. Incredulity challenged sense ex-
perience. The walls of the room are
dark brown, and what I am relating oc-
ciuTed in the evening ; so conditions of
place and time greatly assisted in the
illusion, if they did not entirely pro-
duce it. A piece of cake, three-quarters
of an inch by one-half an inch, was
making steady progress up the wall.

I rose from the dinner table resolved
to get more light on this singular event.
Has the reader guessed or must I tell
him that the motive power behind the
cake was a dozen or so ants? The
burden was many times larger and
heavier than the combined size and
weight of this self-constituted gang.
Any working at cross-purposes would
have been fatal to this social under-
taking. But co-o])eration was seem-

:^^'=*l^ '^ ^^ 8^ ^^ ^ §^ ^ ^

ingh' perfect. The course they took is
sketched m the accompanying dia-
gram. I followed the progress of the
work in mute wonder. Yes, I thought
I discerned an underlying purpose. The
ants did not choose the easiest way,
nor did they wander about aimlessly.
Quite the contrary. They heaved and
tugged with a will, steering straight
ahead for their destination despite ob-
stacles and depressions. As the dia-
gram shows, the trail followed was the
shortest and most direct, although not
the easiest.

Other ants scurried up and down the
wall. Most, of them paid little or no
heed to the extraordinary labors of
their neighbors. But now and then
one of the wayfarers approached, and
upon finding a vacant place somewhere
on the edge of the cake, took hold and
thereby incorporated itself into the
gang. Thus the numbers swelled, each
addition resulting in augmented eft'ec-
tiveness.

The aft'air sailed along smoothlv
enough until a corner of the ceiling
was reached. Here is an aperture due
to imperfect joining of the ceiling with
the wall. Through this the ants came
into the house, indicating the presence
of a nest somewhere beyond, and here
they dragged their precious burden.
The diameter of the cake was easilv
twice or perhaps three times the width
of the crack. My ants addressed them-
selves to the impossible task of pulling
the cake through it. Retracing their
steps a little, they crossed the mouth
of the aperture, crept along one of its
lips, then along the other, entered the
crevice pulling the cake after them, or
remained outside pushing the cake be-
fore them — all to no avail. For three
hours the ants strove to deposit the
cake in the aj)erture. I made observa-
tions at frequent intervals but the sit-
uation remained unchanged. The jiiece

394

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

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J.

Win

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wo

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Or

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THE IXTEREST IX IX SECTS

395

of cake remained as large as ever, and
the ants seemed as helpless as ever,
though their labors were not a whit re-
laxed.

A child asked, "Whv don't they
break it and take it in piecemeal?" Ah,
that question touches the crux of the
problem. It marks the fork in the road,
one prong leading to human behavior,
the other to ant behavior. To carr}
the cake from the floor to the aperture
was a great achievement requiring pro-
longed co-operative effort. But to get
it beyond this called for a big dose of
adaptive intelligence. Here was a
brand new situation which had to 1-e
luet in a brand new way. It was evi-
dentally necessary to reduce the cake
to smaller units, small enough to per-
mit their going through the narrow
opening. A group of men would have
gone right after this. But ant intel-
ligence could not rise to the emer-
gency. They knew only to be busy as
ants, to imitate their more alert com-
rades, to work together, to drag and
push, to try again, and over and over
again.

I made my last observation at about
ten o'clock. I had been out of the
room for half an hour. Returning I
turned on a light and mounted my ob-
servatory, a wooden box on a chair. I
was not at attention more than two or
three seconds when the ants loosened
their hold and the cake toppled to the
floor. Poor little creatures, to lose all
after so much toil ! Was it the sudden
change of light, my breath, or both
that induced them to drop their load?
Did fatigue have anything to do with
it? My impression is that I came too
near and that they were suddenly
alarmed on becoming aware of my
breath. I permitted the cake to re-
main where it had fallen on the floor.
The following morning it had disap-
peared.

At one time or another who has not
watched the ceaseless, tireless labors
of ants? And as he watched who has
not marvelled at their feverish tasks
performed almost always in comrade-
ship ? And as he marvelled who has
not been tempted to explore the crypts
of the animal mind? And as he ex-
plored, who has not asked questions
which no biologist, no psychologist, no
philosopher could answer certainly?
The community life of ants, their end-
less toiling, the division of labor

among their fixed castes, and their cos-
mopolitan distribution, are all so sug-
gestive of human society that their ap-
peal to men's imagination is well nigh
universal. Zoologist and layman,
adult and child, are struck by many
analogies with human life ; all are
charmed and interested though the
a\enuc of approach is different in each
case.

While we should avoid sinning with
earlier observers in "humanizing the
brute," (as Wasmann, eniinent ento-
mologist and Jesuit priest, happily
phrases it) we must also avoid the
opposite temptation to regard animals,
even the most primitive ones, as mere
chemicophysical automatons, capable
of making only stereotyped "reactions"
to outside contacts- — much as a self-
vending machine drops you a packet
of gum, chocolate, or peanuts, depend-
ing on the slot chosen to insert the
coin. This assumption is the outcome
of a highly perfected laboratory tech-
nique, admirable in itself and in its re-
sults, but at best capable of getting
only half the story. Abundant field
study, that is, an examination of nature
under natural conditions, should go
hand in hand with experimentation, if
we are to get anything like a fairlv
representative likeness of the animal
mind. And still another instrument,
often scorned by professional "behav-
iorists," and yet as fruitful and legitimate
(if not as mathematically perfect) a
means of canvassing the truth, is the
use in scientific interpretation, of the
humanly human qualities of sympathy
and imagination.

By way of definition, it is enough for
the needs of this article, to say that in-
telligence is ability to profit by person-
al experience and is brought into play
for purely personal ends ; while instinct
is rooted in racial experience and is
brought into play for racial ends.
The daily life of ants is largely
a chain of instinctive releases. Now
and then, however, we run into
something in their behavior which
even the most skeptical must regard
as intelligence. Indeed, this is a good
place to review some of the evidence
which supports this view.

Forel tells us that an ant may go far
afield from its ruined nest. Chancing
on a suitable spot for a new home, it
will return and deport a fellow worker
to the favored place. These two may

396

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

return for a second couplet, and ere its fellow worker, it must have retain

f3i ^ Tf^'T ^'^^'^^^ ^^"^^^'- ^^ «°"^^ ^«rt of mental image of the"

Forel concludes that when the first place to which it was going^ Likewise

scoutmg ant undertook the carriage of slave-making ants wiUmfke a second

•S: AVE-MAKING ANTS WILL MAKE A SECOND ATTACK ON A PILLAGED NEST IF IT
CONTAINS MORE OF THE COVETED YOUNG."

THE INTEREST IX IX SECTS

397

attack on a pillaged nest if it contains
more of the coveted younti'. but if all
the doomed slaves had been scooped
up at the first onslaught, they will not
go on the warpath again. That author
demonstrated that sight and smell had
nothing to do wMth attracting the war-
riors over the long distance separating
them from the subjugated nest ; so it
must be due to memory of the remain-
ing pupae. Wasmann discovered that
when the pilfered pupae matured and
became accustomed to their masters,
they showed a pronounced hostility to
their real brothers and sisters, if per-
chance these blood relations were en-
countered in the field. Friend ?nd foe
are attracted by odors which are
learned by experience. It is not a here-
ditary or instinctive matter.

Further, such leading specialists as
Forel. Wasmann, AMieeler, and AIc-
Cook, recognizes a system of communi-
cation among ants. This "language" is
spoken without education in any sense
of the word. \'ariotis signs and sig-
nals are employed, such as postures,
movements, and stridulation. Does
anyone doubt that communication fa-
cilitates co-operation ? Every mass-ac-
tivity is started by a wide-awake in-
dividual. Nearby ants catch the bustle
and imitate. Thus the job becomes
contageous spreading like a conflagra-
tion in all directions, and ere long the
entire community is at it. Apparent
conflicts are due to simultaneous exer-
tion of leadership in several directions.
But these differences are trivial and
ephemeral, being rapidly smoothed
out. The work proceeds as "in a state
of anarchistic socialism, each individ-
ual fulfilling the demands of social life
without guide, overseer, or ruler."

Writings on animal behavior fall un-
der tw^o heads : professional and ama-
teur. As a class the former are inclined
to be conservative, attributing no men-
tal power to an animal unless it can
be certainly demonstrated. Amateur
observations swing to the opposite ex-
treme, the ultra-anthropomorphic view.
They fancy the inter-play of human-
like emotions, passions, ideas, wills
among animals. More than that, lack-
ing the instrument of intelligent in-
terpretation which comes from Ion"-
continued study, thev deduce from
isolated observations un warranter!
proofs of sagacity, even of prophetir

insight. Perhaps here as in most dif-
ferences of opinion, a conciliatory
course which nevertheless skirts the
camp of expert judgment comes near-
est the truth.

The Moth Market Exaggerated.

The responsibility of authors to their
readers is illustrated in many ways.
One illustration is afforded by the ex-
perience of the director of the Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History, which
in the last few months has received
many pathetic letters coming from all
parts of the country, asking how the
writers can sell moths and so get
money to accomplish some desired
object. One girl in a backwoods ham-
let of Arkansas writes : "Please rite me
how much you pay for moths. I want
to make money to go to school." How
did the idea of selling moths to the
Museum occur to her? Professor Lutz
explains : "In 'The Girl of the Limber-
lost,' written by Gene Stratton-Porter,
we are told how a young girl with a
strongly developed love of nature is
able to make money enough to pay for
her education and provide herself with
the necessaries of life by hunting rare
specimens of moths, which she sells to
a dealer who supplies museums and
collectors. Soon after the book made
its appearance letters like this began to
come in, — only a few at first, but the
number increased steadily. One pa-
thetic letter was received from a wom-
an who hoped she could sell enough
rare moths to go to Denver to be cured
of tuberculosis. So you see there is a
tragic as well as an amusing side to all
this correspondence. The author of
'The Girl of the Limberlost' sold El-
nora's moths for four times what a
wholesale dealer would pay even for
perfect specimens. But hundreds of
readers of the novel evidently have re-
garded her story in the sense of a re-
port on the market for moths, and the
letters still keep coming in." — The
Writer.

The blue crab of our .\tlantic coast be-
comes mature at three years and after
that nsuall}- ceases to grow or moult.
Hefore that time, the rate of growth and
the interval between moults depend on
the food supply.

398

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

The Heavens in May.

BY PROFESSOR ERIC DOOLlTTLE OE THE
UNIVERSITY OE PENNSYLVANIA.

The most conspicuous of our south-
ern constellations now in the heavens
is the beautiful Leo, now only a little
way past the meridian and very high
up in the south. The reader will have
no difficulty in tracing out this beauti-
ful star group, especially as no other

stars form an outline even faintly sug-
gesting the object for which they are
named.

*****

The May Stars.

At the beginning of the month the
planet Mars is just without the blade
of the Sickle, but as the days go by this
deeply reddish planet may easily be
seen to be quite rapidly moving east-

^OUTH

FiRure 1. The Constellations at 9 P. M.. May 1. (H facing south hold the map
upright. If facing east, hold East below. If facing west hold West below. If facing
north hold the map inverted).

conspicuous stars are near it. Its first
six stars form a very perfect outline
of a Sickle ; this portion forms the head
and forepart of the Lion, the end of
the tail being at A, Figure i. This is
one of the few constellations whose

ward, so that by May 20 it apparently
forms an additional star to even more
clearly mark out the handle, and on
May 24 it will pass north of the bright
star Regulus, at B. The two bright
objects will then form an interesting

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEWENS

399

figure as they are seen shining together
in the field of a small telescope.

Having become familiar with the im-
portant Leo, the observer should next
turn farther eastward and trace the
outlines of the very interesting sum-
mer group, Virgo, w^hich extends from
Leo almost all the way to the Scorpion,
this last group is the brightest and most
striking of all the summer constella-
tions.

■ The groups, Leo and Virgo, are both
if immense antiquity. Some astrono-
mers believe that they were thus named
at least fifteen thousand years ago
when the Vernal Equinox was at V,
Figure t, and when as the sun passed
through this region the Egyptian har-
vest occurred. Possibly the well-
known Sphinx, which represents the
Virgin's head on the Lion's body, com-
memorates the life-giving, annual in-
undation of the Nile, which occirs
while the sun is passing through, first,
the Lion, afterward, Virgo.

Virgo has been represented from the
earliest times as a maiden bearing in
her left hand a Spike of wheat (marked
by the blue Spica at C, Eigure i) while
on some of the very earliest zodiacs
which have been preserved she holds
in her right hand a distaff, formed of
the beautiful filmy cloud of stars at D.
known to us as the separate constella-
tion of the Maiden's Hair.

The sun passes through Leo during
August and early September and thus
both groups, the Sickle and the Wheat-
bearing Maiden, are very intimately
associated with our harvest days. But
Virgo alone is the reigning group of
the late summer days :

"Virgin, august! come in thy regal state
With soft majestic grace and brow serene:
Though the fierce Lion's reign is overpast.
The summer's heat is all thine own as yet,
And all untouched thy robe of living green
By the rude fingers of the northern blast."

The legends connected with our
star figures are usually interesting and
often very beautiful. They also help
us to realize how, for so very many
centuries, men have looked upon and
thought about the same beautiful con-
stellations which shine in our heavens
today Thus in early Greek mythology
Virgo was also a maiden who hanged
herself in grief at the death of her
father and who was placed in the sky
with Bootes and Procyon as attendants.

The figure is the oldest purely allegori-
cal representation of innocence and
virtue.

And when the observer has traced
out the very long and winding Water
Snake (now in its best position for
observation of the entire year) and the
two little constellations of the Cup and
the Crow above it, he is reminded of
the legend of how the blackbird was
sent for a cup of water by Phoebus

Figure 2. The region about Virgo. Each star
mnrked T) is a double star, wliile earh star marked V
is a variable. N indicates a nebuln and S a star
cluster. Many of these are beautiful objects in the
telescope.

Apollo and returned after a long time
with only a water snake in his mouth
and attempted to deceive the god by
false excuses. He was therefore con-
demned to remain always in the sky
with a snake and an empty cup near-by
as evidence of his guilt. Hydra, how-
ever, in far earlier times symbolized
the winding courses of the moon, and
on the Euphrates, three thousand years
ago, it was identified with the source
of the Eountains of the Great Deep.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Learning the Constellations.

Above Leo and Virgo, the reader
will have but very little difificulty in
tracing out the Great Bear, which now
rides in the highest point of the heav-
ens. The head and shoulders are at F,
three of the paws are at E, and the
long tail extends to D. Below this are
the well-marked groups of Corona,
Bootes and Herculis.

To trace out and become entirely
familiar with these few constellations
will take the observer but a short while
on any pleasant, moonless. May even-
ing. And having done this, he will
have learned nearly half the area of
the visible spring sky. To become
familiar with all of the brighter stars
is, in fact, far less difficult than is

4-00

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

thought by most people, two or three
evenings' observation is all that is re-
quired, and this pleasurable study
(aside from being most interesting and
profitable in itself) is a most wise and

Figure 3. AppearRiice of the planet Venus when
nearly between tVie F.arth and Sun. The great pro-
longation of the horns and the very irregular ter-
mination show clearly that Venus has a danse atmos-
phere. The dim lig'ht on the ball of the planet is
probably of an auroral nature.

preliminary preparation for a more de-
tailed exploration of the heavens with
a small telescope.

The Planets in May.

Mercury enters the evening sky on
May 3, and on May 12 it reaches its
greatest distance east of the sun. For
a few days before and after this date
it may easily be detected shining in
the twilight glow for nearly two hours
after sunset. It should be looked for
in the northwest only a short distance
above a point of the horizon which is a
little farther toward the north than the
point at which the sun was seen to set.

In the telescope it will be seen to be
a beautiful little brightly shining world,
its shape the same as that of the moon
when half full. Having found it while
it is in this most favorable position,
the observer can follow it for several
days and see it rapidly changing into
a narrow crescent as it draws nearer
the sun's rays. It will finally withdraw
from the evening sky on June 3. .

Venus is by far the brightest and
most striking object now in the
heavens. No one who turns toward
the western sky in the early evening
can fail to have his attention arrested
by this exceedingly brilliant evening
star. On May i, it will be seen to oc-
cupy the position H, Figure i, a little

to the east of the horns on the Bull, but
as the weeks go by it will move rapidly
eastward, almost crossing Gemini, un-
til by May 31 it will attain the position
K. This eastward motion, in which
the planet has continued for so many
months, will, however, soon cease. On
June II the planet will reach the posi-
tion M, and will then begin to run
rapidly toward the west. It will finally
pass to the right of the sun and leave
the evening sky on July 3.

At present the planet is wonderfully
brilliant and so high in the heavens
that it sets far in the northwest so late
as seven hours after sunset. It attains
its greatest brilliance on May 27, at
which time it will shine with no less
than one hundred and twenty times
the brightness of a first magnitude star.

No observer who possesses a small
telescope should fail to study Venus
from time to time during the present
month. He will see its shape change
rapidly to that of a narrow crescent,
as more and more of the right side of
the planet is turned toward us, and he
may even at times detect the faint il-
luminations sometimes seen on this
darkened hemisphere and which are
probably caused by auroras in the night
skies of our Sister World. He will al-
so see that the line of division between
the dark and the sunlit part of the
planet is by no means a sharp line, but
that it fades gradually in some places
and is irregular in others. This is the
twilight on Venus, and tells us clearly
that this world is surrounded by a
heavy atmosphere.

Venus in its eastward motion will
pass Saturn on the forenoon of May
24 ; it will again pass Saturn — this time
during its westward motion — on June
22. The approach of the two planets
will be much closer at the latter con-
junction than at the former one.

Mars is moving eastward into Leo
and is still a conspicuous object in
the heavens, though its distance away
is now so great that it is not a very
satisfactory object in the telescope.

Jupiter is in the morning sky, rising
I hr. 10 min. before the sun on May i,
and 2 hrs. 30 min. before sunrise on
May 31. It has not yet, however, suf-
ficiently emerged from the sun's rays
to be in very favorable position for ob-
servation.

Saturn is near the middle of the con-
stellation Gemini, sufficiently high

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

401

above the ground to be very well view-
ed in the early evening. The rings are
well opened out, and these with its
brighter moons make it one of the
most interesting of all objects in the
telescope. This is the last month of
the present year, however, during
which Saturn can be satisfactorily ob-
served in the early evening.

An Open Letter to Mr. Andrew
Carnegie.

I have noted with much pleasure your
interesting article in the March number
■of the "Woman's Home Companion" in
which you say :

"What are among the best practical
uses to which wealth may be put? Per-
haps the most important of all is the
founding of great universities. In con-
nection with them should be observatories
completely equipped for the study of
astronomy, in order to carry further our
knowledge of the universe and of our
relation to it here upon earth- But as
the need for establishing new institutions
of universal learning perhaps no longer
exists in this country, great good can be
accomplished by adding to and extending
"the facilities of those already in exist-
ence."

More universities are undoubtedlv
needed to extend a knowledge of the
things that are already known, but great
observatories in connection with great
universities will not accomplish that ob-
ject- The university may increase and
make knowledge popular, but the work
of great observatories is to increase the
sum of human knowledge of the heavens.
A greater number of astronomical obser-
vatories in connection with a greater
number of universities would be a jux-
taposition of incongruous concepts, be-
cause the university teaches while the
great observatory accumulates- You
presumably have in mind a desire, per-
haps the intention, to disseminate a
knowledge of astronomical realms. There
may be need of one great observatory in
the East for the accumulating of more
astronomical knowledge, but it is doubt-
ful. What are really needed are less
rigid financial facilities for the observa-
tories that are already established ; if
that were accomplished the accumulation
of a knowledge of facts astronomical
would take care of itself-

But to disseminate knowledge an en-
tirely different type of observatory is

r.eeded, a large number of moderate
sized observatories, so that one might be
in every town and city of the United
States. Here at Sound Beach, a small
community but with easy access from the
city of Stamford and the Borough of
Greenwich, we have recently completed
an observatory costing about $1,300. This
will do fairly well for this community,
but the ideal observatory would be one
that should cost some $6,000 or $7,000,
])0ssibly, in larger communities, $10,000-
i should not advise the town to go much
beyond that, but I would put an enthusi-
astic man in charge and have him devote
all his time to the task of showing the
public what has already been discovered.
He should have a lecture hall, and at
least one assistant, so that when he is
talking to visitors, and using lantern
slides, he should have some one to mani-
pulate the telescope. In smaller places
the astronomer would probably not need
an assistant. Let me suggest that the
grandest and greatest thing that you
could do in the most uplifting of sciences
in the disseminating of knowledge among
humanity would be to establish a series of
such observatories, and to provide for
their maintenance for, say, five years.
Erect an observatory in each of ten
places. This would cost as a total about
$50,000 for establishing, and perhaps
$12,000 a year for maintenance, or for five
years $50,000 to establish and $60,000 to
maintain. Could you invest $110,000 to
better advantage ? The plan would prove
practical, and, I am sure, you would con-
sider it worth while to establish a series
of such observatories near to leading cen-
ters, and to maintain them in perpetuity,
or as you do with your famous libraries,
arrange for the local community to pro-
vide a part or even all of the maintenance.
There are, I believe, many places in which
the observatory would be carried on local-
Iv if once established, but I am sure that
it would be dangerous to establish such
in connection with any college or any
high school- The tendency would then
be to use it merely for class work. .\s the
teaching is now conducted in many of
these places, that would take the heart
out of the whole thing, and the pupils
would soon detest the tiresome array of
facts and figures-
Yon have accomplished great and won-
derful results in establishing public libra-
ries, but you never could have secured
those results if you had established the
libraries in connection with universities.

4-02

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Ml^. AND MRS. ANDREW CARNEGIE

fPhotograph bv Paul Thompson").
Here is a thoroughly efficient and successful business man who places an astronomical observatory
only second in the list of "the best practical uses to which wealth may be put.''

oolle.g'es, or even with high schools. Your
hbraries stand alone as the great educa-
tional factors in great communities. Es-
tablish observatories on exactly the same
principles and you will achieve a similar
success-

I note with much pleasure your asser-
tion that your interest in libraries was
awakened in you, because, as a boy in

Pittsburgh, you found it so difficult to
gain access to books.

Although you consider the establishing
of popular observatories as more impor-
tant than that of libraries, you tell us that
you have devoted your efforts to the
libraries because of your own personal
experience of the need. Please make a
few inquiries to ascertain the astronomical

TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS

403

need. You will learn that in any commu-
nity perhaps only one person in a thousand
has ever looked through a telescope, that
many people are craving a glimpse of the
worlds in distant space. In no city in the
country, except perhaps in Pittsburgh,
can you find half a dozen boys or girls
who have ever seen the inspiring planet,
Saturn, or the wonderful Nebula of
Orion.

Astronomy has suffered much at the
hands of its friends, but judging from the
rapidly increasing circulation of such
publications as "The Monthly Evening
Sky Map" and The Guide to Nature^
the science in popular estimation is com-
ing into her own. As you put astronomy
second in your list of educational philan-
thropy, I should feel almost sure that you
hail from Pittsburgh, although I might
not know the fact. Out there astronomy
seems to be in the air- Recently the
Allegheny Obesrvatory was established
by popular subscription at a cost of more
than $300,000, and that too within a very
few weeks after Mr. John A. Brashear
started the subscription paper. The
largest gift, as I recall it was $62,500-
with others smaller, but including a large
number of what may be called really pop-
ular contributions at $5.00 each- A
curious anomaly, isn't it, my dear Mr.
Carnegie, that in a city with an atmos-
phere proverbially smoky, there should be
so emphatic a manifestation of popular
desire to study the heavens? No other
place in the United States equals Pitts-
burgh in this particular ; in no other
place, I believe, has there been so great
a manifestation' of popular interest. We
in the East seem to be so commercialized
that such questions as have come to me
during the establishing of our Sound
Beach Observatory seem quite in accord
with what is in the popular thought-

"How will it help young folks to earn
a living?"

"There is nothing practical in it."
"You will develop only idle stargazers."

I am glad, Mr- Carnegie, to know that
you are coming to Connecticut to live.
We need you here. I think you will be
the only wealthy man in the state or, in-
deed, in all New England, for that
matter, who would put second in a list
of public philanthropy the establishing of
a public astronomical observatory. Some
of our wealthy men. judging from my
year's experience while soliciting con-
tributions for the Sound Beach Astron-

omical Observatory, would not fail to
leave astronomy out of the list- Alle-
gheny and Pittsburgh raised $300,000
within a few weeks- 1 have raised $1,300
at an expense of an enormous amount of
time, advertising. letter writing and per-
sistent begging, working almost continu-
ously for one year, and at the summing
up I find that the gifts came all the way
from Maine to California, but with less
than half, or about $533.85, from the
State of Connecticut.

The question is often asked, "Why has
no great observatory ever been estab-
lished in the eastern United States?"
Let such seekers after knowledge make
the attempt to establish even a small ob-
servatory, and they will understand why-
We need more astronomical interest here
in the East.

Come over into Macedonia, Mr. Car-
negie, and help us.

Beauty for the Star Gazers.
But let us turn from the sublime to
dwell awhile on the aesthetic nature of
the celestial vault. We fee! a certain
intrinsic loneliness while beholding
these peerless jewels, of a distinctly in-
dividual character. I doubt if the sen-
timents of the lover of lake, mountain,
or floral beauty are equal to those of
the ardent star gazer. To one acquain-
ted w^ith the geography of the heavens,
the first magnitude stars and the more
impressive constellations assume the
role of old friends What a sense of
security and comradeship it must give
the sturdy arctic explorer when his
way across the frozen wastes is bright-
ened by the familiar rays of Vega or
Capella ! It is akin to the light that
guided Leander when he swam the
Hellespont. — Henry Handy McHenry
in "Popular Astronomy."

Arcturus — Rising.
Again Arcturus beams! — his gleaming light
Burns brilliantly amidst the star-lit night,
Like harbinger in yonder eastern sky

He rises to proclaim that spring is nigh:
When winter's snow still lies on hill and
vale,
And winds of March first wander down
the dale,
Ere crocus blooms or falls mild April's rain,
Like beacon bright Arcturus beams again.
— Charles Nevers Holmes.
Newton, Mass.

41 Arlington St.

— Popular Astronomy

404

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

New Weather System Fallacious.

CHIEF OF U. S. WEATHER BUREAU WARNS
PUBLIC AGAINST LONG-RANGE WEATHER
FORECASTS.

Washington, D. C— The chief of the
U S. Weather Bureau states that in the
opinion of the bureau a new system of
long-range weather forecasting, which
has been widely discussed recently, was
quite fallacious. The new system is
said to be based on the spottedness of
the sun and rifts and shafts of solar
radiation. In the opinion of the
Weather Bureau it belongs in the same
class with other methods of long-range
weather forecasting based on lunar,
planetary, magnetic, and astrological
considerations. None of these systems
it is said, has any scientific value.

During the past few years the
Weather Bureau has received full spec-
ifications concerning all the essential
details of this particular system. The
alleged discovery is, therefore, fully
known to the Weather Bureau and has
been carefully studied and examined
by its scientific staff. Moreover, other
scientists of international reputation
now connected with the strongest in-
stitutions of the world engaged in as-
tronomical research, and conducting
investigations into solar and terrestrial
physics, have also passed upon these
new theories. These authorities are in
accord that the deductions and conclu-
sions drawn from the solar conditions
on which the new system is based are
unwarranted.

When the disc of the sun is minutely
examined with powerful telescopes, or
when it is photographed with the aid
of the modern spectroheliograph, the
surface presents a characteristic spot-
ted appearance which undergoes slight
changes from day to day, and greater
changes with longer intervals of time,
depending upon the well-known rota-
tion of the sun upon its axis and the
periodic recurrence of the sunspot max-
ima and minima. These and certain
well-known related phenomena are
now put forward as the basis of a new
science which will make possible fore-
casts of the weather far in advance.
That these features of solar activity,
however, actually should control and
determine the daily changes and se-
quence of weather conditions in any
definite or direct and consequential
manner, is regarded by the Govern-

ment scientists as quite impossible.
Solar phenomena of the kind described
do not have any direct influence upon
the weather at any particular time and
place, and can not be made the basis
of any forecasts whatsoever.

The alleged discovery is regarded as
only one of a number of similar
schemes which are continually being
put forward. In some cases the advo-
cates of these schemes assert that they
can forecast the w^eather for weeks or
months in advance, and in others they
state that they have found means of
producing rain artificially, or prevent-
ing hail, and in other ways inter-
fering with and controlling at-
mospheric phenomena. These pre-
tentions meet with a certain cred-
ence because there are a number
of people who still cling to the ancient
belief in the influence of the moon on
the growth and development of crops,
and to the idea that the weather con-
ditions depend upon planetary and
astrological combinations. In conse-
quence the Weather Bureau has been
called upon from time to time to cau-
tion the general public against faith
in these so-called discoveries.

The U. S. Weather Bureau itself is
the authorized agency of the Govern-
ment to collect meteorological observa-
tions and make and issue weather fore-
casts and warnings. Every important
nation of the world has a similar or-
ganization and all use essentially the
same methods. All of these organiza-
tions condemn and disprove the meth-
ods and theories of those who assert
that they are able to predict the wea-
ther for any considerable period in ad-
vance.

Fair Nature's cup is full and running o'er,
A wealth of bursting bloom where'er we

go;

When treasures such as these are heaped
galore.
Let us be near to get the overflow.

— Emma Peirce.

The mountain streams of India have
heretofore had for fish only the hardly
edible barbel. Now, however, they are
being stocked with the brown trout.
These are sent to the Punjab from
Kashmir where they have already been
introduced. Rainbow trout are, in ad-
dition, being tried in the warmer riv-
ers.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATIOX

405

(£ : *--^... — ••' : inn: i '^ ^^. — ••

AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION"

^ii<ii^<<^^':^<ss.^^^^^

^

EstabliBhed 1875 incorporated, Maesacliusetts, 1S9J

lucorporalKd, (.ouuectlcut, 1J»1«

The Woodcraft Movement.

We extend hearty congratulations
and best wishes to the managers of
The Woodcraft League Movement foun-
ded in April, 1902, and recently taking
on new life in their new headquarters
at 13 West Twenty-ninth Street, New
York City. The movement is prima-
rily educational with outdoor activities.
For its motto it has, "The Woods for
the Children — the Children for the
Woods."

The Council consists of many natur-
alists aiid educators, but we surmise
that the chief work in behalf of the
movement will be done by Ernest
Thompson Seton, the well-known nat-
uralist, artist and writer, assisted by
Philip D. Pagans, his executive in
charge of the New York headquarters,
who has had extended experience in
camps, especially in connection with
Y. M. C. A. work.

In one aspect of this movement. The
Agassiz Association especially is hear-
tily interested and of it thoroughly ap-
proves : "It recognizes the beauty of
Common Things."

The purpose of this organization is
to show the thousand daily little things
in the woods or in the town or in our-
selves that focus the interest of all and
add to the poAver of seeing, living, mas-
tering and enjoying; ever remember-
ing that manhood or womanhood in the
fullest highest sense is the first aim to
true education.

"To learn the ways of the Woodwise
for their own sake, and the worth of
what they oflfer those who hear — the
understanding eye, "the thinking
hand," the mind controlled, the body
trained and fortified, so that one's lot
wherever cast, in town or farm in high
or low estate shall never lack the chief-
est joy of life, the pleasant sense of
some small triumph every day."

The Four Lacks.

1. Lack of simple pleasures.

2. Lack of reverence — respect, man-

3. Wastefulness — lack of thrift.

4. Lack of public responsibility — on
part of individual. Granting that
the most important thing in our
country is the character of our
young.

How The Woodcraft League Helps
Meet Needs.

1. We aim to show boys and girls

how to enjoy life without the mere
spending of money — joy of beauti-
ful things in everyday life. To of-
fer a new kingdom in which every
one may be a king of some small
realm.

2. To help construct such an attitude

of mind as to result in respect and
reverence To inculcate such an
attitude as shall result in respect
and reverence for others. People
living up to small extent of capa-
city— our job to help realize pos-
sibilities— use of lung power.

3. To give every young person the

opportunity to develop the love of
outdoor life, the woods, and the
wild things. In developing this
love we work for their preserva-
tion— conservation — develop the
habit of conservation broadly.

Remember that sentimental for-
rester has done as much for con-
servation as the commercial.

Young to be led rather than
taught — show the thing that is
there — for which they are already
more than hungry.

4. By the Council Ring to develop the

spirit of public responsibility and
service.

Our Emphasis.

1. On the summer camp — the heart
is the Council Ring.

2. We keep families together — dan-

4oG

THE^GUIDE TO NATURE

ger of institutionalism — breaking
up of family! — our work for all
ages — family interests and activi-
ties.

3. In the Woodcraft Work we em-
phasize the heart and mind as well
as the body in daily life. Romance
— picturesqueness — the poetic
beauty — histrionic, — the arts.

4. We insist on boys and girls shar-

ing in the discipline and govern-
ment— under adult guidance which
results in everyone taking part as
subordinate and leader alternately.
Not fewer than 3,000 in definitely
Woodcraft Camps last summer.

The rubbing stick fire now used
country wide

For Universal Association.

Lower Lake, Lake County, California.
To the Editor :

I heartily endorse the motto expressed
on page 340 of the March issue of The
Guide to Nature under the headline,
"The Highest Ideals," in the words, "Live
and 'help live .... All the world should
be an Association."

Is not this huge ball under our feet one
great home of Man? Is not our life on
this cosmical body our true "state" (de-
rived from the Latin "stare," which
means "to stand on") ?

Is there a stronger organization than
the physical union of all nations and races
of men by the gravitational pull of one
and the same planet, by the chemical
action of the irihaled oxygen of one and
the same atmosphere, by the dependence
upon one and the same sun as the only
source of human energy.

How artificial and superficial are all
those petty boundary lines and fences
that an exaggerated nationalism, with a
one day's life, has created in the realm of
human feeling, if seen against the back-
ground of those powerful cosmical con-
ditions that have evolved in countless
millions of years and will last through
other millions of years.

Dear Old Mother Earth seems to me
to be our natural, God given Empirfe ; and
harmony, justice and freedom for all men.
not hegemony or undue privileges for any
special groups of men, appear as the de-
sirable political ideals.

I can imagine no greater tragedy that
tbe present European War at a time when
our technical achievements showed an
irresistible tendencv to organize the whole

human population of our planet into one
great unit. Whilst railroads, steamships,
telegraphs, wireless communication, air-
ships, etc., have practically changed our
earth into one village with common inter-
ests, the peoples living in the dififerent
houses of this village have cherished in-
cendiary and hostile feelings for one
another, missing the proper mental
change adapted to the changed technical
"milieu" and thus becoming more and
more unfit for further coexistence.

The principles of the "survival of the
fittest" seems categorically to demand an
essential correction in modern nation-
alism.

Differentiation and harmony must wed
each other to secure a happy life.

Yours very truly,

L.SciiwiERS.

Death of an Esteemed Member.

Word reaches us of the death of our
Member, Mr. A. Ramsay, 15 Lawn
Crescent, Kew Gardens, Surrey, Eng-
land, on March 3rd. Mr. Ramsay was
a Sustaining Member of The Agassiz
Association and took active interest in
all phases of nature. He was one of
the many real nature lovers who have
ideally cooperated in the development
of this Association, helping it to help
others and being helped by it.

The Association extends heartfelt
sympathy to the bereaved members of
the family.

A Candy Sale for The Agassiz Asso-
ciation.

The Rogers School Chapter (Stam-
ford, Connecticut) of The Agassiz As-
sociation recently held a candy sale to
obtain money with which to buy a
frame for their Charter. This sale was
so successful that two dollars and a
half more than was required for the
direct purposes of the sale were obtain-
ed. That amount was contributed to
the general work at ArcAoiA in fur-
thering the purposes of The Agassiz
xA^ssociation.

Parts of China which in the past have
suffered severely from forest fires are
adopting an effective scheme for the
government reservations. The cleared
fire lines, thirty to one hundred feet in
width, are let to farmers and cultivated.
Thus the fire lines are kept always bare
ground or green crops too wet to burn.

Full Plans and Specifications May be Obtained from
THE GUIDE TO NATURE.
A Modern Home
Attractive and Convenient.

An Ideal Home.

This suburban cottage embodies all the
features that make a thoroughly satisfac-
tory and pleasing dwelling. The large
porch is especially enjoyable during the
summer months.

The first floor consists of a large living
room, dining room, den, breakfast room
and kitchen. The broad fireplace, and
wide open staircase make the living room
a charming room. Three bedrooms and
bathroom are on the second floor.

An itemized list of the cost is here
sriven :

Excavation

$IOO

Stonework

150

Brickwork

100

Carpenter work

400

Plastering

200

Lumber

425

Millwork

350

Painting and Glazing

200

Plumbing, etc.

225

Hardware

85

Heating

125

Range

40

Total

$2,400

fl "/J 'r:

y^^^^

^^^^^^/^/A

X

THE GUIDE TO NATURE

Secc'mo Fuooa

First FLOon

Not the Fault of the Bird.

"You're a swindler," exclaimed A'lrs.
Gobb, as she entered the bird store.
"You're worse than a highway robber.
You ought to be ashamed of yourself to
•cheat a poor, innocent woman the way
you did. That parrot I bought of you
last week is a fraud. You said it was a
fluent talker and you charged me a big
price for him too, and that bird hasn't
said a single word since I got him. Xot
•one word. Do you hear me ? not — one —
single — word !"

"Perhaps," suggested the bird fancier,
"you didn't give him a chance." — Xeiv
York Globe.

An Extensive Planter of Peas!

A congressman received almost daily
letters from a constituent asking for
garden seed, with emphasis on peas. The
demand for peas got so heavy that the
congressman was moved to write this
letter :

"I am sending you a half dozen more
packages of peas as requested. Say,
what are you trying to do down there,
plant the whole state in peas?"

The reply came a few days later. It
read:

"No, I'm not planting them, but they
make bully soup. Send along some iuore.
— New York Globe.

Hepaticas.

On the sunny hillside are they found,
Close above the warm protecting ground;
Delicate and fragile baby blooms,
Fresh from the Springtime's busy looms.

— Emma Peirce.

Sunday School Teacher: "Did you
ever forgive an enemy?" "Tommy Tuff-
nut: "Oncest." Sunday School Teacher :
"And what noble sentiment prompted
you to do it?" Tommy Tuff nut : "He
was bigger dan me." — Life.

Old Gentleman : "Well, my boy, and
when does your birthday come?" Boy
(who has been cautioned not to fish for
presents) : "Oh, it passed by a long time
ago — a year next Saturday." — Melbourne
Leader.

Fashion has a stern decree

That jewels should at night be worn;
Nature laughs decrees to scorn.

And wears her jewels in the morn!

— Emma Peirce.

An elderly church warden, in shaving"
himself one Sunday before church time,
made a slight cut with the razor on the
extreme end of his nose. Quickly calling
his wife, he asked her if she had any
court-plaster in the house. "You will find
some in my sewing basket," she said. The
warden soon had the cut covered. At the
church, in assisting with the collection,
he noticed every one smile as he passed
the plate, and some of the younger people
laughed outright. Very much annoyed,
he asked a friend if there was anything
wrong with his appearance. "Well, I
should think there is," was the answer.
"What is that on your nose?" "Court-
plaster." "No," said his friend, "It is the
label of a spool of cotton. It says 'war-
ranted 200 yards long.' " — Pittsburgh
Chronicle-Telegraph.

THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— A DVERTISEMENTS.

XI

A Remedy Against Bores.

The mayor of a Western town hit upon
a novel scheme to rid himself of a bore
who had pestered him for some time.

The mayor's doorkeeper was a good-
natured, obliging chap, and he could
never find it in his heart to turn the bore
awa}-. Just as sure as the mayor w^as in,
the bore was certain to be admitted. One
day the mayor determined to end the
persecution. So he said to his door-
keeper :

"Henry, do you know why Smith con-
tinues to come here so regularly?"

"No, sir, I can't say that I do."

"Well, Henry, I don't mind telling you
in confidence that 'he's after your job."

"From that day," says the mayor, "I
saw no more of the bore." — The Youth's
Companion.

For a five-year-old, Margie had traveled
a great deal. One day her aunt remarked.
"Through all her travels Margie seems
quite happy and contented." "Yes'm"
answered Margie. "No matter where I
go I always find some dirt to play in." —
Christian Register.

CAMP CHEQIESSET

The Real Camp for Real Girls

Near the tip of Cape Cod.

Wood Lore, Camp Craft,
Photography, Athletics,
Swimming, SaiUng, Arts
and Crafts, and Elocution
Taught by Experts.

Mention the Guide to Nature
When Writing

Send for illustrated book-
let.

WM. G. VINAL, A. M.

Rhode Island Normal School

Providence, Rhode Island.

SPRATT'S DOG CAKES

If

a a

RTHLEiS

Send 2c Stamp for ''Dog Culture."

SPRATTS PATENT LIMITED

Newark, N. J.; San Francisco; St. Louis; Cleveland; Montreal

XII

THE GUIDE TO NATURE— ADVERTISEMENTS

CLAIMED AND PROVEN

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MAKERS OF

Astronomical

and

Terrestrial

Telescopes

Correspondence Solicited

For "Bird

Lovers

BAUSCH & LOME BINOCU-
LARS give a field of view nine times
as great as that of the ordinary glass,
with even illumination and clear
definition to the edges. The stereo-
scopic efifect enables one to judge the
relative position of objects in the
landscape.

THE "6-21" is the ideal bird glass.
Its superior optical qualities give it
great light-gathering power — just
what you need in the woods and on
cloudy days. The magnification
(6x) is ample, and by reason of the
prism construction, the glass is
about one-third the length of a cor-
responding Galilean glass. Because
of its compactness and light weight
it can easily be carried in the pocket.

lyrite for Our In-

teresting

Booklet

Givino- Full Details

and Prices.

Bausch jy Ipmb Optical (5.

512 ST. PAUL STREET ROCHESTER, N.\:

MBI, WHOI I lltHARY

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