L Lvy8veslo I9OLIl €
IONIAN
“-
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010 with funding from
University of Toronto
http://www.archive.org/details/naturestudylifOOhodg
AVULSAINO HY ANVIONY MAN GIO NY
NATURE STUDY AND
Piek
BY. oie
nN
CLIFTON F/ HODGE, Pu.D.
It
Assistant Professor in Clark University. Member of: The American Physiological
Society, Soctety of American Naturalists, Massachusetts Forestry Association,
American Forestry Association, Board of Directors of the Massa-
chusetts Audubon Society, American Ornithologists’ Union
DBife 16 response to the order of Jature
W. K. Brooks
Boston, U.S.A., AND LONDON
GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
The Atheneum ress
1903
ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL
CoryRIGHT, 1902
By CLIFTON F. HODGE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
) ZABRAR IY
FEB 21 1962 ©
\ ¢
O
Vers
784988
TO
NELSON WELLINGTON HODGE
MY FATHER,
WHO GAVE ME MY FIRST
ANIMALS AND PETS, MY FIRST GARDEN
PLOT AND LITTLE FARM, WHO LEFT THE
BIG OAK UNCUT
FOR ITS BEAUTY
AND THE WILD PRAIRIE UNPLOWED
FOR ITS WILD FLOWERS, WHO SET
THE ELM TREE BY THE
PORCH AND THE
RED MOSS
ROSE
IN- THE OLD HOME
GARDEN
ines
PREFACE
Tue field which this book essays to enter has ever
spread out before me like an enchanted country. The
possibilities and resources of life, dissolving in changes
forever fresh and new, the infinite variety of mechanism,
device, and story, the display of beauty on every side that
baffles expression by pen or brush, have always seemed to
me the natural matrix for the highest development of the
child’s mind and soul. Weare beginning to use fruitfully
in our education the legends and myths of the past, but the
fundamental conceptions of these lie in the life and nature
about us. All this is the work of the Infinite Enchanter
of the Universe, and forms a realm of real magic, of which
human myth and fairy tale are after all but the passing
shadow. This was the world of keenest interests, delights,
and sufferings of my boyhood, the common ground out of
which my interests in special problems of science have
grown, the world to which I instinctively turn from the
fatigue and technicality of special work for rejuvenation
and refreshment and find that its delights do not grow old.
The more I study the problem, the more it seems to me
that this side of nature is the sheet anchor of elementary
education, all the more necessary as modern life tends to
drift away from nature into artificialities of every sort.
Recent developments of the sciences have completely daz-
zled our modern education with their bewildering array
vil
Vill PREFACE
of newly discovered facts, and the temptation has proved
irresistible to introduce their technicalities into the ele-
mentary curriculum. But the childhood of the race was
very long, and we should not wish to force its period, brief
at best, in the life of the individual. The weathering of
rock and the formation of soil afford interesting lessons
in modern geology; but men dug and planted, and estab-
lished fruitful relations with Mother Earth thousands of
years before geology was even dreamed of. So with com-
bustion and the various forms of water: why not let chil-
dren wonder about them for a few years, and then come
with interest keen and fresh to their study in the chem-
istry and physics of the high school or the college? By
leaving out everything else, however, I do not wish to
insinuate that the study of living things is all of nature
study. But other sides of nature are so fully represented
in plans for nature-study courses now before the public,
—TIam tempted to say so much too fully represented —
that my conscience is perfectly clear in leaving them to
shift for themselves.
Many recent books presenting courses of nature study
have divided the lessons according to the seasons and
terms of the school year. This form is doubtless of serv-
ice to some teachers. I have not been able to adopt
it, however, for two reasons: Nature’s changes were not
arranged according to our school courses, and the pre-
dominant importance of subject-matter precludes such
cramped and formal treatment ; my purpose is to bring
nature into relation to child life rather than to school life,
to make it a continuous source of delight, profit, and
highest education rather than a formal school task, I
PREFACE ix
have sought to obviate this difficulty in arrangement by
a somewhat detailed grade plan in which topics are sug-
gested for the grade best adapted for their pursuit. A
full cross-reference index will also assist in a similar way.
The illustrations have been selected to express the
relation of man, especially the relation of the child, to
nature ; and since spontaneous activity is fundamental
to my plan of nature study, the majority of them are
intended to suggest ways and means of cloing something.
To those who have contributed pictures, notably Charles
Irving Rice, J. Chauncey Lyford, Myron W. Stickney,
Charles L. Goodrich, The National Cash Register Com-
pany, Henry Lincoln Clapp, M. V. Slingerland, Miss
Katherine E. Dolbear, and Miss Jessie G. Whiting, I wish
to express my sincere thanks. Acknowledgment usually
accompanies the illustration, but the picture of a deer in
the velvet (p. 15) should be accredited to Mr. Rice. The
photograph of the mosquitoes (p. 89) and the portrait of
a young wood thrush (p. 345) are by Mr. Stickney.
Pigse 121, 123, 125, 131, and 135, together with most
of the data from which the bird-food chart (p. 323)
was constructed, are contributed by Miss Helen A. Ball.
The other line drawings, with exception of 20 d, 22, 25,
35 4, 71, 160, 161, 178, 193, 194, 195, were made under
my direction by Mrs. Helen Davis Burgess. The photo-
graphs not otherwise accredited are by the author.
This book could never have been written, in anything
like its present form at least, until its various suggestions
had been given the test of actual school work. Miss
Mary C. Henry, principal of the Upsala Street School of
Worcester, Mass., has not only done this, but in addition
x PREFACE
has contributed many and valuable suggestions, notably
with reference to the grade plan, to the school garden, and
to the problem of cleanliness of the schoolroom. Thus to
Miss Henry and the teachers in the Upsala Street School
the book owes much of its definite character. To Pro-
fessor Brooks, of the Johns Hopkins University, I am
also under obligations for counsel as to the general plan
of the work. For help in final revision of the text and
proofs and preparation of the illustrations I am under
great obligations to Mr. Lyford, and for assistance with
the proof I wish to express my indebtedness to Miss
Henry, Miss Dolbear, and Mr. Stickney. _
Finally, I acknowledge my debt to Clark University for
opportunity, and to Dr. G. Stanley Hall for suggestions
which called my attention to nature study. The further
I went, the more it seemed to me that the sources from
which must flow the future development of science in
this country all lie in the quality of the work done in the
public schools. In freshness, in lively interest, in origi-
nality, nothing equals a child; and it has long been con-
ceded that at no time is progress in learning so rapid as
during the first three or four years of life. The secret
of this, it has seemed to me, lies in the fact that touch
with nature at first hand, original research, if you please,
is the very breath of mental life. How may this splendid
growth process of infancy be prolonged through life? The
best answer to the question that I am at present able
to offer is the book itself.
Cc. F, HODGE;
CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASS.,
January 21, 1902
COMLEENTS
INTRODUCTION BY Dr. G. STANLEY HALL
CHAPTER
I. THE POINT OF VIEW
II. VALUES OF NATURE STUDY
III. CHILDREN’S ANIMALS AND PETS
IV. PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY
V. INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD
VI. LESSONS WITH PLANTS
VII. ELEMENTARY BOTANY
VIII. GARDEN STUDIES, — HOME AND SCHOOL GARDENS
IX. NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY OF CHILDREN
X. NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY (Continued), — GAR-
DEN FRUITS
XI. PROPAGATION OF PLANTS
XII. INSECTS OF THE GARDEN
XIII. GARDEN INSECTS (Continued )
XIV. BENEFICIAL INSECTS, —THE HONEYBEE
XV. INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL
XVI. INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS,—THE COMMON TOAD .
XVII. Common FROGS AND SALAMANDERS
XVIII. Our Common Birps
XIX. THE Birp CENSUS AND Foop CHART
XX. PRACTICAL DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD
BIRDS
xi
xl CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XXI. TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS . : ‘ one
XXII. ELEMENTARY FORESTRY ’ : ‘ : 305
XXIII. ELEMENTARY FORESTRY (Continued ) ; - 379
XXIV. AQUARIA,—THEIR CONSTRUCTION AND MAN-
AGEMENT . : : é ; : ; . > 398
XXV. MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS : 3 : 405
XXVI. FLOWERLESS PLANTS. : , : ; . SA8I5
XXVIII. FLOWERLEsS PLANTS (Continued), — MOULDS,
MILDEWS, YEAST, BACTERIA . : - 457
XXVIII. THE GRADE PLAN . : , : : .- ©4978
INDEX : ; c : < : : : : : 497
INTRODUCTION
For this book I have no hesitation in predicting a most
wholesome, widespread, and immediate influence upon
primary and grammar school grades of education in this
country. Noone has gone so far toward solving the burn-
ing question of nature teaching, and to every instructor
in these subjects this volume will be not only instructive
but inspiring.
Unlike the authors of most of the many nature-study
manuals now current, Professor Hodge has been for some
years the head of a University Department, is a specialist
in two or more of the fields of biology, and has made original
contributions of value to the sum of human knowledge.
His mind thus moves with independence, authority, and
unusual command of the resources in the field here treated.
New as his method essentially is, it is now made public
only after years of careful trial in the public school grades
in Worcester, until its success and effective working in
detail is well assured. Thus it has passed the stage of
experiment and is so matured and approved that, with
slight local adjustments, it can be applied almost any-
where for children of from six or seven to thirteen or
fourteen years of age.
I have also observed the growing appreciation with
which this matter and method have been received by the
representative teachers from nearly every state in the
xiii
X1V INTRODUCTION
Union in the successive sessions of our Summer School,
in which approval has grown to deep interest and hearty
enthusiasm.
Although the author has striven to secure the best
results sought by other nature books, this differs not only
in all respects from some, but in some respects from all,
and chiefly as follows:
It contains a richer and more varied subject-matter.
Instead of elaborate methods applied to a few species, it
presents the essential and salient points about many and
thus avoids the current fault of over-elaborate and over-
methodic treatment, prolonged till interest turns to ennui.
Another principle solidly established and here utilized,
is that interest in life forms precedes that in inanimate
nature for children of the age here in view. Rock forms,
crystals, stars, weather, and seasons are all interesting,
but have their nascent period later, and at this stage pale
before the deep, instinctive love of pets and the fauna
and flora of the immediate environment.
Again, the principle of utility is here often invoked in
a new field, and in a way calculated to advance one of the
chief objects of modern pedagogic endeavor — an increas-
ing unity and solidarity between the school and the home.
The new use of this motive is distinctly national and sure
to appeal to the practical spirit of this country.
The author is a born naturalist, and his love of nature
and children, which is infectious, is not less but more
because he does not forget nature’s uses to man. _Believ-
ing profoundly, as I do, in the poetic, sentimental, and
religious appeal which nature makes to the soul, it is
plain that for some years preceding adolescence the
INTRODUCTION XV
normal child can be appealed to on the practical, unsenti-
mental, and utilitarian side of his nature.
Once more, this work is opportune because it stimu-
lates spontaneous, out-of-door interests. It is with abun-
dant reason that we find now on every hand a growing
fear of the effects of excessive confinement, sedentary
attitudes, and institutionalizing influences in the school.
Such work as is here described must tend to salutary
progress in the direction of health.
Lastly, many modern nature books suffer from what
might be called effeminization. This is a book written
by a man and appeals to boys and girls equally.
The time has now happily passed when it is necessary
to urge the importance of the love and study of nature,
or to show how from it have sprung love of art, science,
and religion, or how in the ideal school it will have a cen-
tral place, slowly subordinating most other branches of
study as formal and accessory, while it remains substan-
tial. To know nature and man is the sum of earthly
knowledge.
Gy SLANE Y) SEVAISE:
WORCESTER, MaAss., Dec. 3, 1go!.
I shall try to show that life is response to the order of nature... .
Our interest in all branches of science is vital interest. It is only as living
things that we care to know. Life is that which, when joined to mind,
is knowledge, — knowledge in use; and we may be sure that all living
things with minds like ours are conscious of some part of the order
of nature, for the response in which life consists is response to this order.
—W. K. Brooks.
To learn what is true in order to do what is right is the summing up
of the whole duty of man, for all who are not able to satisfy their mental
hunger with the east wind of authority.— T. H. HUXLEY.
Nature study is learning those things in nature that are best worth
knowing, to the end of doing those things that make life most worth the
living.
xvi
Peo RE STUDY AND -LIFE
GHAPTER.1
THE POINT OF VIEW
And God blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed,
which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the
fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for meat.
And the Lord God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden
to dress it and to keep it.
Aims and Purposes of a Nature-Study Course. — The heart of
education, as of life itself, is purpose. Through the maze
of infinite variety in form and structure and action that
nature presents to the student on every side, the only
thing that can hold him to definite lines with patience,
persistence, and continuity enough to make his work
amount to something is purpose. Hence, in order to
select intelligently the materials for a successful course,
we need at every step to have the purpose of nature study
clearly before us.
This may be expressed in a brief formula, as: Learning
those things in nature that are best worth knowing, to the
end of doing those things that make life most worth living.
I
2 NATURE STUDY AND) LIFE
What things are dest worth knowing is indicated in a
fundamental way by the relations toward nature that the
human race has found necessary and valuable to develop ;
and nowhere in literature are these relations expressed
with such force, beauty, and high authority as in the
words at the heading of this chapter. The fundamental
relations to nature of the race, the individual, and the
child have been more fully discussed elsewhere,! and it is
necessary only to summarize them here briefly as follows :
Of first importance is the fact that man’s primitive
relations to nature are mainly biological — relations to
animal and plant life.
Subjugation of Animals. — Development of these rela-
tions followed the order of logical necessity. Subjection
must come first if man is to live in safety on the
earth. This great process of subjugation, this hand-
to-hand fight against nature, must have constituted the
main lines of human nature study for thousands, prob-
ably for tens of thousands of years before language
took form and written history began, and it has formed
a large part of the work ever since. And how far have
vermin, weeds, insects, and microbes been brought under
subjection even now? To what extent this phase
of struggle and warfare should enter into a course of
nature study must remain largely a matter for individual
parents and teachers to decide, but that it has played an
important and fundamental réle in development of civili-
zation and formation of human character there can be
no doubt. And it remains as true as ever that character
'“ Foundations of Nature Study,” Zhe Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vi,
No. 4, pp. §36-553; and vol. vii, No. 1, pp. 95-110, No. 2, pp. 208-228.
Tee POIN EOF ViEw 3
can only be developed by struggle, by active, intelli-
gent, patient overcoming of difficulties, the elements
that achieved success throughout the ancient travail of
the race. It is still “‘To him that overcometh”; and
nothing can take the place of the hard task in education.
But there need be no reversion to barbarism. In fact, the
Fic. 1. PRIMITIVE GERMAN HOME AND ITS OCCUPATIONS
(From a painting by Joh. Gehrts)
work should all be planned to exert the strongest possible
uplift toward civilization instead.
Dominion over Animals.— The step from abject savagery,
by which a new relation between mankind and nature was
opened up, was domestication of animals. Hitherto life
had been a struggle against all nature, against friends and
foes alike. At this point man first developed intelligence
4 NATURE SieUiDYaeAIN Derr
enough to distinguish between friends and enemies and
to discover companions and helpers among the animals
about him. The first animal tamed was the dog, which is
still the idol of the child’s heart. Although taming of the
dog antedates all historic records, it is quite probable that
this great advance was made by the plastic fancy of a child,
—that the first animal domesticated was the playfellow of
some savage boy or girl.
Then follows, also before the dawn of authentic history,
domestication of the horse, sheep, goat, horned cattle,
and most of our domesticated birds, and it is self-evident
that the family or tribe first to develop the patience and
intelligence to tame and thus utilize animal helpers must
have rapidly outstripped all rivals in the race for life.
Human races, in fact, may be divided into those that
have and those that have not tamed the horse. In long
struggles small margins of strength are often decisive, but
one ‘“‘horse power’’ equals that of five men, from which
we see what an enormous advantage accrued from domes-
tication of this one animal. Who first tamed and rode a
colt no one will ever know, but it must have been some
boy, lithe, strong, and daring. Certainly the twelve-year-
old Alexander succeeded better with Bucephalus than the
royal grooms of his father Philip.
The important interest for nature study is the process
of domestication, the gaining of ‘dominion’ expressed
in the command, the establishment of helpful relations,
rather than anything connected with the animal itself.
Thus we miss the substance for the shadow when we
attempt to give this kind of education by pictures of ant-
mals; and we also lose the humanizing and educational
LHE~ POINT: OF -VIEW 5
essence of the process when we substitute the demon-
strational method of the “ school animal” or the zodlogical
garden for the primitive, normal, natural relation of com-
panionship between the living animal and the child. The
pet animal is thus for the child, as it was for the race,
the key to the door into knowledge and dominion over
all animal life. Domestication of animals in its widest
Fic. 2. HERD OF ELK, BLUE MOUNTAIN FOREST
(Photograph by Charles Irving Rice)
sense (and possibly we should add certain phases of
hunting and fishing) is elementary zodlogy. Its funda-
mental character and value for education are evinced in
the passion of children for pets; and as in the race, so
in the life of the child, it should be made the most of as
a step toward civilization. This subject will be more
completely developed in a chapter by itself, and will also
form the key to the animal nature study advocated
6 . NATURE STUDY AND EIEE
throughout the book. But two general considerations
belong in this connection.
At this point introduce an easy cooérdination with lan-
guage and writing by asking the children to make a list
of all the animals, wild and tame, that they know. Let
them write ‘‘tame’”’ and “wild” in separate columns and
number each as they go along, thus:
INVAMIES TOR GED eee eee AGEN. =a Darn ee
Animals whose Names I know
TAME ANIMALS
1. Dog. 6. Rabbit. to. Duck.
Za Gat. Birds. 11. Canary.
Be GOxSe 7. Elen. Insects.
4. Cow. 8. Turkey. 12. Honeybee, ete.
5. Sheep g. Goose. 13. Silkworm
WILD ANIMALS
1. Bison. 12. Wren. Insects.
2. Moose. 13. Chickadee. 21. Milkweed Butterfly.
3.) Deer: 14. Eagle, etc. 22. Potato Beetle.
4. Red Squirrel. Snakes. 23. Meal Worm, etc.
5. Gray Squirrel. 15. Garter Snake. Worms.
6. Rat. 16. Green Snake, ete. 24. Earthworm.
7. Mouse, etc. Amphibia. 25, Leech etc.
Birds. 17. Bullfrog. Mollusks.
8. Quail. 18. Wood Frog. 26. Oyster.
g. Partridge. 19. Common Toad, ete. 27. Clam.
10. Robin. Fishes. 28. Snail, etc.!
11. Bluebird. 20. Trout, etc.
1 Ask the children to underline the names of animals about which they know any facts
or a good story. These may be used for oral language lessons, and the teacher can find out
the extent of the children’s knowledge and will thus be able to correct what is false and add
to what is insufficient.
ERESPOINT OF. VIEW. 7,
A little wholesome rivalry may be permitted as to who
can give the longest list. Copying names is waste of time,
so that this exercise should be given to the class in a way
that shall not allow recourse to books. I have indicated
elementary lines of classification that may be utilized or
wholly disregarded, according to advancement of the class
or preferences of the teacher. They are of some interest
as showing in general that it was found worth while to
domesticate certain kinds of animals, as mammals and
birds, and but few others.
After the class have reached their limit ascertain how
many animals, wild and tame, the longest lists contain,
and then have one of the children copy on the blackboard
the following list.
NUMBERS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF ANIMALS KNOWN
Livine | Fossir MiG
Species | SPECIES
Backboned Animals (Vertebrates). . . | 24,700 2,400 27,100
Sea-squirts (7umzcates) . . « . - . 300 | 300
Clams, Snails, etc. (A/ollusks) . . . 21,320 20,895 42,215
Mollusk-like Animals (J/o/luscoidea). . 820 4,340 5,160
Insects, Crabs, etc. (Arthropods) . . . | 209,405 3,570 | 212,075
IMEIESIIVIEZ TILES) SH eS oe nw 5,500 200 5:700
Starfishes, etc. (Echinoderms) . . . . 27, 3,840 6,210
Jellyfishes, Polyps (Calenterates) . . . 35545 2,680 6,225
One-celled Animals (Protozoa). . . . 4,130 2,000 6,130
Total of all kinds of animals known. 272,090 39,925 | 312,015
Professor Riley’s estimate of insect species on the earth is 10,000,000.1
1 Any teacher is expected to use only so much of this table as is reasonably intelligible
to the class. Still the object of using it is distinctly to teach how much we do not know.
The scientific names are inserted to aid the teacher. It is not intended that they be taught
to the class.
8 NATURE (Si DYS AND Senos
These figures may serve to suggest what a little way
human dominion as yet extends over the animal life of the
world and how much remains to be done.!
Somewhat of sadness attaches to the column “fossil
species.” We shall never see any of these alive upon the
earth again. Among their number were the largest and
most powerful animals that the world has ever produced
or will ever see again, the animal kings of creation for
their epochs: the mammoth, a third taller and more than
twice the weight of our elephant ; the mastodon, larger
still; the Irish elk, the gigantic, Cervus giganteus, and its
American cousin, C. Americanus; the largest members
of the deer family, animals that used to square accounts
with antlers that measured eleven feet from tip to tip; an
American lion, Fe/zs atrox, as large as the Asiatic species ;
at least two bisons of enormous size, one with horns that
measured fully ten feet across,
all are past and gone.
Probably man has been responsible for the extermination
of most of the larger species within recent geologic time,
and in the process of subjugation it would seem that he has
been needlessly severe. Men had little use for menageries
then, but now what would we not give to see some of
those wonders of the world in life again!
What is more to the point, extermination of animal
species is now going on, and at a rate never before
equaled. With modern rifles, shotguns, and dynamite
bombs, coupled with modern steamships and railroads, by
which the remotest corners of the earth become readily
1 Shaler speaks of “near a hundred animals” that man has domesti-
cated. Domesticated Animals. Thetr Relation to Man and to his Advanee-
ment in Civilization, p. 219. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 189s.
| : 9
Eb ee ORNT, OF Vile Ww fe)
accessible, any species of any size or value, either in the
oceans or on the land, stands small chance against exter-
mination, unless directly preserved by man. Within the
past forty years the largest mammal native to our conti-
nent, the bison, has been practically, and doubtless would
have been absolutely, exterminated had it not been for
Fic. 3. BuFFALO HERD CN A STAMPEDE, BLUE MOUNTAIN FOREST
(Photograph by Charles Irving Rice)
the wise action of the government and of a few public-
Spirited men. Prominent among these was the late Austin
Corbin of New York, who established the Blue Mountain
Park as a preserve for large game. In this area of 26,000
acres, containing a mountain range, we are permitted to
see wild life, not in menagerie cages and pens, but in its
magnificence, in the setting Nature designed forit. Surely
the Corbin Preserve is an institution of national interest.
fe) NATURE STUDN CAND EPE E
Cultivation of Plants. — Important as domestication of
animals is, the greatest advance of the race in its relations
toward nature is found in the cultivation of plants. This
has constituted the largest factor in the transition of
human tribes from wandering nomads to stable, populous,
civilized communities. In the stability of landhold we
have the beginning of home, as distinguished from the
casual camping ground; and in the footsteps of Ceres
and Pomona has followed Flora, to make home beautiful.
With home is founded commerce, and arts, literatures,
philosophies, and sciences as well.
Cultivation of plants indicated and developed elements
of character fundamental to civilized life. Willingness to
work for daily bread, intelligent provision for the future,
courage to fight for home, love of country, are a few
among the virtues attained. When we consider its uni-
versal and fundamental character in relation to civilization
and human advancement, the omission of soz/ ore from
a system of education of the young is suggestive of
relapse to barbarism. To allow a child to grow up with-
out planting a seed or rearing a plant is a crime against
civilized society, and our armies of tramps and hordes of
hoodlums are among the first fruits of an educational
system that slights this important matter.
Elementary botany is chiefly cultivation of plants. We
shall see in its proper place, as we have already noted
with animals, that there are certain plants that man has
found worth while to domesticate. Certain other plants
are of great human value, though not domesticated, and
others, weeds and poisonous species, have been recognized
as enemies of the race. The nature study of plants in
tHe «POINT, OF “VIEW in
Fic. 4. A HOME
elementary public schools should consist in just this fun-
damental knowledge that has grouped itself most closely
about human life. Modern botany is a special interest of
adult minds. Compared with this ancient body of plant
lore it is recent, technical, superficial, and special, and as
such it is a profound mistake to attempt to introduce it
into a general plan of elementary education.
2 NATURE. STUDY ‘AND SEIFE
Humanity, like the giant Antzeus, renews its strength
when it touches Mother Earth. Sociological studies sug- -
gest that city life wears itself out or goes to decay after
three or four generations, unless rejuvenated by fresh
blood from the country. Thus these deeper relations to
nature are not only ancient and fundamental but are also
immanent and persistent. While I should not advocate
teaching trades in the public school, although we are wont
to say that every boy should learn one, this study is
so much deeper down in the warp and woof of life, so
immediately supports the whole structure of civilized
social organization, and is so closely associated in the
creation and maintenance of the home, as distinguished
from the camp on the one side and the tenement-house
barrack on the other, that it stands on quite a different
footing. I should like to see the nature-study course give
to all boys and girls the knowledge and the power to sur-
round their homes with the most useful and beautiful
plants available, and actually to produce their living by
rearing plants or animals, or both, if occasion ever require.
Many will say that this instruction belongs to the home.
This is true in a measure; much of it should and must
be done by the home, and one of the chief aims of this
book is to unite home and school in the work. Often a
home from which this fundamental ‘nature study”’ has
lapsed can be reached and rejuvenated by the children
through the school. This is not only the easiest and
most natural way, but in many cases the only hope.
But, the teacher says, the parents make all sorts of
objections to nature study, call it a “fad,” “nonsense,”’
complain of ‘waste of time on new-fangled notions,” say
13
These objec-
THE POINT-~OF VIEW
tions of the home are for the most part right as to what
that ‘they never had to learn such stuff.”
a om 2 inn a |
“gunna yayeeeecacuueen
2 Wak
(pun Wi
See ||| Sh a
}
¥' = i
Itt
,
it
a
SE
A TENEMENT Hou
5:
IG.
4
could be more helpful for development of ideal courses
often goes by the name of nature study, and nothing
14 NATURE STUDY, AND Tite
adapted to local conditions than to invite their freest
possible expression. If we cannot find a nature study
worth while, a nature study so full of human good that it
will meet and overcome all such objections, then we should
devote the time to other subjects. But from several years’
experience the writer is confident that all reasonable objec-
tions can be met, and that we can find a nature study so
good that this attitude of parents can be completely
reversed and their interest and enthusiasm so thoroughly
aroused that they will say: ‘‘ We had no chance to learn
these things, but we wish our children might be given the
opportunity and teach us.”’
When this is accomplished, we shall have a nature
study that shall bind home and school together as noth-
ing in the curriculum does at present. Instead of giving
over our entire school system to passive book learning, we
shall have at least one subject that shall keep alive in the
child the spirit of research, under the impetus of which
he makes such astounding progress in learning the great
unknown of nature around him during the first three or four
years of life. This matter of original research in hand-to-
hand contact with nature ought to be made the breath of
life in an educational system. It will form perhaps the
most essential feature in every lesson in this book, and will
be treated more fully under a special heading. By its means
we may reinstate childhood in the function for which it was
designed and created. John Fiske has potnted out that
infancy was developed as a prolonged period of plasticity,
by which “the door for progressiveness was set ajar.’”!
1 John Fiske. Zhe Meaning of Infancy. Excursions of an Evolutionist,
Pp. 314.
+
REE POUND Ol; VaAlEW 15
If life is response to the order of nature, the higher
and more complete the response, the higher and richer
must be the life. Since response presupposes knowledge,
nature study must take its place in public education as
one of the chief means by which the race may push
forward toward the more perfect response to the order
of nature, which shall be its more perfect life. ‘I am
come that they might have life, and that they might have
it more abundantly.”
(any Furaap sapreyg Aq ydessozoyg)
HUIHSINV]T MAIN ‘AAUASAUG AWVH NIANOD AH] “ISANYOG NIVINAOW ANITA “9 “lA
CHAPTER II
VALUES OF NATURE STUDY
Economic, A#STHETIC, EDUCATIONAL, ETHICAL,
RELIGIOUS
Consummation of happiness is the natural outcome of the perfecting
of character, but that perfecting can be achieved only through struggle,
through discipline, through resistance. It is for him that overcometh that
a crown of life is reserved. The consummate product of a world of evolu-
tion is the character that creates happiness, that is replete with dynamic
possibilities of fresh life and activity in directions forever new. Such a
character is the reflected image of God, and in it are contained the prom-
ise and the potency of life everlasting. FISKE, Through Nature to God,
p- 114.
And sure good is first in feeding people, then in dressing people, then
in lodging people, and lastly in rightly pleasing people, with arts, or sciences,
or any other subject of thought. RUSKIN, Sesame and Lilies, p. 236.
Economic. —In basing a plan of nature study upon its
human values it may be necessary to explain what is meant
by the worth of a study in the curriculum. Throughout
all the details of the various kinds of values we shall
discuss, the paramount value to be aimed at is character,
will to do good, power to create happiness. No lesson that
does not contribute toward this end can claim the right
to a place in the course.
Different plans of nature study are more or less strong
in presenting a certain class of values, generally the
esthetic or scientific. My own plan has often been
17
18 NATURE STUDY AND EME
criticised on the ground that it emphasizes unduly the
economic side, some even going so far as to insinuate
that economic values are the only ones recognized.
Nothing can be farther from my thought, as I hope this
chapter will conclusively prove; but I would include all
human values in about the relations that they bear to life,
especially to child life in its different phases and interests.
I have made economic values prominent because all other
plans of nature study ignore them almost completely.
I have used them because money is the common, univer-
sal expression of value that every one understands and
respects ; and while we may realize that there are many
things that money cannot buy, no other measure of value
is so fundamental to the ordinary affairs of life. Money
value is, moreover, the trunk that supports many of the
higher values. Some measure of assured material wealth
must be attained before art, literature, and science can
develop, and what holds true in the race, among different
peoples, holds, in the main, with individuals. Further, the
entire organization of society, social ethics, laws, and cus-
toms group themselves about this as the common measure
of value for the life and work of man.
More and more, as society becomes organized, the com-
mon goods of nature come to form a great public prop-
erty, — pure air, pure water, forests and roadside trees
and flowers, game and fishes, birds, and other beneficent
animals; and the laws founded on these nature values are
yearly widening their circles of influence as knowledge of
nature advances. On the other hand, the evils in nature,
—Jinsect pests, noxious weeds, fungous or bacterial dis-
eases, injurious animals, — constitute a continual menace
VALUES OF NATURE+STUDY 19
to the public good. No man has the right (and ignorance
cannot be pleaded as adequate excuse) to allow things to
breed upon his premises that may cause damage to his
neighbor. This fight for the good and against the bad in
nature is primordial and fundamental; it has existed as
long as the human race; it cannot and should not be set
aside by any considerations of a sentimental character,
but it should be made in our plan of public education
what it is and always has been in the education of the
race, the dominant idea in nature study. We cannot
expect intelligent observance of laws until the facts of
nature upon which they are based become common
property of the community. To lay this foundation for
right living is certainly one of the functions of a public-
school system. As it is now, few people know even the
names of the things that are doing the greatest harm
or the most good in their own gardens. Insect pests,
_weed seeds, and the spores of destructive fungi are no
respecters of fences, and we must look to a rational nature
study to render universal the needed information.
Finally, with many the financial motive is the strongest
one we can bring to bear to induce them to study or
allow their children to study nature. After a beginning
has been made, other, and so-called higher, motives may
develop. There is the greater need of enlarging upon the
economic motive because it has never been adequately
brought before the public. Our biological science has been
too largely a dead museum affair with little relation to the
life of the community. When we study nature alive
and at work, we begin to realize the incalculable worth
of knowledge, the human value of science. Haunts
Number Month
Violets, pansy, and aster I July, Aug. Low land
Thistle, other Composite 2 Aug., Sept., May High pastures
Thistle, burdock, everlast- 2 July, Sept., May High pastures, on
ing thistles
Hackberry
(Not native) Passion flower 3 August Low fields
Clover 3 May, July, Sept., Open fields
April 2d
Pea family (2) June, Aug., March | Open fields
About cultivated fields,
every where
Open woods
Waste land
Gardens
Gardens
Open woods
Roadsides
Roadsides
Open woods
Meadows, in grass, or
open woods
Hillsides
Hillsides
H illsides
268
NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
Name
Red Admiral, Pyxameis ata-
lanta
Mourning Cloak or Yellow-
Edge, Vanessa antiopa
Blue Emperor, Sasitlarchia
astyanax
White Admiral, Basilarchia
arthemis
Black Swallowtail, Papilio
asterias
Blue Swallowtail, Pafilio
troilus
Green Swallowtail, Pafilio
philenor
Giant Swallowtail, Pafilio
cresphontes
Peacock, Junonia cenia
Hop Hairstreak, Thecla meli- |
MUS
Banded
calanus
Acadian
acadica
Edward’s Hairstreak, Thecla
edwardsi
Striped Hairstreak,
lipare, Ss
Olive Hairstreak, Thecla
damon
Prominent Colors and Marki ders | Se
rominent Colors and Markings Expanse
in Inches | Wency
Dark brown, oval orange band 2 (Ge
Dark brown, yellow edge 3 ce
Blackish, blue shadings 3 R.C
| Blackish, a white band 24 V.R.
Hairstreak, Thecla
Hairstreak, Thecla
Thecla |
Brown Elfin, Thecla augustus |
Hoary Elfin, Thecla irus
Henry’s Hairstreak, Thecla
henrici
Banded Elfin, Thecla niphon
Early Hairstreak, Thecla lata
Coral Hairstreak, Thecla titus
Least Copper, Chrysophanus
epixanthe
Blackish, blue shading and yel-
low dots
Blackish, blue shading and
greenish dots (7. blue green)
Blackish and iridescent blue
green
Blackish, yellow dots
Blackish, three large peacock
eyes
Blackish, gray below
Blackish, light brown below
Blackish, light brown below
Blackish, light brown below
Blackish, light brown below
Blackish, orange brown, green-
ish below
Blackish, brown below
Blackish, brown below
Blackish and red brown, brown
below
Dark
mottled below
Blackish, light gray below
Blackish, blackish and red band
below
Blackish, darker dots (#. pur
plish)
reddish brown,
brown
|
324g | RC
3-44 VaR:
4-54 V.R.
2-2} Vien
14 Re
14 R.R
1} R.R.
i} Rii€
14 R.R.
i-1 civ
g R.
1h R.
I Vor:
1h Ry Re
i VR
1} RR.
q-1 ee ken
iioeaeis BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL
269
Broods per Season
Food of Caterpillar as Sant Haunts
Nettle, elm 2 | July, Sept., May Wasim land
Willow, poplar, elm 2 July, Sept., April | Edge of water
Wild cherry, etc. Ior2 July (Sept.) Roads near trees
Wild cherry, hawthorn, etc. | 1 (or 2) | July (Sept.) Open woods
Parsley family 2 June, Aug. Fields and gardens
tas, spicebush 2 June, Sept. Open woods and brush
Dutchman’s pipe 2 July, Sept., May Near houses
(Orange tree) rue family 2 June, Aug. Meadows
Plantain 2 Open fields
Hop vine, bean pods, etc. 2 May, July About shrubbery
Oak I July, Aug. About shrubbery
Willow I July, Aug. | Edge of water
Oak I July, Aug. About shrubbery
Oak, willow, apple family, | I July About shrubbery
etc.
Cedar I or2 May, June, Aug. Near cedars
Unknown (perhaps like I
next)
Bores in young plums I
Bores in young plums
Pine I
Unknown
Wild cherry, etc. I
Unknown (probably sorrel) | I
May
May
May
Last of July
July
Rough land
Roadsides and bushes
|
| Roads near pine trees
Open places near
| brush
Meadows
270
NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
Name
Prominent Colors and Markings
Silver-spotted Skipper, Efar-
gyreus tityrus
Northern Dusky-Wing, Z/ory-
bes pylades
Hoary-Edge, Achalarus Lyci-
dus
Checkered Skipper, Hesperia
centauree
Sooty-Wing, Pholisora catul-
lus
Sleepy Dusky-Wing, Tanaos
brizo
Dreamy Dusky-Wing,
aos icelus
Lucilius’ Dusky-Wing,
naos lucilius
Persius’ Dusky-Wing,
naos persius
Martial’s Dusky-Wing,
naos martialis
Juvenal’s Dusky-Wing,
naos juvenalis
Horace’s Dusky-Wing,
naos horatius
Tha-
Tha-
Tha-
Tha-
Tha-
Tha-
Roadside Skipper, Amd/ys-
crites vialis
Pepper and Salt Skipper,
Amblyscrites samoset
Bordered Skipper, Ancyloxy-
pha numitor
Indian Skipper, Erynnis sas-
SaACUS
CobwebSkipper,Zry2nismetea|
Leonard’s Skipper, Erynnis
leonardus
Attalus’ Skipper,
Erynnis
attalus
Whirlabout, T/yvmelicus bret-
tus
Volcanic Skipper, T/ymelicus |
aina
Long-Dash, T/ymelicusmystic
Wing
Brown, silver spot below
Blackish, few faint light spots
Blackish, orange spot
Blackish, white dots
Black
Gray, mottled
Gray, mottled
Gray, mottled, white dots
Gray, mottled, white dots
Gray, mottled, white dots
Gray, mottled, white dots
Gray, mottled, white dots
Blackish, white dots
Blackish, white dots
Orange brown, black border
Light
border and marks
orange brown,
Gray brown, white bands
m. black and orange, f. black,
yellow band
| Gray brown, yellow dots
m. orange, black dots, / black-
ish, yellow dots
Blackish, white dots
Blackish, yellowish blotches
Expanse | quency
1-2 (c
12 (Ce
1? R.
l Wa lise
I R.R
ne R. €
1-1} RSE
ee R.R.
1} RAG:
i} R. R.
1g, 12 R.
12 R.
I RIG
I Re
fer G
black 1} Rae
1 R.
m.},f. rh] RR.
m.1},f.18| V.R.
mth, fit] V.R.
m. 1, fi 14 R.
a
INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL Paya |
Food of Caterpillar police dao Haunts
Number Month
Locust tree, wistaria, etc. | I July Bushy pastures
Locust tree, clover, etc. 2 June, Aug. Dry fields
Tick trefoil
Unknown, probably mal-
lows
Pigweed (lamb’s-quarters) 2 May, Aug. Fields and gardens
Oak, milkwort, etc. I June Meadows
Oak, poplar I June Damp woods
Columbine I, 2, OF 3 May (July, Aug.) Rough country
Willows I (or 2) May (July) Shady roadsides
Pigweed (lamb’s-quarters) | 1 or 2
Oaks and pea family I or 2 May (July—Aug.) Open oak woods
Pea family
Grass
Grass (?)
Grass 3 June, Aug., Sept. Meadows
Grass I June | Meadows
Unknown (probably grass) |
Grass I Sept. Meadows
Unknown (probably grass)
Grass
Grass, etc.
Grass 2 June, Aug. | Meadows
272 NATURE STUDY. AND) Wii
N Prominent Colors and Marki nyoae | Ee
ame rominent Colors an rkings So Ans ® | quency
Peck’s Skipper, Polites peckius | Blackish, rows of orange dots |m.1, 7.13) C.
Tawny-Eyed Skipper, Zimo- | Blackish, orange dots (#. orange | m.1, f.1¢| C.
chores taumas blotch)
Cross-Line Skipper, Zimo-| Blackish, white dots 14 R.R.
chores manataagua
Pontiac Skipper, Limochores | Blackish, light brownish orange | m.13,f-1¢| R.
pontiac mottlings
Little Glass-Wing, Eufhyes | Blackish, white bars m. 14, f. 12| R.R.
verna
Dun Skipper, Zuphyes meta- | Blackish m. 14, f.1%| R.
comet
Mulberry-Wing, Poanes mas- | Blackish (orange dots in f.) ie-3 R.
sasoit
Hobomok Skipper, Azrytone | Light brownish orange, black | m.1},f1| C.
zabulon border and marks
Delaware Skipper, Az¢ryéone | Light brownish orange, black 14-15 Rieke
delaware border and marks
Accius’ Skipper, Lerema ac- | Deep brown 13 V. R.
cius
Dusted Skipper, Lerema hi- | Olive brown m.i%, f-1¢| BR:
anna
MOTHS
Regal Moth, Citheroniaregalis | Olive, spotted with yellow, 4-7 V.R,
veins red
Imperial Moth, Zacles im-| Yellow, spotted and banded 4-54 R.R.
perialis with purplish brown
Io Moth, Hyferchiria io m. yellow, f. purplish red m. 2k, f.3h| R. C.
Promethea, Callosamia pro-\ f. reddish brown, light wavy 33-44 Cs
methea bands, mm. darker, markings
indistinct
Polyphemus, American Silk- | Yellowish brown, dusky band, 5-6 RG.
worm, Telea folyphemus | four transparent eye-spots
with pink outer margin
Cecropia, Emperor Moth, | Red brown, wavy dull red 5-7 R..C.
Platysamia cecropia | bands
Luna Moth, Actias luna Light green, tailed, front border 4-54 R.
purple brown
KEY: R., Kare C., Common R. C., Rather Common
m., male J, female
INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL 273
Broods per Season |
Food of Caterpillar ane atk Haunts
Grass 2 June, Aug. Meadows
Grass; + «, 2 June, Aug. Meadows
Grass
Unknown (probably grass)
Grass
Unknown (probably grass) 1 (?) July Meadows
Unknown (probably grass)
Grass I May, june Meadows
Grass 1 (?) July Meadows
Grass
Unknown (probably grass)
MOTHS
Hickory, walnut, pine I June | Borders of woods
Maple, buttonwood, pine I June Borders of woods
Clover, corn, hops, cotton, I June Fields and roadsides
elm, cherry, and other
trees, spines venomous
Wild cherry, tulip, ash, I June, July Open woods
and other trees
Oak, elm, hickory, bass- I June, July Open woods
wood, maple, and other
trees
Apple, cherry, plum, and I June, July Open woods
many other trees
Walnut, hickory, birch I June Borders of woods
|
R. R., Rather Rare V. R., Very Rare V.C., Very Common
1 The only native carnivorous butterfly-caterpillar.
CHAPTERS Vi
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS
THE Common Toap: 1TS LIFE STORY AND WORK;
THE BIoLoGicAL TYPE
Life runs its rounds of living, climbing up
From moat, and gnat, and worm, reptile, and fish,
Bird and shagged beast, man, demon, deva, God,
To clod and moat again; so are we kin
To all that is; and thus, if one might save
Man from his curse, the whole wide world should share
The lightened horror of this ignorance
Whose shadow is chill fear, and cruelty
Its bitter pastime.
Sir EDWIN ARNOLD, Light of Asia.
Ir the children are interested in their gardens, vines,
and fruit trees, and if they have begun to study intelli-
gently the insects about their homes, they will be ready
to commence with zest the work with our insectivorous
animals.
Possibly some child in the class has a pet toad. If so,
have it brought to school and make it at home in an
aquarium or glass box of some sort with about two inches
of moist earth in the bottom. It will probably bury itself
with only its back and eyes above the surface. Then
ask the children to bring in all sorts of insects — flies,
caterpillars, hornets, wasps, rose beetles, spiders, ants,
moths, roaches, squash bugs, anything they can find —
274
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 275
especially such as may be destructive and annoying in
the neighborhood. During the nature-study hour turn
these in with the toad and let the class gather around and
count the number it requires for a dinner. They will be
able to observe the manner in which the toad catches
an insect, —a flash of pink, almost too quick for the eye
to follow, and the insect is gone. From the numbers
Fic. 111%. A PAIR OF TOADS
Female and male. (Photograph by the author)
obtained, they may be led to reason what a power for
good one such little animal may exert in their gardens.
They will also notice that a toad never snaps at anything
until it moves, so that all its food must consist of moving
living things.1
For the next lesson the children may be asked to study
the toads about their own homes. First, how many have
1 For suitable vivaria or aquaria, see Chapter XXIII. If insects are
not obtainable, bits of fresh meat may be dangled on the end of a thread,
dragged slowly in front of the toad, etc., thus demonstrating its manner of
feeding almost equally well.
276 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
they? This question may be answered by searching over
the lot about sundown or after a shower. Do they have
enough to keep the ground free from insects? How
large are their toads?
Let us see who can bring
in the biggest toad, and
the smallest. What kinds
of places do toads select
to spend the day in?
This is an important
point. It will be found
that they choose moist,
shady places, under
-
stones, leaves, or, more
ive, aes tyes pee often, under boards. Are
there enough such shel-
ters well distributed about their gardens ?
Before I knew what to do to save my garden from the slugs,
I have stood at evening rejoicing over rows of fresh emerald leaves
just springing in rich lines along the beds, and woke in the morning
to find the whole space stripped of aa)
any sign of green, as blank as a
board over which a carpenter’s plane
has passed.
In the thickest of my fight with
the slugs some one said to me, |——-——_~
“ Every living thing has its enemy; ws
the enemy of the slug is the toad.
Why don’t you import toads?” |
I snatched at the hope held
F1G. 113. JUST AFTER
out to me, and immediately wrote
to a friend on the continent, “In the name of the Prophet, Toads!”
At once a force of only too willing boys was set about the work
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 277
of catching every toad within reach, and one day in June a boat
brought a box to me from the far-off express office. A piece of wire
netting was nailed across the top, and upon the earth with which
it was half filled, reposing upon some dry and dusty green leaves,
sat three dry and dusty toads, wearily gazing at nothing. Is this
all, I thought, only three! Hardly worth sending so far. Poor
creatures! they looked so arid and wilted, I took up the hose and
turned upon them a gentle shower of fresh cool water, flooding the
box. I was not prepared for the result! The dry, baked earth
heaved tumultuously : up came dusky heads and shoulders and bright
eyes by the dozen. A sudden concert of liquid sweet notes was
poured out on the air from the whole rejoicing company. It was
really beautiful to hear that musical ripple of delight. I surveyed
them with eager interest as they sat singing and blinking together.
“ You are not handsome,” I said, as I took a hammer and wrenched
off the wire cover that shut them in, “but you will be lovely in my
sight if you will help me to destroy mine enemy”; and with that I
turned the box on its side and out they skipped into a perfect para-
dise of food and shade. All summer I came upon them in different
parts of the garden, waxing fatter and fatter till they were as round
as apples. In the autumn baby toads no larger than my thumb nail
were found hopping merrily over the whole island. There were
sixty in that first importation; next summer I received ninety more.
CELIA THAXTER, Ax Jsland Garden, pp.9, 10. (See also Letters
of Celia Thaxter, p. 179.)
We may next take up the life story. Who can bring
in the first eggs? Where shall we look for toads’ eggs ?
At what season are they laid? Who ever heard of toads’
eggs, anyway? What do they look like? What child in
the class can tell us ?
This part of the subject should be taken up in the
spring, about the time the frost comes out of the ground.
On some of the first warm evenings after this, a rustling
of dry leaves and grass may be heard in every direction,
278 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
where toads are plenty. It will often be mingled with
low musical trills of the male toad. This is the signal by
which you may know that all the adult toads are migrat-
ing to the nearest pond to lay their eggs. That same
night, or as you awake in the morning, you will hear
the country ringing with the music Gibson has so well
described as the ‘‘ sweetest sound in nature.” As spring
draws slowly on, my ears grow impatient to hear it, and
as the years go by I enjoy it more and more. True,
Fic. 114. LIrE STORY
Showing egg, tadpole, young toad just emerged from water, one year old, and
adult. (4, c, d, e, photographs by the author)
some may think it monotonous. It may come but once
a year, and then only for a few days, and to me it is one
of the cheeriest wedding bells of the season.
But the early musicians are now forgotten. A new singer has
come upon the scene, and his mellow nocturne in the twilight marshes
brings a message unknown to his predecessors. ‘This is no shrill
peep that stirs your blood and sets your ears a-tingle, no bubbling
rattle or vibrant croak that cries “qui vive” to your eager senses,
but a drowsy drool that brings your feet to loitering in the deepening
dusk, and whose distant music from the swampy lowlands lulls you
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 279
on your pillow. It is to me the sweetest sound in nature, the faithful
chosen voice of the twilight, one of the most characteristic attributes
of late spring, and yet, like the sprightly welcome of the hylodes
which ushers in the vernal season, it still remains unsung by our
poets, or if occasionally acknowledged the true singer never gets the
credit.
Who will immortalize in verse the pensive witchery, ‘most
musical, most melancholy,” of this tremorous song of the toad, for
it is in truth the uncouth and ill-favored toad that now swells his
bagpipe in the marshes and fills the night with music? It is one of
the beneficences of nature that the twilight glamour throws a veil of
obscurity over the performer while it emphasizes and consecrates its
music. HAMILTON GIBSON, Sharp Eyes, p. 54.
If we go down to the pond next morning, we may see
them by scores, hundreds, possibly thousands, paddling
about in the water, the males, many of them, trilling at
the top of their voices. Many, possibly, are still arriving,
hopping along, all toward the pond. The males do all
the piping, and it will be noticed that the throat is
swelled into a bagpipe while the sound is emitted. Males
and females are otherwise distinguished by the larger
size of the female, the body being also greatly distended
with eggs.1
The mass of eggs laid by a toad is remarkable. It
may be demonstrated by placing a pair, before they begin
to lay, in an aquarium or bucket half full of water. If
the water and receptacle are clean, z.e., if there is no sand
or plants to become mixed with the eggs, a clear, bright
mass of eggs may be obtained. A stone should be placed
1 Children, when they begin studying toads in the spring, often think
that the male is “eating” or “sucking the blood” of the female. They
should be told that he is helping the female lay her eggs.
280 NATURE STUDY AND TERE
in the water, rising to the surface, for the toads to rest
on. Some boy or girl may volunteer to secure the entire
laying of a pair of toads to show the school, and it might
be interesting to count or estimate the number. Toad
spawn is distinguished from that of frogs and salaman-
ders by the fact that it is laid in strings or “ropes,” the
eggs lying in single rows inclosed in a transparent jelly.
They are about the size of a small pin head at first, black
above and light below ;
as they float they look
like strings of black
beads. It may stagger
the class to believe that
a toad can lay a mass of
eggs eight or ten times
as large as its whole
body, —as though a hen
were to lay an egg the
Fic. 115. EGGs LAID BY A TOAD size of a bushel basket.
The glass dish is nine inches in diameter. This m ys ter iy is ex-
Number of eggs, 9500 (estimated)
plained by the swelling
of the jelly on contact with the water. But the number
of eggs is almost incredible. Layings of four toads con-
tained, respectively, 7587 and 11,545 (counted), and 8000
and 9500 (estimated). This number is laid in a few hours,
generally at night ; and then, quitting the water, the parents
probably return to the same gardens whence they came.
Beginning with the egg, the most interesting part of the
toad’s life story may be read in its reality by occasional
observations in the ponds and by taking a few eggs home
or to the schoolroom to watch their development from
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 281
day to day. No aquatic egg is better adapted for such
use. It is large enough to be seen with the unaided eye,
Fic. 116. AQUARIUM
Arranged to collect eggs of a toad
develops under all sorts of conditions, and the progress
is so rapid that interest is sustained to the end. First
the egg elongates, then the tiny flat tadpoles hatch and,
282 NATURE. STUDYS AN Dy eRe
feeding first on the gelatinous matter of their envelope,
they soon begin to eat the slimes in the aquarium and
grow with great rapidity; hind legs appear, fore legs
come, the tail is absorbed, and the little toads emerge from
the water, — all within little more than a month from the
time the eggs are laid.
To do this in the schoolroom, have some of the chil-
dren arrange two or three aquaria (glass, earthenware,
wood, or iron may be used, but tin, lead, zinc, galvanized
iron, copper, and other metals should be avoided, since
they may poison the water and kill the tadpoles) as nearly
as possible like the pond from which the eggs are taken.
Have the water not more than two to four inches deep in
the deepest part, and let the bottom slope up gradually
to the surface at one end. This will enable the tadpoles
to find any depth of water they wish and afford a place
for them to come out gradually into the air at the proper
time. In fact, the bottom of the aquarium may be made
of sand, gravel, and moss-covered stones from a fairly
clean pond. It is necessary also to have plenty of green
algae and water plants, duck’s-meat, stonewort, bladder-
wort, milfoil, water cress, or the like, to oxygenate the
water properly, furnish food, and take up the excretions of
the growing tadpoles. If the aquarium is large enough,
a water hyacinth is an excellent plant to have growing
in it for this latter purpose. If the tadpoles do not keep
the water perfectly clear, a fresh-water mussel or two
will accomplish this. Give them a window with sunlight
a good part of the day; as they grow, let the children
carry any surplus back to the pond, and avoid over-
crowding by allowing about an inch of water surface to
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 283
a tadpole. If they tend to eat the aquarium bare, add
fresh supplies of slime and plants from the pond and, in
a word, keep them healthy, vigorous, and growing.
Encourage as many children as possible to provide little
pools in their gardens, stock them well with water lilies,
pickerel weed, cat-tails, iris, and other of our interesting
aquatic plants, and put in as many toads’ eggs or tadpoles
as the pool will support. For this purpose a water-tight
box or tub may be set in the ground, or a more natural
pool may be made by arranging large flat stones around a
hole in the ground and plastering up the cracks between
them with water-lime cement. The top of any such recep-
tacle should be two or three inches below the surface, and
the earth well packed around the edges to prevent rains
from splashing out its occupants. If natural food be not
abundant, its place may be supplied by bits of dog biscuit,
fresh meat, fish, or even bread, but care should be taken
to put in no more than is eaten clean or to remove
uneaten pieces before they foul the water. In this way,
without appreciable expense, any child can raise toads by
thousands, until many of our most injurious insect pests
become curiosities. The danger of ever getting too many
toads we will discuss in a moment.
Emphasize throughout these lessons the work the tad-
poles are doing in the water. They are known as the
‘best scavengers ” of aquaria, and it is difficult to keep an
aquarium clean without them. Their little horny jaws
are continually scraping the slimy growths from every-
thing in the water. Their food at this time is commonly
stated to be vegetable, but if one examines these slimes
with a microscope, he will always find a considerable
284 NATURE STUDY AND AELEE
proportion of animal life as well. Toad tadpoles are espe-
cially good for this work and will generally keep the water
in the aquarium as clear as crystal. An instructive experi-
ment may be arranged by setting up two small aquaria just »
alike. Put in plants and everything else, but leave all
the tadpoles out of one and observe differences in cleanli-
ness of the water. Unite with this study observations as
to feeding habits of tadpoles in the ponds. They may be
seen swarming around dead fishes, frogs, or other matter
that would otherwise pollute the water. Apply the
knowledge gained to the problem of keeping the ponds
and park waters in the neighborhood clear and sweet.}
Natural enemies of the toad form the next series of |
topics for study. Why is it that, laying from five to ten
thousand eggs a year, toads do not become more numer-
ous? No one knows the natural length of a toad’s life.
It is claimed that one lived for thirty-six years in a garden
in England and was then killed by a tame raven. They
probably mature and begin to lay eggs when about four
years old. Suppose the females continue laying for ten
years, the fact that the species does not increase in num-
bers means that of the possible 100,000 eggs only two
survive to take the place of their parents. How are all
the rest killed off ?
Practically every egg in a laying hatches, and I have
not discovered that any fishes, newts, tadpoles, or aquatic
insects eat the eggs. But the tadpoles from the time
1 As filth is washed into the ponds by the freshets of early spring, no
small service may be rendered in cleaning surface waters at this season. I
have seen pools even among city dumpage perfectly clean while the tad-
poles were in them during the spring.
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 285
they hatch until they leave the water are preyed upon by
water beetles, dragon-fly larvae, newts, and possibly fishes.
The entire hatching of a pond may be thus destroyed.
Probably ducks feed upon both eggs and tadpoles in great
numbers. On leaving the water the little toads are at
the mercy of ducks, hens, and many insectivorous birds.
Crows and snakes, and many species of hawks and owls
feed upon the adults. In addition to those destroyed by
natural enemies many are killed by wheels of vehicles
and lawn mowers, and many more are trodden under foot
and burned in rubbish.
The toad is known to possess something of a “homing
instinct”; so that if they are collected and put into a
garden, they immediately leave it, unless confined, in their
attempt to find their familiar haunts. It is also said that
the adults generally return to the pond in which they were
hatched, to lay their eggs. Both of these considerations,
coupled with the fact that it is difficult or impossible to
protect them from natural enemies in the ponds at large,
emphasize the advisability of each garden or farm raising
its supply in the easy manner suggested above. It is
work that any child can do and be the better and wiser
for doing, aside from any more material benefits that may
accrue, and these are likely to be by no means small.
The criticism naturally arises that such artificial cul-
ture might result in a plague of toads. This is scarcely
1In looking over burned brush lands and weedy vacant lots, where the
leaves and rubbish have been burned in the spring, the writer has so often
found the charred bodies of toads that general attention should be called
to this matter. If this be done, common sense as well as humanity will
dictate that such burning should be done, when possible, either after the
ground freezes in the fall or before the frost comes out in the spring.
286 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
possible, for a number of reasons. First, the retiring and
wholly inoffensive nature of the animal could not consti-
tute it any such plague as we already have in many species
of insects that it destroys. As it is nocturnal, even its
proverbial ugliness is not conspicuous. Its powers of
locomotion are so limited that it could be easily caught
and destroyed, if that should ever become necessary.
Finally, its natural food supply, consisting wholly of
insects, worms, slugs, and the like, would inevitably set
a natural limit to its increase.t
We have before us an example of the plasticity of one of
nature’s mechanisms. A toad can live a year, or even
two, in apparent comfort, without any food whatever, but
no eggs will be produced. If food be abundant, it will eat
voraciously and produce eggs in great numbers, possibly
twice a year.2— Every such plastic living mechanism is a
bow bent back, and wherever its force is beneficent we
should be careful to keep it bent so that its spring will be
able to do the greatest good possible at any opportune
moment.
« Tlowever useful they may be,’’ one teacher remarked,
“a toad is such an ugly, disgusting creature we never can
use it in school,” This is tradition, against which it is
1 Destruction of honeybees is about the only damage toads could do,
should they become too numerous. But as bees are not nocturnal and
are not much on the ground, this danger is imaginary.
“In some seasons toads are found in considerable numbers laying eggs
in July. These may be belated individuals, but I am inclined to think
that they are laying a second time. Celia Thaxter’s experience supports
this view, for her toads, brought to the Shoals in June, filled the island
with little toads the same summer. They must have laid once before their
importation,
——
SS es. |
asi»
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 287
well worth while to contend.! Children are rarely, if ever,
troubled by such notions, unless they have been implanted
by their elders; and while no compulsion is called for,
their objections are often easily overcome. The toad is
not a handsome animal, yet its eye, the fabled “jewel”
in its head, is one of the most beautiful in nature.
Ask the children why they think the toad was made so
ugly, all but the eye. There are important lessons in the
answer to this question. Keen-eyed birds of prey and
snakes are continually seeking it for food. With no
means of defense or escape from these swift pursuers, its
only hope of life lies in being as inconspicuous as possible.
This story is thousands of years old, and all this time the
more brightly colored toads have been snapped up first
and those that most resembled clods of earth have escaped.
On the other hand, insects must come close enough for
the toad to capture. They must practically walk into
its mouth, and thus it depends for its food upon looking
like the harmless earth over which they crawl. These
are lessons applicable to every living thing we study, and
when their significance is appreciated, they may do much
toward reconciling the fastidious to the homeliness of the
toad. Its life and its work in the world depend upon it.
1 Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest, —
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
COLERIDGE, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
288 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
If roughly handled, a whitish liquid, which is somewhat poisonous,
is secreted from the skin of a toad, especially from the large glands
near the head. It will cause some swelling of a dog’s mouth, and
care should be
taken not to allow
it to get into the
eyes when hand-
ling toads. The
natural precau-
tions, gentle hand-
ling and washing
the hands _after-
wards, are all-suffi-
cient safeguards
against any ven-
omous properties,
and these also
apply to the hand-
ling of many other
animals+; sbut
everything advo-
cated in this chap-
ter can be done
without so much
as touching a toad.
We may catch it
Fic. 117, PROTECTIVE COLORATION
in a large leaf, a
piece of paper or cloth or in a tumbler or jelly glass. The neatest
way to demonstrate a toad to a class is to have it in a clean tumbler
with a piece of gauze securely tied over the top. It may then be
1A. I. Kirkland, “ The Habits, Food,and Economic Value of the Ameri-
can Toad” (Bulletin 46, Watch Experiment Station, Amherst, Mass.), gives
the fullest account extant of the toad from this standpoint. By his method,
killing the animals and opening the stomach, he identified eighty-three dif-
ferent species of insects, most of them injurious, as entering into its dietary.
By the method advocated above, however, #.¢., by making feeding tests in
a vivarium with insects collected for the purpose, any school could add
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 289
passed around and examined without danger of offending the most
fastidious. The idea that warts are caused by handling toads is
ancient myth without foundation in fact.
The Biological Type. — Types of animal forms and struc-
tures have long been used in college courses in biology
and belong properly to this grade of advanced instruction.
The many attempts to introduce these same “types”
more and more elementary work have seemed to me pre-
mature and ill advised. Before such studies are undertaken
the children need a foundation of living interests in the
animal life about them, and I have advanced this study
as a new kind of ¢yfe, adapted to elementary education.
I have called it the biological type. In less technical
words it may be called the life type, or life-story type,
for the study of an animal species. We have come of
late to appreciate the necessity of studying animals and
plants with children “as wholes,” but this too often has
been interpreted to include little more than their forms
and structures, which to children are dead and without
interest. By this life type I mean the activities, the work
of a species in its wholeness, —the active relations of the
animal to the life about it and especially to man. This is
the side of fundamental, large, and universal interests in
the life about us.
into
hundreds of species to this list, if they knew the species. Still this, of
course, would not show what might be termed the natural feeding habits
of the toad. But the toad’s stomach is a straight sac extending from the
mouth, where it is very wide, back almost to the end of the body. It is
easily everted, and by gently inserting a wire loop (a hairpin does very
well) the whole stomach contents may be drawn out without the least injury
to the animal. I do not, however, give this as a method to be used, but
merely as a suggestion, by which the animal’s life may be saved when it is
desired to make such examinations.
290 NATURE STUDY AND Scie
There can be no reasonable doubt that this aspect of
movement and activity is the natural side of approach for
the child. It is akin to that animism of childhood which
projects life and action even into inanimate things. It is
this side of living nature which, from intrinsic fascinations
and varied affinities with the passion for activity of child
life itself, is best adapted to create enduring interests and
love of nature. It is, moreover, with this side of nature
that a child’s activities come into frequent clash, which
results in all sorts of apparently brutal harms to nature.
With but a minimum of proper instruction which may
bring the child into sympathy with the life around it, and
especially show its values and relations to human life and
interests, all such activity may be easily guided into benefi-
cent channels. Instead of being repressed, as is now so
much the case, this activity may be greatly developed and
encouraged ; and then child life will flow happily along with
the life of nature.
But why choose such an animal to illustrate the bio-
logical type? There are many reasons, which I may briefly
state, in relation to the fundamental values of nature study
discussed in a former chapter.
First, on the esthetic side, to find any beauty in a form
proverbially the ugliest in nature carries the whole battle, —
sweeps the field of ancient prejudice and unfaith in nature.
To discover here the brightest jewel and the ‘‘sweetest
sound in nature’’ awakens a child’s faith and impels him
to seek and find beauty in everything about him.
I pick up a toad a hundred times a season just to enjoy looking at
its eye, —a living, sparkling, ever-changing jewel, — and his music
in the springtime brings a pleasure that nothing else affords.
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 291
On the side of public economy, the toad is one of the
most important animals we have. Toads are practically
at every child’s door ; it need cost nothing for specimens,
and their commonness makes it possible for children to
observe and study them at odd times about their homes.
Further than this, the school children might save in the
course of their outdoor laboratory work and play from
$100,000,000 to $200,000,000, — nearly half the expense
of their entire public school education, — by learning and
utilizing this one species as a beneficent force in nature! ;
and the effect will first be felt in their own gardens.
As an introduction to zodlogy no animal has a develop-
ment better adapted for study. The eggs are abundant,
come at a convenient season, and pass so rapidly through
the different transformations that even young children
do not lose interest. Nothing could be better calculated
to open the door of interest into comparative embryolog
and zodlogy. Then there is the sleight-of-hand magic
of catching insects. Nothing in all the varied perform-
ances of animals brings so quickly: How did he do it?
What did he do it with? Such questions open the
way to comparative anatomy. Next we have a question
that will prove a puzzle. Ask the children if any of them
ever saw a toad drink. How did it drink? Here we
have comparative physiology. A toad drinks by absorbing
water through the skin.
Deprive a toad of water for a day and weigh the specimen care-
fully. Next let it sit on a wet blotting paper, or pour a little water
into its vivarium, and, after an hour, weigh the toad again. The
gain will represent water absorbed.
1 Riley’s estimate is that insects cause from $300,000,000 to $400,000,000
damage annually.
292 NATURE, SEUDY AND IESE
Again, where do we find a better example of protective
coloration, harmony with environment, and life work?
This is a point of view that, when once appreciated, makes
interesting a thousand other things we shall see in nature.
Finally, the food of the toad shows the necessity of learn-
ing about insects and their work. Entomology asa science
is far too little studied in this country.
On the ethical side, no animal is more apt to be griev-
ously abused by the children. Experience has shown that
a little instruction of the right kind wholly does away with
this and makes them its most sturdy protectors. What
child could ever again harm a toad after watching it catch
insects for an hour, or after raising a few from the egg?!
The study may thus yield the best kind of moral culture.
Early in April, as I was vigorously hoeing in a corner, I
unearthed a huge toad, to my perfect delight and satisfaction; he
1 My attention to this subject, and, in fact, to nature study in general,
was aroused by the wholesale killing of toads when they came to the ponds
to lay their eggs. While walking once around a small pond I counted 200
dead or mangled and struggling in the water, and learned next day that two
boys had killed 300 more, carrying them off in an old milk can to empty
on a man’s doorstep. This 500 does not represent probably one-tenth of
the number killed by the children that spring (1897) around this one pond.
A “civilization” in which such abuses of nature are possible ought to be
eaten alive by insects, and something must be fundamentally wrong with a
system of public education that does not render such a thing impossible.
My first impulse was to get a law passed and appeal to the police, but the
wiser counsel of a friend prevailed, and I was induced to try education of the
children instead. Accordingly, a prize of $10 was offered to the Worcester
school child who would make the best practical study of the “ Value of the
Common Toad.” This was offered March 31, 1898, and there was no
evidence that a single toad was harmed at the pond the following April
and May. I would have been well satisfied had such a result been attained
in five years. The fact that it came within thirty days reveals the possibility
of nature study when united to human interest.
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 293
had lived all winter, he had doubtless fed on slugs all the autumn.
I could have kissed him on the spot ! Very carefully I piaced him
in the middle of a large green clump of tender columbine. He really
wasn’t more than half awake, after his long winter nap, but he was
alive and well, and when later I went to look for him, lo! he had
crept off, perhaps to snuggle into the earth once more for another
nap, till the sun should have a little more power. .
To our great joy the frogs that we imported last year are also
‘alive. We heard the soft rippling of their voices with the utmost
pleasure ; it is a lovely liquid-sweet sound. They have not lived
over winter here before. We feared that the vicinity of so much
salt water might be injurious to them, but this year they have
survived, and perhaps they may be established for good. CELIA
THAXTER, Ax [sland Garden, p. 59.
For four hundred years we have not added a single
animal to our list of domesticated species. The turkey
was taken to Europe and domesticated soon after the dis-
covery of America, and while ostrich farming is in its
experimental stages, Professor Shaler seems inclined to
consider this our last assured conquest over wild nature.
From this point of view our domesticated creatures should be
presented to our people, with the purpose in mind of bringing them
to see that the process of domestication has a far-reaching aspect,
a dignity, we may fairly say a grandeur, that few human actions
possess. SHALER, Domesticated Animals, p. 8.
In a large way the work of domestication represents one of the
modes of action of that sympathetic motive which more than any
other has been the basis of the highest development of mankind.
Ibid., p. 221.
Thus we see that to domesticate an animal species is no
mean work with which to begin a century.
The toad has come more than halfway, to man’s
doorstep in fact, to escape its natural enemies and
294 NATURE” SiUDY CAND SLES:
demonstrate its usefulness. To complete the process of
domestication it is only necessary to develop the intel-
ligence and sympathy that shall afford it universal pro-
tection. In addition, before considering a species a full
member of the human household, it is generally neces-
sary to discover means of breeding it in confinement or
under human control. With this condition met, in the
manner already described, there will remain no doubt that
we have added a new and important species to the domes-
ticated animals of this country.
CHAR TER. 2Vit
COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS
How many different kinds of toads and frogs do we
know? Encourage the children to bring in as many
kinds as they can find, and study and compare them a
little as to size, color and markings, habits and habitats.
Learn their different notes, make feeding tests with each,
study the season of spawning and the characteristic appear-
ance of the eggs and, in a word, since they are all good
friends, begin to make their acquaintance.
And first, I wonder how many know the difference
between a frog and a toad. Aside from mere outward
appearances, form, warty skin, colors, etc., which are
not very constant, one of the prime differences is that
toads have no teeth on their lower jaws, while the frogs
always do. Here is a little matter of the common use of
the English language that might as well be set right in
the beginning. It is as easy to say “tree frog”’ as it is
to say ‘“‘tree toad,” and since they are all frogs we may
as well call them so. In case of doubt, gently open the
mouth and pass a finger along the lower jaw, and if teeth
are present, we will call it a frog, if not, a toad.
Our froglike animals are further divided into two great
classes : those in which the adults have tails, and those
that have none. Here is another little matter of good
English that we may learn rightly to begin with.
Our long-tailed Batrachia (frogs and salamanders) are
295
296 NATURE STUDY CAND Err
commonly called lizards. But lizards are always covered
with horny scales, somewhat like the skin of a snake. We
have no common lizards in the northern states, although
they are numerous farther south. The little chameleon
and the “horned toad,” often brought north as curiosities,
are lizards. Possibly one of the children has a specimen
and can bring it to school to make this difference clear.
Lizards and salamanders are shaped much alike, but if the
skin is smooth, like that of a frog, we will call the animal
a salamander or newt, not a lizard.
Taking our study of the toad as the life type, we may
apply similar methods to investigating any frogs and sala-
manders; and we will choose such as are most worthy of
our study. This is a great field, almost wholly unknown.
Any feeding test with one of these animals, by using a
variety of insects, is likely to yield knowledge to the class
that is valuable and that no one else in the world knows.
It is safe to say that all these animals are harmless, 2.¢.,
not venomous or likely to injure by biting; that, with one
or two exceptions to be noted below, they are all valuable
insect destroyers, each for its peculiar haunts; and that
they should be generally protected and utilized as benefi-
cent forces in nature. It is with this point in view that
the general study of them is advocated; that as each fact
—their harmlessness, their usefulness, their varied beau-
ties, their interesting ways and lives — comes to be gener-
ally known and appreciated they may be treated from
motives of conscience and humanity rather than from
those of ignorance and prejudice.
In order to start the children intelligently on these
interesting researches, I shall give, in scarcely more than
COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS 297
tabulated form, descriptions and suggestions of a few of
our commonest species. Naturally a species may be com-
mon in one locality and not in others, but it is intended
that the pupils should spend their time learning the life
stories of what they have rather than in hunting for what
they have not. The table thus aims to aid in naming |
forms that may be brought in rather than to suggest what
to hunt for, and the scientific names are inserted in order
to facilitate reference to special books, not to be learned
by the children or teacher.
Toaps, Frocs, AND SALAMANDERS
Batrachia
TOADS, Bufo. Jaws toothless, skin generally warty. Genera three,
species thirty ; found in all parts of the world except Australia.
Common Toad, BZ. /entiginosus. Variety of northern form, amerz-
canus. Very variable; adults warty; young almost smooth.
Note a prolonged trill, uttered by the males during the breeding
season, April and May, sometimes also in July. Food: insects,
spiders, millipeds, slugs, and worms. Feeding habit chiefly
nocturnal. Does not eat young of its own species.’
FROGS, Rava. Skin smooth ; toes and fingers fully webbed ; maxil-
lary and generally vomerine teeth ; chiefly aquatic. Genera four-
teen, species about fifty. Eggs are laid in masses of gelatinous
matter.
Common Frog, Leopard Frog, 72. wirescers. Greenish, sometimes
brassy, above, with light-edged dark spots arranged in two irregu-
lar rows along the back; beneath, pearly white or yellowish.
1 This is an interesting point to test. I have found that a toad will
snap a little toad, as it will any moving thing; but my experience has been
that they always immediately open the mouth and set the little one free
uninjured. TI have never seen an insect or any other living thing treated in
this way.
298
NATURE, STUDY AND EIRE
About three inches long. Our commonest and most beautiful
frog. Note, a cluck much like that of a hen but more musical ;
one of the first species heard in the spring. Eggs laid about as
soon as the snow melts in the spring. Food: insects (?).
Brown Frog, Pickerel Frog, 2. palustris. Brown, spots squarish
in four rows; beneath, yellowish white. Length, three inches.
Note, a low, hoarse croak, like the sound made by tearing
coarse cloth. Spawning season is early spring. Habitat, cold
springs and streams. This frog has a somewhat disagreeable
odor and is remarkable for the length of its leaps, being next
to the most agile frog we have. Food: insects (°?).
Northern Frog, 7. seftentrionalis. Color above, olive with large
nearly circular blotches of brown; whitish beneath. Most vari-
able ofall our frogs. Body stout, about two inches in length.
Possesses a strong odor of mink. Inhabits marshy waters,
northern United States and Canada; quite aquatic. Feeds on
insects and small fishes. Note and spawning season not given
in the books.
Green Frog, 2. clamata. Color above, bright green, rarely brown-
ish, with blackish spots ; white below. Note, a musical “ Chung”
as it leaps into the water. Food: insects; otherwise practically
unknown. Spawning season not given in the books.
Bullfrog, 7. catesbiana. Our largest North American species.
Color, greenish olive above, variously marked with dusky
blotches; below, white, often bright yellow under the throat.
The note is a deep bass “‘ Br’wum,” “ more rum ”’ or “ jug o’ rum,”
heard so often in the early summer evenings. The spawning
season, so far as I have been able to observe, is late June and
July. The young remain in. the water as tadpoles at least two
years and attain a length of five to eight inches. This is our most
valuable frog, but its work in nature is probably worth more than
its market price. The services of the large tadpoles, too, in cleans-
ing shallow ponds must be of considerable value. The number
of eggs laid by a large frog is not known, but is probably not less
than 20,000. Whatever the number, the frogs should be care-
fully protected — along with trout and other fishes — until after
COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS 299
spawning is well over. The open season should not be longer than
August and September. The food of the bullfrog seems to be
any living thing that it can even partially swallow. I have seen
one swallow the head end of a live mud puppy fully twice the
length of the frog’s body. Another observer has recorded a simi-
lar instance of the fate of a young alligator. Mice, birds, feathers
and all, fishes, crayfishes, insects, worms, tadpoles, and frogs of
its own and other species are acceptable, and in this struggle size
may not count for so much as first hold. In confinement they
may be fed on earthworms, grasshoppers, and other insects, and
it is not beneath the dignity of the biggest of them to sit all day
long beside a bone and snap the flies as they come.
Wood Frog, 2. sylvatica. Color, greenish to reddish brown, chang-
ing somewhat according to surroundings; a dark band on each
side of head extending over the eye and ear to insertion of arm;
legs obscurely barred, and sides speckled with black. A small
frog found commonly in the woods, scarcely aquatic, can leap
farther than any other of our frogs. Its note is a hoarse croak,
heard in April, when it comes down to the ponds to spawn.
Aside from the common notion that it feeds on insects nothing
definite is known as to its food.
SPADEFOOTS, Scaphiopus. Terrestrial frog’s heel provided with a
spur for digging. Form toad-like. Genera two, species four.
Spadefoot Frog, S. holbrookiz. Length, three inches; skin rough;
color, earthy or ashy brown. From all accounts these frogs
bury themselves in the earth during the day, coming out to feed
at night, and, while widely distributed, are neither seen nor
heard except during the spawning season, when they are said
to be “noisy whistlers.”’
TREE FROGS, Hy/a. Small: arboreal; fingers and toes with tips
expanded into clasping disks. Genera ten, species sixty.
Common Tree Frog, /7. versicolor. Color above, green, gray, or
brown, with irregular dark spots; white or yellow below. A
common inhabitant of orchards and waysides, but a good test
300
NATURE STUDY, AND LIFE
of any child’s sharp eyes to find. Its note is the musical
‘“ Tur-r-r-r-t” so often heard on a summer evening. The eggs
are laid in May or June in small masses attached to stems of
weeds and grass in shallow pools. This is to me the most inter-
esting of frogs. It is easily domesticated, so that it may be
carried about on the finger from fly to fly. If kept in a viva-
rium and well fed, it is said to make an interesting barometer,
climbing to the top of its ladder in fair weather and descending
into the water before a storm. The distribution of these frogs is
one of the greatest puzzles I have encountered. I have repeatedly
brought them to the trees about the house, where attractive pools
are provided, but they never stay more than a day or two. Why
they are not more numerous is another question for which I have
found no satisfactory answer.
Pickering’s Tree Frog, H. fickeringiz. Color above, yellowish
brown, with a dark X on its back, by which it may always be
recognized. These little “spring peepers” announce the very
first day of spring with their shrill, clear whistles, “ Uh-e-e-t,
wh-e-e-t, wh-e-e-t,” from the pools of ice water in the glades
and meadows. One may hear them all the years of his life but
never know whence the sound comes, unless he puts on his
rubber boots, takes a lantern to the pool, and picks them up
in the very act.
Little Tree Frog, Chorophilus triseriatus. Color, ashy gray, brown,
or fawn color, with three brown stripes down the back. Habitat,
small pools in the densest thickets. Note resembles the low
jingling of sleigh bells in the distance. Range is given as east-
ern United States, south of central New Jersey, and westward.
CRICKET FROGS, 4crzs. Small; not arboreal. Genus one, species
one; with regional variations.
Cricket Frog, 4. gvy//us. Color above, brown or gray, readily chang-
ing, a dark triangle between the eyes, the apex pointing back-
ward and continued down the middle line as a light stripe; three
large oblique blotches on the sides; a dark (or white) line from
eye across the eardrum. Its note may be imitated by striking
COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS 301
two marbles together twenty or thirty times, at first slowly, then
rapidly. It inhabits the weeds, the tall grass, and bushes of
muddy shores. No good account is given of its foods, breeding
season, or habits.
Both the time and place of spawning for most of our
species of frogs and toads is best indicated by their music.
SALAMANDERS, Uvodela. Smooth, elongated bodies; four limbs ;
long tails; no external gills when adult. Sixteen genera and
fifty-three American species.
Newts, Diemyctylus viridescens. Color above, olive green, vari-
able; a row of black-bordered vermilion spots on each side;
below, yellowish dotted with black. The tail is flattened and
has finlike expansions of skin above and below. This descrip-
tion applies to the adult form of our common newt during the
breeding season or while it isin the water. Found under stones
and under logs out of the water, this newt (formerly classed as a
distinct species, D. mznzatws) is vermilion red above, paler or
yellowish below; spots arranged as in the breeding form; tail
fins absent. As these newts have been kept in confinement by
a number of different people and have been observed to change
from one form to the other under varied conditions, there can be
no further doubt that they are one and the same species, the
different forms and colors depending possibly on condition of
maturity or on seasonal changes. The red form should be kept
in a damp, mossy vivarium with a pool or dish of water sunk
level with the ground at one end. The green form may be kept
in an ordinary aquarium, covered to prevent its escape, and pro-
vided with floats of bark or cork, upon which it may rest. Both
forms may be fed on worms or insects or small bits of raw meat.
Valuable feeding tests may thus be made, since we know very
little of the newt’s feeding habits. It is especially instructive to
see them eat mosquitoes and mosquito wrigglers in the water.
The egg-laying season extends from April to July, and the eggs
are laid singly, securely glued to and hidden within little tufts
of aquatic leaves which the female carefully draws together
302 NATURE STUDY AND LIBE
around the egg as it is deposited. The egg is brown, about the
size of a toad’s egg.
Red-Backed Salamander, Plethodon erythronotus. Body slender,
about three inches long; lead colored, with a broad reddish
dorsal band, which varies greatly in color or may be absent.
This is our most common salamander; it is found under stones
and logs or beneath the bark of decaying stumps, and, unlike the
forms thus far noted, its eggs are laid in these places and not in
the water, and are watched over by the parent. Who can tell
us at what season the eggs are laid? The food is insects and
their larve.
Red Triton, Sfelerpes ruber. Length, five to six inches; color,
vermilion to dark salmon red, spotted with brown. No account
is given of its eggs or breeding season. This is the triton that
John Burroughs describes (Pefacton, Chapter V) as making
‘more music in the woods in autumn than any bird.” The
note is said to resemble that of Pickering’s Hyla, only not so
loud. No other naturalist, so far as I can learn, has succeeded
in hearing it. Its haunts are springs and rocky streams, where
it may be found by turning over the stones. In rainy weather
it makes excursions on land.
Spotted Salamander, A mblystoma punctatum. Length, six to seven
inches; color, black above, with a series of yellow spots on each
side of back. Eggs of the spotted salamander will often be
brought in by the children. They are found in the icy pools
and ditches of early spring (March to April, according to season
and latitude), large, oblong, cylindrical masses of rather tough
jelly. They are transparent, and within the mass may be seen
the clear, spherical oval, about one-quarter of an inch in diameter,
each one containing a dark-brown yolk. This will prove a most
instructive object to watch for the next three or four weeks.
PROTEANS, Mud Puppies, Pro/ecdz. Medium- to large-sized ani-
mals, shaped like salamanders but thoroughly aquatic and
provided with external gills. One American genus with two
species,
COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS — 303
Mud Puppy, or Water Dog, Wecturus maculatus. Length, ten
inches to two feet; color, dusky brown, more or less mottled.
Breeding season, early spring (?)._ Necturus has the reputation
of following fishes to their spawning grounds in order to eat the
eggs and young.
We have noted but five of the fifty salamanders, but
this will be sufficient for a beginning. In trying to keep
them in confinement we must remember that some are
aquatic, some terrestrial, and some both; and we must be
careful to note the haunts of any common species we wish
to study and render our vivarium as much like its normal
environment as possible. I must repeat that the above
forms are not described in order that they should be
“learned,” but solely to help toward an acquaintance
with these and similar forms, to the end that intelligent
sympathy may take the place of ignorant fear.
Fic. 118. AN INVITATION TO THE BIRDS
304
GHAPTER- XVIII
OUR COMMON BIRDS
Tueir Lire, Work, AND NATURAL ENEMIES
Beloved of children, bards and Spring,
O birds, your perfect virtues bring,
Your song, your forms, your rhythmic flight,
Your manners for the heart’s delight,
Nestle in hedge, or barn, or roof,
Here weave your chamber weather-proof,
Forgive our harms, and condescend
To man, as to a lubber friend,
And, generous, teach his awkward race
Courage and probity and grace!
EMERSON, JJay-Day.
Birp study is no trifling fad. Our bird life represents
a public property, protected by laws that are beginning to
be respected and enforced. We may begin again with
a few oral or written language lessons to find out how
many birds the children know and what they have already
learned about them.
There are so many books devoted to describing and
identifying birds, and all the species which we wish to
study are so common, that we may omit the descriptive
side. In fact, I should relegate the whole subject of
bird nature study to some one of the excellent books we
already have were it not for the fact that, with all our
books and all our birds, year by year boys and girls are
passing through our schools who are not able to recognize
3°95
306 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
even our commonest species, and what is worse, do not
care to learn or know anything about them. This means
that, excellent as our bird books are, there is something
lacking; and it is in the hope of supplying two vital rela-
tions between child life and bird life that the following
pages are written. We must teach the children the
human value and importance of birds. We must suggest
things for them to do which shall help and increase the
bird life about their homes.
Up to within a few years the usual methods of studying
birds consisted in mounting, preparing skins, and making
collections of nests and eggs. More recently we have
come to know that birds are too valuable to be used in
this way, and the opera glass and camera have to some
extent happily displaced the gun. But, in general, we
are in the negative phase expressed by a sentence from
one of the best outlines of the course of study for a city
school: /uszst that no boy or girl destroy a bird or tts
nest. Negative effort is uninteresting and, at best, little
more than a suggestion to do the thing prohibited. In
the same time we can much more easily teach, on the
positive side, work that the children will enjoy doing and
that will make abuse of bird life impossible.
The important question is: What do birds do in the
world? About this point center all our laws for bird pro-
tection. We must first gain, by observation and personal
acquaintance with the living birds of each species, a
knowledge of their ways, their foods, their beauties, and
their songs. Then give the imagination full play to
picture what the whole species is doing in every farm
and garden and about every home in the land. Think
OUR COMMON BIRDS
OF
of the millions of beautiful wings and building nests and
eating bills and singing throats.
Aside from their intel-
lectual and zsthetic values the paramount service of the
birds lies in their power to
destroy insects. For this
work we have a vast mech-
anism in nature, an army
plastic almost as air, on
wings, powerful and beauti-
ful, able to carry their fly-
ing squadrons hundreds and
even thousands of miles
whither food abounds and
insects threaten destruction
to vegetation.
In studying living things
we should bear in mind the
truth, stated often in these
words: As long as there
7s life there ts hope.
thing that lives there are infinite possibilities.
Think, every morning when the sun peeps
through
The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove,
How jubilant the happy birds renew
Their old, melodious madrigals of love !
And when you think of this, remember too
*Tis always morning somewhere, and above
The awakening continents, from shore to
shore,
Somewhere the birds are singing evermore.
The summer came, and all the birds were
dead ;
The days were like hot coals; the very
ground
Was burned to ashes; in the orchards fed
Myriads of caterpillars, and around
The cultivated fields and garden beds
Hosts of devouring insects crawled, and
found
No foe to check their march, till they had
made
The land a desert without leaf or shade.
LonGFELLOW, Birds of Killingworth.
In every-
No seed or
egg is so tiny but that it may hide the possibility of cover-
ing the world with forms
of its kind incred-
ibly short time.
= | CO
to
+]5|
Cedar Bird
Ty
+
Blue Jay
Redwing | 4 26
Grackle 70
Oriole 84
noe
+/+
HeenEEe
cts pe Se
pee te |
Marsh Hawk
Screech Owl
English Sparrow
324 NATURE STUDY AND EIBE
with some regard to this matter, since, besides adding
pleasing variety, it would tend to fill the towns and even
cities with our native birds. No less an observer than John
Burroughs says: “Indeed, the food question seems to be
the only serious one with the birds. Give them plenty to
eat and no doubt the majority of them would face our
winters.” He goes on to describe how a pair of bluebirds
and even a mocking bird were induced, by the shelter of
his porch and the fruit of a hackberry tree that stood
close by, to spend the winter with him eighty miles north
of New York. With available room properly planted we
might have ten wild birds to one that we have now in
our towns and many of our cities; and those who favor
the English sparrow, because he is the “only bird we
have in winter,’ might soon be consoled for his absence.
It would be ideal nature study if all the children in our
schools would learn the list of bird-food trees and plants.
By learning them I do not mean being able to say over
their names merely ; but they should be able to recognize
each at any season of the year; they should know its
possibilities of growth for purposes of decoration and
ornament ; and, most of all, they should study how to propa-
gate each species, so that they can actually plant and have
a tree anywhere they wish.
Glancing down the first column of the chart, we see
that certain birds subsist on animal food, insects, worms,
etc. These birds are the house wren and cuckoo; and,
when it is determined, we may add to this list the chicka-
dee, vireos, swallows, swifts, martins, and flycatchers. We
could not have too many of these in this country. Another
larger class of birds takes 50 per cent or over of animal
mak BIRD CENSUS AND, FOOD ‘CHART aes
food but, even with the others, as well stated by Wood
(Theodore Wood, Our Bird Allies, p. 7), birds that take
but a small per cent of insect food may still destroy
insects which would have damaged fruits and crops much
more than the birds themselves. Birds that come early,
like the bluebird, robin, redwing, and grackle, may be of
especial service by destroying insects before they have
laid their eggs for the season.
For four years now the food chart has occupied a place
on the wall of my study. I have had occasion to refer to
it many hundred times, and never without learning some-
thing that I was glad to know. Still its best service,
after all, lies in showing us how little we know about the
foods of our birds. Each blank square is really a ques-
tion, a suggestion to try this or that, and an infinite
number of other things not mentioned in the chart, to
see whether any particular bird will eat it. And when a
child finds that any bird will eat something which it is
not shown to eat in the chart, he may have discovered
a fact which no one else in the world knows. If it be
some destructive insect, his observation may be very
valuable, and if he tells everybody about it, he may lead
people to protect the bird more carefully and so help to
make the world better.
As years go by and great numbers of our birds become
so tame that they will come to us and eat from our hands
and allow us to observe them as they hunt their natural
foods and feed their young, we may be able to discover
more in this important field, in possibly the next ten years,
than man has learned in as many centuries. Methods
suggested for taming birds may assist in this work.
PROPHECY FULFILLED
CHAPTER XCX.
PRACTICAL DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS
No longer now the wing’d habitants,
That in the woods their sweet lives sing away,
Flee from the form of man; but gather round,
And prune their sunny feathers on the hands
Which little children stretch in friendly sport
Towards these dreadless partners of their play.
Sa tear : : ; happiness
And science dawn though late upon the earth.
SHELLEY, Demon of the World.
THE process of domestication consists in three things :
first, in development of intelligence sufficient to discern
between friends and foes ; second, in development of a
sympathetic appreciation of the animal's physical needs
sufficient to enable it to live with man in mutually helpful
relations ; and third, in so universalizing these attainments
and relations that all may work in unison, to the end that
what one builds up others will not tear down. The evi-
dence is already obtained to prove the value of a number
of the common species. On the esthetic side alone the
sentiment is growing rapidly that our birds are worth
their board and lodging, which they pay for many times
over with their beauty and their song. In addition to
this, recent discoveries as to their work in insect destruc-
tion should win for them an assured place in nature-study
courses ; and, it would seem, that in no other way could
327
328 NATURE: STUDY, AND [rite
we bring about that universal regard for bird life that the
country needs.
Before giving them any of these data below, ask the pupils, as a
part of a writing lesson, to make a list of the birds they like best,
stating after each how much they would be willing to give to have a
pair nest by their home.
People buy birds and go to the expense and care of keeping them
in cages. How much more is it worth to have a pair of free birds
come and nest by your window, to have them sing to you the season
through and show you the secrets of their wonderful housekeeping !
Four of my friends have kindly given me estimates as to how much
they would be willing to give thus to have a pair of the following
birds. (We may compare the figures with Holden’s prices for choice
songsters of the same species.’)
EsTIMATED VALUE HoLpeEn’s Price
FOR A PAIR OF 1st 2D 3D 4TH FOR A MALE BIRD
Brown Thrashers . $5 $3 $3 $8 $5 to $ 8
Catbirds I I 75 I 5 “ To
Tanagers. .. . I 10 3 4 3 s 5
Grosbeaks I 8 7 sa | Pals ies
Robins Sots 5 5 I ier 3 SOF SIRS
Bobolinks .. . 2 10 6 8 | 2 as 3
Orioles ae 6 4 2°50h| es 5
Chickadees . . .| 2 24 ee a
Bluebirds. . . . ry Be ila ad z —
Mocking birds (not thought of as a possibility) 3.50: Maka
Anything that a man can avoid doing under the notion that it is
bad, he may also avoid under the notion that something else is good.
1 | had hoped to place alongside of the wsthetic value the economic value of the different
birds; but our highest authorities in ornithology tell us that this is not known fora single
bird. If a toad may be worth $19.88 each season for cutworms alone which it destroys
(Kirkland’s estimate, “The Common ‘Toad,” Bulletin No. 46, Hatch Experiment Station,
Amherst, Mass.), many of our birds, like the chickadee, swallow, wren, robin, and others,
must be worth much more,
DOMESTICATION OF:OUR WILD BIRDS 329
Wean them [school children] from their native cruelty by
imparting to them some of your own positive sympathy with an
Seer: : 3
animal’s inner springs of joy. JAMES, Zalks to Teachers, p. 195.
What positive work can the children do for birds that
will tend to their increase and draw them closer and
closer about our homes year by year? Let us apply
ourselves thoughtfully to this question; for I am sure
we shall find increasing pleasure in following its varied
suggestions as long as we live. We have been chasing
the birds farther and farther back into the woods long
enough. Let us reverse all this and induce them to
come to us.
Food, Water, and Home, Essentials of Bird Life.— Since their
homes are such frail affairs, we should expect birds to
build where food and water are abundant. Still we should
remember that the idea of home, with birds as with men, is
intimately associated with a sense of security, and that the
predominant characteristics of birds are wings, timidity,
ability to flee. The sight of a cat, the careless throwing
of a stone, when a pair are seeking a nesting place, may
often influence them to go elsewhere. On the other
hand, no animals have eyes so quick to discern acts of
friendliness, and, if all appearance of hostility is avoided,
I doubt if we need to modify the daily course of our lives
essentially to have the birds come to us. Their nests
often stand close to railroads and overhang busy streets,
and if not directly molested, many of our most valuable
species seem quite content to take the world as they find
it. This is the result of my observations and experience
for the past ten years,
330 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
Few people realize the importance of water to bird
life. How many times a day a bird drinks I have never
seen stated or even
mentioned in any of
the books.! But we
1 Water may be pro-
vided by placing a shallow
dish on a short post, high
enough to be out of the
reach of cats. The water
should be from one-half
inch deep on the shallow
side to two or three inches
in the deepest part, which
may be accomplished by
either tilting the dish or
by partially filling it with
washed sand or fine gravel.
A large flowerpot saucer
makes a good dish, as it
is a little rough, and it is
said that birds do not like
a slippery floor to stand
on when they bathe. Few
people who have not tried
it can have any idea of the
satisfaction there is in see-
ing the thirsty birds come
down to bathe and drink.
For five years past I
have had one by my study
Fic. 127. A Birp BATH window, and at the pres-
(Photograph by Timothy F, Myers) ent moment a robin is
making the water fly in
every direction. The next comer is an English sparrow, and the next
and the next and the next two, English sparrows, — while they are with
us we should not wish them to be thirsty, and the next is a female
robin, the next a red-eyed vireo, the next an English sparrow, all within
DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS 331
know they drink often, and they must have their baths
once a day and probably twice in hot weather.
Another kind of bath the birds know how to take, and
people should indulge in more, is the sun bath. The
bird leans over, broadside to the sun, the wings fall, the
bill opens, and every feather is raised to let the light strike
the skin. When we see it for the first time, we think the
bird is dying; but as the solid comfort of it is appreciated,
Fic. 128. MocKING BIRD TAKING A SUN BATH
we can hardly resist the temptation to go and do like-
wise, — bask in the sun.
The lack of pure water and suitable places to bathe
may go farther than anything else toward explaining the
disappearance of birds from our cities during the hot, dry
summer months. Wesee them drinking and bathing in the
gutters and mud puddles, and is it not natural that they take
their nestlings to the country as soon as they can fly?
fifteen minutes, and so it goes in the noon hour whenever I have time
to watch. Nothing adds more to the comfort of birds in hot weather.
332 NATURE STUDY AND UETPE
As an outdoor lesson ask the class to hunt the district
over thoroughly and report on the number of suitable
places for birds to drink and bathe. Previously discuss
with them what constitutes a suitable place. Our park
waters are commonly too deep and, with their rock-bound
borders, seldom afford a bathing place. Birds recognize
their helplessness when their feathers are wet, so that
streams or pools whose
banks afford hiding
places for cats will be
avoided. Then the
water must be whole-
some, clean, and con-
stant, not likely to fail
on hot days. If there
is a lack of proper bird
Designed and made, at suggestion of Principal fountains, call for vol-
J. Chauncey Lyford, by ninth grade manual unteers amon eS the
training pupils, Winslow Street School, ¢hildren who will see
Worcester, Mass. The bird house is now
adopted as one of the regular models in the - tG it that the birds of
ninth grade manual training course through- the district are well
out the city
Fic. 129. Birp HOUSES
provided for.
Leaving the matter of food, as most important, to the
last we may next inquire what the children can do to”
supply bird homes. The idea of building a bird house
and of having birds live in it has a great fascination for
children. The bare suggestion is sufficient, and off they
go, perhaps carrying the house and running after every
bird they see, calling ‘Come, birdie,” and great will be
the disappointment. at first that every imaginable bird
does not come forthwith and take up its abode.
DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS 333
We should guard against such disappointments in con-
nection with the autumn
study of nests and nesting
materials. For each bird
included in their grade plan
they should have clear ideas
as to its preferences and be
led to accommodate them-
selves to the bird’s life,
rather than expect the bird
to do impossible things.
To supply homes, nest-
ing places, and materials
for nests is a fascinating
Suudy. Trees. may be
pruned to make inviting
crotches, and a dark tangle
of bushes overgrown with
vines and sunflowers, dense
lilac bushes, or a “ syringa
thicket’”’ will be sure to
attract catbirds, brown
thrashers, and some others.
Bird houses furnish homes
for wrens, bluebirds, chick-
adees, nuthatches, tree
swallows, and purple mar-
tins, but here, again, Eng-
bird census and during the
a ece-s, LO eee
One of the author’s tenement houses.
There are five young ones inside, and
the pair reared three broods in r1go1
lish sparrows are the omnipresent nuisance and must be
served frequent notice to quit the premises.
The proper
size for a bird house is six inches square floor space and
334 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
eight inches high, and houses of more than one compart-
ment may be made by cutting the boards in multiples of
these numbers.
or, if painted, they should
be made the color of an old
tree trunk. A single open-
ing near the top should be
Old weathered boards should be used,
Alas, dear friend, that, all my days,
Hast poured from that syringa thicket
The quaintly discontinuous lays
To which I hold a season-ticket,
A season-ticket cheaply bought
With a dessert of pilfered berries,
And who so oft my soul hast caught
With morn and evening voluntaries.
made, two inches in diameter
for most birds; although, for es
s LowELL, Nightingale in the Study.
wrens and chickadees, one
inch is sufficient and will serve to keepout English sparrows,
and for wrens the house should be set in a shady place.
Besides being a cheery songster and a most sprightly
and fascinating fellow, the wren depends for practically
his whole food supply upon the insects of our grounds
and gardens. While wrens have become scarce of late
years about our towns and cities, driven
out probably by English sparrows, a few
of the children in Worcester have reported
them as occupying their bird houses. No
doubt, we may soon have them common
again if we supply sparrow-proof homes
and get rid of the English sparrows.
Probably no bird possesses a_ higher
economic value than the chickadee. All
summer he feeds on insects and all winter
lic. 1 31.
( (ADEE . .
plaice on the eggs which they lay on the twigs
and bark and around the buds of trees. Professor Forbush
reports finding 5500 eggs of plant lice in the crop of a
chickadee, this number representing what the bird had
gathered for a single breakfast. When heavy snow and
DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS
B35
especially sleet covers the trees, be sure to see that your
chickadees are provided with food.
marrow and meat on it or
a piece of suet fastened to
the limb of a tree and kept
free from ice from time to
time may save dozens of
these precious little lives
Chicka-
dees are also among our
cheeriest and tamest birds,
and we could not have too
many of them about our
homes.
For swallows every barn,
and I am tempted to say
house attic as well, should
be provided with a hole high
up in the gables, which can
be left open the whole year,
or at least all the time the
swallows are with us. This
is a custom of our fathers
which should not be _ per-
mitted to lapse. It is some-
times objected that the birds
bring undesirable insects
into the house. The idea
is probably based on faulty
during a winter.
A fresh bone with
Among the dwellings framed by birds
In field or forest with nice care,
Is none that with the little Wren’s
In snugness may compare.
And when for their abodes they seek
An opportune recess,
The hermit has no finer eye
For shadowy quietness.
Worpsworth, 7he Wren’'s Nest.
This poet, though he live apart,
Moved by his hospitable heart,
Sped, when I passed his sylvan fort,
To do the honors of his court,
As fits a feathered lord of land,
Flew near, with soft wing grazed my hand.
Emerson, The Titmouse.
Further on we found what we were chiefly
looking for —a flock of lively little chicka-
dees... . They would light on our hands,
inspect the pieces of crushed nut there, knock
off the ones that did not suit them, and
finally fly off with one — usually the largest.
Froyp C. Nose, aged 14, Bird-Lore,
Vol. I, p. 58.
On two occasions, Chickadees have flown
down and perched upon my hand. Dur-
ing the few seconds they remained there I
became rigid with the emotion of this novel
experience. It was a mark of confidence
which seemed to initiate me into the ranks
of woodland dwellers.
Cuarman, Handbook, p. 390.
Note also Chapman’s ‘“‘The Legend of
the Salt,” Bird-Lore, Vol. I, p. 55.
Gentle swallow, thou we know
Every year dost come and go ;
In the spring thy nest thou mak’st ;
In the winter it forsak’st,
And divert’st thyself awhile
Near the Memphian towers, or Nile.
Anacreon, XXXV, p. 89, Stanley’s
Translation (562 B.c.).
observations, but, in any case, the parasites may be easily
destroyed, and we should do this rather than not have the
336
swallows.
NATURE STUDY VAND rer
Old barns are sometimes seen with this wise
provision, but it is seldom, if ever, found in the new ones
that are fast taking their places.1
As the old barns fell to ruin,
New ones, raised to take their places,
Lacked the broad and generous shelter
Which the eaves had once afforded
To the owners of the mud huts,
To the swallows of the Saco.
Weary-winged, from distant Southlands,
In the spring have come the swallows,
Seeking hopefully their nestings,
Seeking eaves and sun-warmed barn sides ;
Come and found the crackless clapboards,
Come and found ill-odored pigments,
Come and found new barns for old ones,
Come and found no eaves for shelter,
Come with joy and met with sorrow,
Seeking vainly for old barn sides
Changeless as the cliffs of Paugus.
Weary-winged, the homeless swallows
Flutter on into the darkness —
Whither going? That they know not.
But “tis certain that the Saco,
That the fonely cliffs of Paugus,
That the steeps below Chocorua,
Do not bear their cosy dwellings.
Years ago, on man depending,
Mother swallows taught their nestlings
Barns alone were made to build on —
jarns have failed them, man betrayed them.
Bouiwes, Chocorua’s Tenants.
As well suppose the trees without leaves
as the summer air without swallows. Ever
om
Fic. 132. BARN
SWALLOW’S
NES!
since of old time the Greeks went round
from house to house in spring singing the
swallow song, these birds have been looked
upon as the friends of man, and almost as
the very givers of the sunshine. ... The
beautiful swallows, be tender with them,
for they symbol all that is best in nature and
all that is best in our hearts.
Jerrrigs, Field and Hedgerow, p. 100.
Then out of the high heaven above, at
once one hears the happy chorus of the barn
swallows; they come rejoicing, their swift
wings cleave the blue, they fill the air with
woven melody of grace and music. Till
late August they remain. Like the martins’,
their note is pure joy; there is no coloring of
sadness in any sound they make. ‘The sand-
piper’s note is pensive with all its sweet-
ness; there is a quality of thoughtfulness,
as it were, in the voice of the song sparrow ;
the robin has many sad cadences; in the fairy
bugling of the oriole there is a triumphant
richness, but not such pure delight; the
blackbird’s call is keen and sweet, but not
so glad; and the bobolink, when he shakes
those brilliant jewels of sound from his
bright throat, is always the prince of jokers,
full of fun, but not so happy as comical.
The swallow’s twittering seems an expres-
sion of unalloyed rapture, —I should select
it from the songs of all the birds I know as
the voice of unshadowed gladness.
Cevia THAXTER, Ax Island Garden, p. 22.
1 The nest in the margin was taken from such an old
barn, with swallow holes in the peak, belonging to Elliott
Moore of Worcester, and the swallows have nested in it
regularly for many years.
Paint and planed lumber are
fast making our buildings impossible for swallows. 8 to 8 f 13 x 9 “ 4 “ “ ““ “ “
Qa either 1-inch angle tin for
“ us 20 Kia KF toc24-K IgX 14 frame or 1 inch around bot-
tom and }-inch for the rest.
AQUARIA 399
For larger sizes it is safe to say that angle iron or
aluminium bronze, either cast in a single piece or riveted
at the corners, would be preferable.
The corners of all sizes larger than 8 x IO X 5, around
the bottom and up the vertical angles, should be laid as
represented in cross-section in Fig. 161, with a prism of
cement in the angle, covered by a narrow strip of glass.
This greatly strengthens the joint and protects the water
from the cement.!
A good aquarium cement, for either fresh or salt water,
is made by mixing dry ten parts each, by measure, of fine,
dry, white sand, plaster of Paris, and litharge, and one part
powdered resin. Mix as required, to a stiff putty with
boiled linseed oil. (This must be warranted free from
any trace of adulteration with fish oil, and it is commonly
necessary to buy raw oil of a practical painter, who should
know that it is pure, and boil it for
a few minutes, to drive off the water
in the raw oil.) The simplest and
best aquarium cement, the formula
of which has been given me recently
by the United States Fish Commis-
sion, is made as follows : Stir together
dry, by weight, eight parts putty (dry
whiting), one part red lead, and one Fie. 161. Section oF
CORNER OF AQUARIUM
part litharge. Mix, as wanted for use,
with pure raw linseed oil, to consistency of stiff putty.
1 Although not necessary, I generally put one or two coats of copal, or
spar varnish, around the angles on the inside. No aquarium has leaked
when this has been done; and if a leak occurs, it is necessary only to dry
very thoroughly and varnish on the inside around the angles.
400 NATURE STUDY FAN D Wale
How to set up or fill the aquarium for general purposes
is the next topic. First put in about two inches of sand,
washed until a stream of water runs off clear; then,
with the sand only moist, set the plants about the corners,
making furrows in the sand in different directions and
laying the roots in them; finally, arrange pebbles, shells,
and larger stones about the bottom where they will
keep the plants in place. Next pour in the water up to
within an inch
of the top, hold-
ing the hand or
a piece of thin
board so as to
break the force
of the stream,
and avoid wash-
ing the plants
loose. Finally,
put in a fresh-
water clam or
two,some snails,
Fic. 162. A FROG WITH SIx LEGS
a few tadpoles
(if the fishes
will allow of it), to keep the water clean, and, after a day
A curiosity for the aquarium
as it
is desired to study. Overcrowding is the common temp-
or two, such fishes — not more than two or three
tation to be resisted. Allow one gallon of water to each
fish three inches long, and where enough water plants are
present to oxygenate the aquarium, the fishes will show by
their actions, quiet movements, and breathing that they are
comfortable. If they come to the surface and gasp for air,
AQUARIA 401
we may know that the water is not properly oxygenated,
and we must take out some of the animal life or put in more
plants, or do both. Children will be much more inter-
ested in the plants and animals that they have collected for
their aquaria themselves ; and for other reasons we should
use chiefly the native life of our ponds and streams.
A large aquarium should be permanently located before
it is filled. The best place is near a light window where
the sun shines but a few hours during the day, and then
it must be placed so that most of the time it may be
shaded from direct sunlight. It is generally stated that
an aquarium should stand where the sun will not shine
directly on it, but the plants are then apt to grow weak;
hence it is desirable, and should be possible, to admit
sunlight without moving the aquarium. However, a more
serious difficulty in properly locating the aquarium is that
of too much light. A pond receives light only from
above, and even there the water is generally the clearest
and the plants freest from overgrowths of slimes in shady
nooks along the shore. We must study nature closely
and try to imitate the conditions that produce the best
results in the ponds of the neighborhood. The growth
on the glass and plants of green or brown alge, often in
slimy masses that fill the water, indicates too much light.
Shade well for a time and put in tadpoles and snails to
feed upon the alge. While difficult enough to make it
interesting, it is a valuable study, — that of balancing the
life and managing the light in an aquarium so that the
water will remain clear and sweet ; and the knowledge
thus gained will be found applicable to the conditions of
park waters and ponds in general.
402 NATURE SUDY “AND EME
How often does the water require changing? This is
the question often asked by those who wish to start an
aquarium. The answer is: “Not once a year, if the ani-
mals and plants and light are properly balanced and regu-
lated.” In doing this it is best to use the plants and
animals that live in still water, in ponds and quiet pools,
rather than those characteristic of the running streams.
Aquaria with running water are more difficult to manage
and are expensive in use of water. They are, moreover,
a constant menace as to flooding the building, and cannot
be recommended for school use.
What causes the water to become cloudy or milky?
This is the next troublesome question, and with fifty chil-
dren all anxious to feed the fishes something, it would
seem that every school aquarium must be in this condi-
tion all the time. But one of the chief uses of an aqua-
rium is to make the children careful and thoughtful, and as
experience has shown, they readily learn that giving more
food than the fishes and other animals will eat clean, gen-
erally before it sinks to the bottom, is the quickest way to
make the water foul and, possibly, to kill their pets. We
shall learn more of this when we study about bacteria in
the water. Fishes, and aquatic animals in general, should
not be fed oftener than once a day, and then only so much
as will be eaten clean. If mistakes are made in their eager-
ness to feed bountifully, the children who do it should be
asked to remove all surplus food with a siphon or dipping
tube before it has had time to decay.
What animals can be safely kept together in the aqua-
rium is another frequent question. The general rule of
keeping predaceous species by themselves, except while
AQUARIA 403
we are making definite feeding tests, is the best one to
follow. The vegetable feeders, or those that eat only
animals not larger than worms and insects, may be kept
together. If we are not certain what a new specimen
may do, it is best to partition off one end of the aquarium
for it while we study its foods and habits. This may be
done by forcing a pane of glass into the sand below and
wedging it at the top with bits of cork. Goldfishes and
other varieties of carp, shiners, dace and all kinds of
suckers, darts, orfs, frog and toad tadpoles, young newts,
and salamanders may be kept together. Bass, perch,
sunfish, trout, pickerel and pike, pouts and eels, stickle-
backs and paradise fishes, turtles, water snakes, large
salamanders and frogs, leeches, water beetles and dragon-
fly larvae must generally be kept by themselves. Clams,
snails, and tadpoles form the scavenger brigade for every
well-ordered aquarium.
A few simple pieces of apparatus will aid greatly in
management of the aquaria. A shallow dip net is indis-
pensable in catching specimens. It may be made accord-
ing to directions for the insect net, except that it should
not be deeper than about the diameter of the ring. A
small rubber scraper will probably be needed to keep the
slimes off the glass until animal scavengers and light can
be properly regulated. A dipping tube, z.e., a piece of
glass tubing, about fifteen inches long and a little less
than one-half inch in diameter, with nicely fused ends,
will be used daily. A piece of half-inch rubber tubing
about two and one-half feet long may serve as a siphon
to draw off the sediment from the bottom from time
to time.
NING SLI GHHS FAVNS NMOUG V ONIHOLVAY
"€or “DIT
404
CHAPTER “XXV
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS
A NUMBER of animals, too important to omit from
nature-study courses but not fitting in with those already
treated, may be grouped together in this chapter. Each
may be taken up as occasion presents itself during the
year and season indicated in the grade plan.
The Bat. — This is an interesting but misunderstood ani-
mal. Not infrequently one drops out of a ventilator into
a schoolroom or is brought in as a curiosity, too often dead,
by one of the pupils. Suppose we have a live bat, let us
see what it will eat. It may open its mouth and chatter
in a most threatening manner, but while we should not put
our fingers in the way of its sharp teeth, it can be handled
in a towel or handkerchief. It may be tamed, gener-
ally in a few minutes, by gentle treatment and feeding, so
that it will take insects and lick drops of water from the
fingers. It is only necessary, when it opens its mouth to
defend itself, to drop in a fly, meal worm, spider, or even
a bit of raw meat, possibly at first on the end of a tooth-
pick or hat pin. It will soon understand, and then feed-
ing tests may be made with whatever bugs or insects the
children can find.1
1The writer has not been able to find any insects that a hungry bat
refuses to eat; but we must be a little careful not to overfeed; on one
occasion he fed a bat 243 flies, but, while it apparently ate the last one
with relish, it died a few minutes afterwards.
405
406 NATURE, STUDY, AND} ELE E
Whether or not we are able to do any of this practical
work, we should strive to gain cefinite knowledge of the
role these animals play in nature. So few of our birds
are truly nocturnal, and so many of our worst insect pests
—the codling moth, tent-caterpillar moths, the white-
marked tussock moth, owlet moths, parents of the cut-
worms, June beetles, mosquitoes, and a host of others —
Fic. 164. FEEDING A BAT
have taken refuge in the darkness, that we need the bat as
the night police of our gardens. They should be accorded
much the same protection as our most valuable insectiv-
orous birds. Koebele describes bats flitting about an
infested apple tree catching codling moths on the wing
and even snapping them from the leaves, and the writer
has repeatedly fed these moths and their larvae to bats in
confinement.
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 407
An instructive problem may be made as follows: If a bat catch
one female codling moth every night from May 20 to July 1, how
many bushels of apples may be saved, allowing that each moth lay
fifty eggs on as many apples and that there are two hundred apples
to the bushel? Axzs. 273 bushels.
An unwarranted fear and dislike of bats seems to be general in
this country. They are said to fly into people’s hair, necessitating
cutting it off, if long, in order to get them out. The writer has had
bats for months at a time given full liberty of the house, but has
never known of such an accident. Even if one should get into the
hair, it would do no harm and could be easily removed if the person
were not frightened. It is also said that they carry vermin, especially
bedbugs, but I have examined dozens and never found a single speci-
men ; and, further, I have found that they actually eat bedbugs with
apparent relish. Bats are known to live in caves, hollow trees, and
the crevices about barns and houses, often in colonies of scores or
even hundreds. The fact that such numbers are able to find sub-
sistence is sufficient proof that a family of bats is a valuable acquisi-
tion to a farm or garden.
Squirrels. — These are graceful pets and, next to the
birds, form the most animated life of parks and wood-
lands. It is one of our crimes against nature that they
have been so nearly exterminated in many sections. What
the children can do to bring them back is the ques-
tion for nature study. Their food consists chiefly of
nuts and acorns, which fall in such abundance that we
should not begrudge them the few they need, and they
undoubtedly plant enough to repay the trees for those
they eat.
Perhaps one of the pupils has a tame squirrel that he
can bring to school for a few days. If so, we shall be able
to study its foods and habits in such wise as to enable the
children to form a genuine acquaintance with it. If there
408 NATURE. STUDY “AND IPE
are squirrels or chipmunks about the schoolhouse, it is
generally an easy matter to tame them by leaving nuts or
bits of bread in some convenient crotch, and soon they
will be coming regularly to share the children’s lunch.
Fic. 165. TAMING A CHIPMUNK
(Photograph by Miss Jessie Gelston Whiting)
As to the different species, a few facts should be devel-
oped in connection with rearing them, especially in towns
and city parks.
The common red squirrel, or chickaree, is the living
impersonation of mischief. He will cut every pear from
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 409
a tree, — to eat the seeds of a few perhaps, — apparently
for the mere fun of seeing them drop. This alone makes
it inadvisable to have him around. But a more serious
crime of which this little rogue has been convicted con-
sists in robbing nests and eating birds’ eggs and young
birds; so, in general, the fewer red squirrels we have the
better for our birds. Have any of the children observed
this for themselves ?
Our gray squirrel is commonly accredited with neither
of these injurious traits and, together with the large fox
squirrel, may be freely encouraged to come and live with
us. In a single instance, among many that the writer
could cite, in which gray squirrels became too numerous,
some damage was done to fruit; but this may have been
due to lack of food or, more probably, to lack of water.
It would be advisable, at least, to bear these points in
mind before passing final judgment. That both food and
water in plenty have no influence in reducing the mis-
chievous propensities of at least one red squirrel the
writer has had abundant proof.
The flying squirrel, though it is nocturnal in its habits,
is one of the most interesting of the group and is easily
domesticated. )
Rats and mice are too common intruders to be omitted
from a course in nature study. We sometimes find them
recommended for pets, and they both have some interest-
ing traits; but they have long been recognized as hostes
humant generis, enemies of the human race, and the plain
truth may as well be taught. By the skillful and persistent
use of traps and poisons these pests may easily be exter-
minated. No less than this should be aimed at, as they
410 NATURE STUDY AND EIRE
multiply with such rapidity, and when this is accomplished
there will be one less argument for keeping cats.
Several other common animals may be studied as occa-
sion offers, among them, woodchucks, muskrats, minks,
otters, skunks, moles, shrews, and weasels. For the char-
acter of the latter the description of Kagax given by Long
in Wilderness Ways is admirable. To his graphic account
i Py
i
al
a a
Fic. 166. TAMING A Woop TURTLE
the writer may add that one morning, when a boy, he found
six sheep dead near an old straw stack ina field. The only
marks of violence in each case were four little cuts behind
the ear, where an artery had been severed. The straw stack
was burned during the day, and two old weasels, with a
litter of half-grown young, were found and killed.
Turtles. — These may be brought in by the pupils and
acquaintance made with a few of the commoner species.
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS AII
Most of them are aquatic or semi-aquatic and may be
kept inthe aquarium. Their habit of crawling out on rocks
and logs to sun themselves should be borne in mind in set-
ting up the aquarium for them. As some are terrestrial,
a good rule to follow is the one already given for other
animals: Study the environment in which they may be
found and make that of the aquarium, or vivarium, as nearly
like it as possible. Little seems to be known about the food
of even the commonest turtles. The aquatic forms —snap-
ping turtles, painted and spotted turtles, and the soft-shelled
turtles —are carnivorous and feed mainly on fishes, although
they often take young ducks and goslings. The fact, as
every fisher boy knows to his chagrin, that they are often
caught with the baited hook demonstrates their fondness
for earthworms, and this is the food upon which they may
be most easily kept in confinement. The box and wood
turtles subsist chiefly on worms, slugs, and insects, but
also eat succulent leaves. They should be given lettuce
or cabbage, together with earthworms, and if some child has
a tame turtle, interesting feeding tests may be made. Young
turtles will be found to eat mosquito wrigglers with great
avidity.
Not the least interesting things about these queer ani-
mals are their nests and eggs. What boy or girl will
volunteer to find some turtles’ eggs and bring them to
school? They may be found, often in great numbers,
buried in the sandy banks of ponds or streams. It is said
that young turtles as soon as hatched crawl toward the
nearest water. Test whether this is true.
Lizards. — These are different from salamanders, which
they resemble in form, in having the skin covered with
412 NATURE. STUDY AND DIE
overlapping scales. Very few are found farther north
than Pennsylvania, being chiefly tropical or subtropical in
distribution. They are insectivorous, and in the Southern
States, where they abound, valuable feeding tests may be
made as suggested for toads, frogs, and birds. The manner
of catching insects with their long tongues is interesting,
as are also the rapid changes of color of several species.
Snakes.
most beautiful animals. A strange fascination seems to
attach to them, which is almost certain to result in their
intrusion into the nature-study course whether the teacher
wishes it or not. The fear of anything is a heavy burden
to carry through life. The lurking fear of something that
we are likely to meet in our daily walks in the fields or
woods may spoil much of our enjoyment in nature or, at
Many of the common species are among our
least, hem us in on every side. If for no other reason
than to cast out this fear, we may introduce a reasonable
study of these animals.
While some may be inclined to consider the fear of snakes heredi-
tary, it may quite as well be explained as a matter of suggestion.
The fact, to which my own experience attests in many instances,
that it can be thrown off by a moment's exercise of the will, and
also the fact that children who have never been frightened by the
fears of others may show no traces of it, render this explanation
the more reasonable. My own children, for example, have always
handled and played with our harmless little snakes as freely as with
kittens. A single concrete instance will make my meaning clear.
I was demonstrating our common green snake, when one of the
members of the class asked if I would hold it while she touched it.
After touching it she asked if she could take it in her hands, A
year or two afterwards she referred to the circumstance and said that
she had never since felt the least aversion for snakes but had thor-
oughly enjoyed studying them. She expressed her thanks for being
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 413
helped over her “last nature fear.” Was not the momentary effort
well worth the while?
This study is the more to be recommended because so
little is known about the food and habits of even our com-
monest species. Any child who tames a snake and finds
out what it eats is quite likely to discover facts that may
extend the range of knowledge. This in itself is a keen
incentive. Are they valuable or harmful animals? We
cannot tell until we learn their foods, and this, according
to the Washington authorities, ‘is not known for a single
species of North American snake.”
We know, in general, that all snakes feed upon living animals,
which they swallow whole, and very often alive. Garter snakes feed
largely on toads and frogs; water snakes are known to destroy
great numbers of fishes; and the black snake has the well-earned
reputation of killing birds and robbing their nests. Whether they
do enough good to offset this harm, or whether they do any good
at all, remains to be discovered by patient observation and study.
As far as the evidence goes at present, however, it seems that the
fewer we have the better.
No such harmful traits can be attributed to our green, or grass,
snake or to the little brown snakes, since they probably feed exclu-
sively upon worms and insects. As they are gentle and harmless,
never attempting to bite or to defend themselves, they are the best
forms with which to begin acquaintance. They may be readily found
under flat stones. In June or July they deposit their eggs under the
stones where they live. The eggs are white, irregularly oblong, few
in number, and about the size of sparrows’ eggs; the shells are thin
and papery, and a little later, when we hold them up to the light, we
may see the young snakes coiled up inside.
Fishes. — The original plan of this book included a
chapter on the common fresh-water food and game fishes.
As it is, a few of the more important are distributed
414 NATURE STUDY* AND: TrbE
through the grade plan, with the understanding that the
pupils shall study them alive in their aquaria, and in the
ponds and streams by the general methods suggested for
frogs and salamanders. Feeding tests will be found
especially interesting. Ask the pupils particularly to
observe the spawning seasons and habits of the different
species. These matters should be as thoroughly learned
as the nesting seasons of the birds, in order that we may
give fishes the universal protection which may result in
restocking our barren waters.
Botflies. — A family of flies which do not belong properly
with household or garden insects, may be introduced here.
The botflies are large brownish hairy flies, found buzzing
about horses and cattle. There are a number of species.
The ox bot, or heel fly, lays its eggs on the hair about the
fetlocks. The eggs are licked off and soon hatch in the
animal’s mouth or stomach. The larve bore their way
through the tissues and finally reach the skin, which they
perforate, probably to obtain air. After attaining their
growth they crawl out, drop to the ground, burrow under
the surface, and transform into pupz. The following
spring they emerge to repeat the story. The elk in
Fig. 167 is seen to be afflicted with bots.
Other botflies lay their eggs in the nostrils of animals,
and the larvee develop in the cavities of the head. They
attack sheep especially and, cause not only much loss to
the farmers, but great suffering to the animals as well.
Several kinds attack our native wild herbivora. The elk
in Fig. 168 was thus killed by “grubs in the head.” A
kingbird on every mullein stalk in the pasture would
possibly be the best remedy for these pests,
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 415
Ants. — No insects, excepting the honeybees, have
proved more interesting to study than the ants. Turn
over a flat stone any time after the middle of May and
you are almost certain to find a colony of ants. As the
stone is lifted, if the day be warm, you will see little piles
of whitish oblong bodies, — the pupz, — commonly called
Fic. 167. Cow ELk
The lumps in the skin are caused by botflies. (Copyright by Charles Irving Rice)
eggs; and immediately the workers seize them and hasten
to carry them down into the nest. Besides these you may
often find smaller masses of shining black eggs. These,
probably eggs of plant lice, the workers also carry into
416 NATURE STUDY AND EIPE
their holes. At this season you will commonly find at the
surface only workers, pupe, and eggs. If now a spade
be deeply thrust into the earth and the whole nest turned
out, you may be able to discover the queens, much larger
than the workers, and the white maggot-like larvae. At
this season you are not likely to find any winged ants in
the nest, but later, in August or September, the air may
be filled with them, flying in every direction. If we now
visit an ants’ nest or some ant-hill in the neighborhood,
we may see swarms of winged males and females issuing
from the ground and taking flight. This is their wedding
journey, and after it the males soon die. The females
either join a colony of the same species as one of its
queens or found a new colony. They tear off their wings
as of no further use, or the workers do this for them.
Any species that is common in the neighborhood may
serve as the basis for these lessons, but perhaps the best
ones to work with, aside from the ants that infest the
house, described in Chapter V, are the following:
The carpenter ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, one of
our largest black ants. Its nests are built in timbers of
buildings, logs, and even trees, by excavating a complicated
series of passages and chambers. A nest of this species
may be arranged for study, if one is not convenient out-
side, by bringing the wood in which they are working
into the schoolroom and mounting it on two bricks which
stand in shallow pans of water. This latter is to prevent
them from escaping into the room.
The mound-building ant, /ormica exsectoides, is perhaps
our most conspicuous species on account of its large hills,
often from one to two feet in height and five or six feet
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS A.
in diameter. The head and thorax are dull red, and the
abdomen and legs black.
The slave-maker ant, /ormica difficilis, resembles the
above in size and appearance, but builds its nests almost
wholly underground, often beneath large flat stones.
The slave ant, Formica subsericea, is found in colonies
of its own under stones and commonly, also, as slaves in
the nests of the last-named species.
Fic. 168. ELK KILLED BY GRUBS IN THE HEAD
(Photograph by Charles Irving Rice)
The corn-louse ant, Laszus brunneus, is the brown ant,
about one-eighth of an inch in length, so common about
roads and pastures. Many, if not all, ants attend aphids,
in order to obtain the sweet secretion, commonly known
418 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
as honeydew, which some species discharge. For this
reason aphids are sometimes called ‘ant cows.” The
milking of their cows is readily observed. Practically all
the ants seen about trees are tending their herds of cows,
and if we follow one we may soon see her come up to an
aphid and stroke it gently with her feelers. In response
the aphid emits a little droplet of honeydew from two
minute tubes on its back, and this the ant eagerly licks up.
A destructive species of aphid, the corn louse, feeds upon
the roots of corn, and it has been found that the brown
ant collects the eggs of this aphid in the fall, takes care
of them in its nest during the winter, and carries the
newly hatched plant lice back to the corn roots in the
spring. It is possible that this or other species of ants may
distribute plant lice in a similar manner to the leaves of
trees or shrubs, but this has not as yet been discovered.
An ants’ nest may be made with a slate and a pane of
glass large enough to rest upon the frame all the way
around. Cut one or more little passageways in the
frame, have a board just as large as the glass to keep
the nest dark when not under observation, and stand the
slate on two bricks in a shallow pan of water. To fill
the nest select a hot, sunny afternoon, turn over a flat
stone quickly, and with a spoon first scrape up as many
ants, pupe, and eggs as possible into a wide-mouthed
bottle; then dig open the nest and be sure to catch one
or more queens, with as many more ants, eggs, and larvae
as possible. Cork the bottle and, without more delay than
necessary, turn the contents upon the slate, spreading it
out so that the glass will rest on the frame, and cover
up. By the next morning you will find a well-ordered
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 419
ants’ nest, with its chambers and passageways, the queens,
eggs, larve, and pupa all nicely arranged in the center.
By feeding with sugar, crumbs of cake, insects, or bits
of meat placed on the board cover or around the edges
cf the frame, they may be kept as long as is desired.
In this way the whole life and work of the colony
may be observed and studied in the most convenient
manner.
An ordinary roofing slate, about twelve inches square,
with strips of one-quarter inch wood glued to it so as to
include a rectangular area a little smaller
than the slate, say ten inches square,
and arranged as above described, makes
a most satisfactory ants’ nest.
Spiders. — These interesting creatures
play too important a rdle in nature to
omit from the course. To gain an idea of
how many spiders there are, look out .
on some grassy meadow on a dewy morn-
ing. The grass is carpeted with webs. Fic. 169.
On the one side, spiders destroy winged AN IntEREsTING
insects — flies, mosquitoes, gnats, and Saami
moths. Let each one of the children examine some con-
veniently placed spider web from time to time for two or
three days and report, as nearly as possible, how many
and what insects are caught in it. On the other hand,
spiders are most valuable food for birds. Bird fanciers,
in fact, consider them the best medicine for birds, acting
like magic to make them well.
While the class is studying spiders, which should be in
September, have them collect all the different kinds of
420 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
spiders’ eggs they can find. They are laid in little bags
of spider web, hung up in the web, as with the common
house spider, or placed in cracks, under boards, scales of
bark, or under stones. If the eggs are kept in a cold
place, the hatching in the spring will furnish interesting
lessons.
A spider may be encouraged to spin in one of the
schoolroom windows, or one may be confined for this pur-
pose in a dry aquarium, and then, with the aid of their
insect nets, the children can bring in flies and mosquitoes
to feed it. Besides the common house spider for these
observations, be sure to have an orb weaver, as its web is
the most interesting and beautiful of all. By studying
a jumping spider, a running spider, a cobweb or funnel
weaver, an orb weaver, and a gossamer or flying spider
a fair idea of the life and habits of this group may be
obtained. The jumping spiders are found on plants, logs,
sides of buildings, etc. They are usually hairy, are very
agile, and catch their prey by springing upon it. They
spin webs only as egg sacs or as shelters in which to
moult or hibernate. For the South the trapdoor spider
should be added to the list.
An interesting lesson with the spider. Have a pan or basin filled
with water on a table in the largest open space in the schoolroom.
sy using an ink bottle or even a potato to hold it upright, erect in
the pana stick twelve or fifteen inches high. Have the children bring
in various kinds of spiders, —almost any kind will do for this experi-
ment. Select one and place it on the top of the stick and let the
class watch the spider’s movements. It will first run down the stick,
but will find that it cannot escape, because this is surrounded by
water ; it will then mount to the top again. After several more
trials to escape, the children will notice that the spider is spinning a
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 421
fine silken thread. This grows longer and longer and floats out into
the schoolroom. It floats to and fro and at last is caught on some
piece of furniture, perhaps adesk. The thread, which extends from
the top of the stick to the desk, is very slack, and now the little
weaver is seen to
tighten and fasten it.
This done, he quickly
runs across and makes
his escape.
The story of the
first suspension bridge
is thus told, ‘‘ an engi-
neering feat of which
the spider was the
earliest discoverer.”?
How many of
the class think
that spiders are
insects? What is
an insect? What is
a bug? Whatisa
worm? These are
questions relating
rather to the right
use of language
than to compara-
tive zodlogy, and
we may as well clear them up. Ask each child, after
putting these questions and letting him try to answer
them, to bring to school a worm, a bug, another kind of
insect, and a spider. It is convenient to have them
brought in dry, clean bottles for ready observation and
Fic. 170. AN ORB WEAVER
1 Read Gibson’s “ The Spider’s Span” in Sharp Eyes. (Mary C. Henry.)
422 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
comparison. Has every one a worm? They should all
have an earthworm ora leech. What is the main differ-
ence between the worm and all the rest? While it is
made up of segments, somewhat like many caterpillars
and grubs, zt has no legs. What difference can the
children discover between the mouth of a worm and that
of a grub or caterpillar? The children have had occasion
to observe various caterpillars as they eat the leaves by
gnawing off particles with their sharp jaws. What does
an earthworm eat, and how does it manage without either
jaws or teeth? What child will volunteer to find out and
tell the class? What does a leech eat? Boys who have
been in swimming or who have caught fishes with leeches
attached to their gills can tell. Hereafter we shall try
to distinguish between worms and the larve of insects,
and we can tell most of them apart at a glance. Several
marine worms are provided with sharp hooks or teeth,
but they have no legs.
Next, what chief differences do they see between a
spider and an insect? The insect is divided into three
parts, viz., a head, chest, or thorax, and abdomen; the
spider into two,-—head and chest united and abdomen.
Further, all insects have six legs, no more nor less, and
most of them have one or two pairs of wings. Do any
spiders have wings? How many legs do spiders have?
Eight. Hereafter, then, we will try to call spiders,
spiders, and not insects. We have found, too, that
insects go through wonderful transformations, the egg
hatching into a larva, the larva changing into a pupa,
the pupa finally transforming into the perfect insect like
that which laid the egg. What hatches from a spider’s
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 423
egg? It is never a wormlike larva but always a little
spider.
Nearly every small creeping thing is called a_ bug.
All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. The
distinction is more difficult than those we have just made.
Are any of the class sure that they have a bug in their
bottles? Good examples are the giant water bug, Be/os-
toma americanum, water boatman, Corisa undulata, squash
Fic. 171.
a, centipede; 4, millipede; c, sow bug.
bugs, soldier bugs, lice, bedbugs, plant lice, leaf hoppers,
and scale insects. Bugs may or may not have wings, but
all agree in having mouth parts for piercing and sucking.
If some child will volunteer to bring in eggs of the squash
bug, we will watch them hatch and thereby gain one of
the distinguishing characters of the group. If a good
magnifying glass is at hand, the eggs of plant lice will
do. The eggs of bugs hatch into forms more nearly like
their parents than is the case with most other insects.
They have no wings at first, but otherwise resemble
their parents. We will thus understand by bugs certain
kinds of insects that do not undergo a complete change in
424 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
passing from the egg to the adult and that live by suck-
ing the juices of plants or animals. They stand low in
the scale of insect life.
The children will doubtless have brought in, for worms
or insects, a number of forms that do not fit in any of the
above groups. They are probably wormlike but have far
too many legs to be classed with the insects or spiders.
If not garden slugs, which will be described under the
head of mollusks, they are probably either centipedes
(hundred legs), millipedes (thousand legs), or “sow bugs.”
These are figured above, and when we speak of them here-
after we shall call them by their right names and not call
them insects, worms, or bugs.
The centipedes live in damp places, under logs and
stones, and feed on insects. The millipedes live in simi-
lar places and eat decaying vegetable matter principally,
but sometimes living plants. They may become a serious
pest in a strawberry bed by eating holes in the ripest
berries. The sow bugs are often found in great numbers
under rotting boards and logs. They undoubtedly find
plenty to eat, but to discover just what it is we shall have
to make feeding tests. Sow bugs belong to the great
group of Crustacea along with the crayfishes and crabs.
Earthworms. — Every boy has made the acquaintance of
these animals as bait for a fishhook, but how many know
or realize the réle they play in nature? Says Darwin!?:
When we behold a wide, turf-covered expanse, we should remem-
ber that its smoothness, on which so much of its beauty depends, is
mainly due to all the inequalities having been slowly levelled by
worms. It is a marvellous reflection that the whole of the superficial
1 Vegetable Mould and Earth-Worms, p. 313.
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 425
mould over any such expanse has passed, and will again pass, every
few years through the bodies of worms. The plough is one of the
most ancient and most valuable of man’s inventions ; but long before
he existed the land was in fact regularly ploughed, and still continues
to be thus ploughed by earth-worms. It may be doubted whether
there are many other animals which have played so important a part
in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.
Earthworms burrow into the soil to a depth of from
three to eight feet, making channels for water, air, and the
roots of plants to penetrate. In order to study this sub-
ject have each child count the worm burrows in a square
foot of ground. They may be found by the little piles of
castings at the mouth of each burrow and also by the
leaves and grass that the worms have pulled into the
opening to feed upon and to close the door. If a box
be turned over the area a day or two before the count
is made, so that the surface will not be disturbed or the
castings washed away by rains, the burrows will be more
easily found.
Next fill a small aquarium with fine sand or garden
earth and place three or four large worms on the surface.
Study the way they burrow. After they have established
themselves in their burrows scatter a little grass or a few
dead leaves on the surface and observe from day to day
what the worms do with them. If sand and leaves be
used, and the aquarium be left for a number of weeks,
the formation of vegetable mould may be observed in a
striking manner.
Von Hensen placed two worms in a vessel eighteen inches in
diameter, which was filled with sand, on which fallen leaves were
strewed ; these were soon dragged into their burrows to a depth of
three inches. After about six weeks an almost uniform layer of sand,
426 NATURE STUDY AND TIRE
a centimeter (.4 of an inch) in thickness, was converted into humus
by having passed through the alimentary canals of these two worms.
DARWIN, Joc. cit., p. 310.
To see the earthworms at work under natural condi-
tions, since they are nocturnal, we must ask the pupils to
take a lantern in the evening and study this lesson, for
at least fifteen minutes, out on the ground. Just aftera
good rain in June is the time; for if it is dry, the worms
will be feeding on the materials they have drawn into
their holes and will not come to the surface. They may,
however, be induced to come out by wetting down a
flower bed with the garden hose. Let each child tell
what he has observed.
Sometimes, especially after heavy rains, the worms are
seen crawling all over the ground; but generally they
will be found with the tail end clinging to the burrow,
the body stretched out over the ground, and with the
mouth sucking and pulling at bits of leaves or grass.
When a hold is obtained on a leaf the body contracts
and the leaf is drawn toward the burrow. If the children
have learned their lesson properly and have observed
this, ask them why the worm clings to its burrow. Can
they find eyes, nose, or ears anywhere in the body of
an earthworm? Can aworm see? Can it hear? Can
it smell? Let them try to answer these questions for
themselves by appropriate experiments and observations,
If they turn the light of a lantern on the head end of
a worm, after a few seconds it will generally draw back
into its burrow. This proves that it can slowly distin-
guish light from darkness. ‘This is further shown by the
fact that earthworms are nocturnal. As to hearing, one
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 427
may whistle, shout, or even fire a toy pistol, but the worms
give no response. They cannot hear at all. To test for
smell, place a bit of onion a little to one side and near
the head of the worm. It soon reaches about and finds
it. It can smell a little. This experiment may be made
with the worms in the aquarium, as Darwin has shown, by
burying the onion, when it will always be found and dug
up by the worms. Lacking all
the special senses that higher
animals use so much, if a worm
lets go the burrow, it cannot find
it again, but is obliged to make
anew one. It may be lost within
an inch of its home, and most of
those we see about the pave-
ments die by drying up before
they can find a place to bur-
row. Lacking the other sense
organs, earthworms have a most
delicate sense of touch. Jar
the earth a little, stroke with
Z ‘ Fic. 172. EARTHWORMS “ RAIN-
a feather, blow lightly; in re- rats aati anh pe Waamiea Gate
sponse to all these stimuli the PANE OF GLass
a
&3
€S ‘
&
£
worm dashes like a rabbit into its burrow.
Earthworms lay eggs almost too small to see with the
unaided eye, but they are done up in capsules about
the size of mustard seeds, which may be found by sharp
eyes near the openings of the burrows along in June.
They may be hatched in a watch glass, and a little
fine, moist earth may be added as soon as they come
out.
428 NATURE STUDY - AND TELBE
It is a common belief that earthworms ‘rain down.”
What do the children think about it? The evidence that
is popularly assumed to prove this consists in finding
worms in rain-water barrels or gutters. Let the class
observe how easily a worm can ascend a vertical surface,
even a pane of glass, and then decide whether the worms
‘rain down” or ‘rain
up.”
Hair Worms. — These
strange creatures resem-
ble animated hairs so
closely that it is not
strange that the myth
should arise as to their
origin from hairs left
in the water. If the
children insist upon this
belief as strongly as
some grown people do,
it might be well to let
them put some hairs in
water and see if they
Fic. 173. THREE HAIR WORMS REMOVED
RS ee el oR turn into hair worms.
a, a specimen 22} in. long, froma katydid, But the true life story
of hair worms is more
wonderful than the fiction. They are usually found in
one of two places, in roadside or meadow pools after a
rain, in the spring and summer; in the bodies of insects,
late in the summer and fall. In the insect’s body they
are long white threads. I have found one in a katydid,
more than twenty-two inches long. In the pools they are
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 429
dark in color and continually writhing and twisting about,
tying themselves into knots. This peculiarity has given
them the generic name “ Gordius,” from the Gordian knot.
In a word, the life story of one of our common forms is
simply this: The mature worm lives in the ground and
comes out into the pools to lay its eggs. The egg is very
minute, and the tiny worm that hatches from it bores its
way into some insect, usually a grasshopper, and lives as
a parasite within its body. The insect dies, and the worm
enters the ground to pass the winter.
The nematodes, to which the hair worms belong, are a
large class of lowly organized worms. Most of them live
in water, soil, or decaying matter and are harmless.
Many are almost or quite microscopic in size, the “vinegar
eel’’ being one of our most common forms. A few are
parasitic in animals, living either in the intestine or in
the flesh. It is these latter, especially the trichina of
pork, that make it unsafe to eat meat that has not been
thoroughly cooked. Other nematodes are parasitic in
plants, especially in the roots, where they produce swell-
ings or galls. They are particularly destructive in the
greenhouse and window garden in the North, where the
eggs are killed by freezing during the winter, but they
often seriously injure field and garden crops, farther
south.!
Mollusks. — These form one of the largest animal groups,
there being 21,320 living species and an almost equal
number (20,895) of extinct fossil species. How many
kinds do the children know? They may be defined as
1 George E. Stone and Ralph E. Smith. “Nematode Worms,” Budletin
No. 55, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, 1898.
430 NATURE. STUDY (AND ETEE
soft-bodied animals without segments and without jointed
limbs. Generally the body is protected by a shell, either
single and coiled spirally, as with snails, periwinkles, and
conchs, or composed of two pieces or valves, as in clams,
oysters, and mussels. A few have no shell, as the garden
slugs and the most highly developed of the whole group,
the octopus and ink squid.
While the children may be encouraged to collect fossil
BED
pe A alll vitttitlr>
By he
atl
Wud
Fic. 174. TypE ForMS OF MOLLUSKS
a, fresh-water clam; 4, pond snails; c, garden slug; d@, octopus.
shells and the many species that they may find during
their summer vacations at the seashore, we will confine
our attention to four of the commonest and most widely
distributed kinds.
Can some boy or girl bring in two or three specimens of
the common garden slug, with a nest of eggs, if they can
be found? They may be kept in a small aquarium and
fed on lettuce leaves or fresh young radishes to show what
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 431
havoc they may make in a garden or greenhouse. It is
interesting to watch their movements in gliding over the
glass. How do they do it? Not like a leech or meas-
uring worm, by looping the body and holding on with first
one end, then with the other; not like an earthworm, by
stretching the body and catching hold and drawing the rest
of the body up. But they remain apparently motionless,
neither longer nor shorter, and still glide smoothly and
rapidly along. They are nocturnal, feeding by night and
lying hidden in damp places during the day ; but a telltale
trail of slime is left wherever they go, and if they have
been doing mischief in the garden, they may easily be fol-
lowed home. The eggs are found under boards in damp
places, but instead of describing them I will ask the children
to find them, if they can, and keep them to make sure that
they hatch out into little slugs. The pupils may observe
how a slug eats, and they are sure to be interested in the
way it breathes, — through a large hole, or spiracle, on
the right side.
In order to keep the algz from overgrowing the sides of
our aquaria we need some snails, which the children can
find in any fresh-water pond or stream. The two kinds
that are most useful are represented in Fig. 174. Their
eggs are laid in glairy masses fastened to the water plants
or often to the glass where their development may be
easily watched.
Among the bivalve mollusks are the oyster, clam, quahog,
scallop, and mussel, all valuable for food and connected
with interesting methods of cultivation and with fishery
industries. Where these can be studied alive, as along the
coast, they may be brought into the course. But the
432 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
bivalves of most importance for the school aquaria and for
the work of purifying surface waters are the common
fresh-water mussels, or clams. They may be found in any
pond or stream. Ask the children to bring in a few and
keep three or four large ones in each of the larger aquaria
and one in each of the small aquaria. Now ask a group of
the class to test the puri-
fication of water by clams.
They may do this by ar-
ranging two small aqua-
ria, exactly alike, with
sand and plants, filling
them with water that is
turbid from growth of
algze or bacteria. Put a
clam in one but not in
the other and watch the
FIG. 175. FRESH-WATER CLAM
a, inhalant siphon ; 4, exhalant siphon; result. Generally the
¢, gills; d, mouth; ¢, foot. water with the clam in it
will become perfectly clear in a few hours or days, accord-
ing to the size of the aquarium, while the other grows
more and more turbid.
Next we will try to discover how the clam works. If
we look at the clam from above, we notice two openings
between the posterior ends of the valves. These are sur-
rounded with a fringe of dark papillae which are sensitive to
light. This may be demonstrated by suddenly cutting off
the sunlight, when the valves will close. With a fine straw,
or a glass tube drawn to a fine opening, let fall close to
the upper siphon a little colored liquid, — carmine or dilute
India ink. It is sent whirling away from the clam. Now,
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 433
without touching the tentacles, let a little more fall near
the lower opening. It is all drawn into the clam, and if a
solution or a very fine suspension of inert matter, like car-
bon, chalk, clay, etc., it is soon seen streaming out of the
upper siphon. If this prove irritating to the clam, it will
shut up with a snap, throwing clouds of the liquid out of
both siphons. We thus see that a stream of water is being
drawn into one siphon and thrown out at the other. Next,
take a suspension of yeast plants, small algze, or bacteria,
let it pass into the inhalant siphon, and watch the exhal-
ant siphon. It goes in turbid and comes out perfectly
clear. This shows what the clam feeds on, — minute floating
particles inthe water. The currents are set up by the gills
of the clam, the water being passed through while the food
material is strained out and carried up to the mouth. A
culture of typhoid fever bacteria, for example, flowed through
the gills of an oyster, which are quite similar to those of a
clam, came away sterile, z.¢., with all the bacteria filtered
out. Clams are thus living filters, and in a pond well
stocked with them they must exert considerable influence
in keeping the water cleansed of floating organic matter.!
1 The structure of the clam is explained somewhat in Fig. 175, and, if
the school possesses a compound microscope, the action of the gills may
be demonstrated, but this may as well be left to later courses in zodlogy.
lic. 176. A WoOopLAND SPRING
GHAPTER XXVI
FLOWERLESS PLANTS
FERNS, MossEs, LIVERWORTS AND LICHENS, ALG,
MusHROOMS
ELEMENTARY studies of plants commonly include only
those that bear flowers and produce seeds. The impor-
tance attaching of late years to many of the lower forms,
together with their educational values, renders it advisable
to include their study in a course that pretends to give
adequate elementary instruction in the natural environment
of a community.
Ferns. — These form a natural introduction to this group
of plants. Gray’s Lotany gives sixty-two species native
to the United States. How many different kinds can
the pupils find in their neighborhood? A bed or rockery
of ferns will make a beautiful nook in the school garden.
Have the children notice and describe the places where
they grow best; then select the most favorable spot for
the bed, generally a corner on the shady side of the school
building. If the soil is not suitable, have a load of black
leaf mould from the woods put on the bed and arrange
naturally a few moss- and lichen-covered rocks to give the
ferns their appropriate setting. Since the ferns are all hardy
perennials, a bed once planted will continue with little care
from year to year and yield good material for drawing and
435
4360 NATURE STUDY AND ELE
language lessons, and for study and genuine acquaintance.
A small pool in one edge of the bed will add to its beauty
and may support a collection of interesting water ferns.
Aside from their grace and beauty the interesting fact
connected with the study of ferns is their method of repro-
duction by spores. Watch the underside of the leaves,
and when the fruit dots, or sori, as they are called, turn
Fic. 177. COLLECTION OF FERNS
George Putnam School, Roxbury, Mass.
brown and appear to be ripe, distribute pieces of the leaf
to the class and let them pick out some of the spores on a
sheet of white paper to gain a definite idea of what is meant
by the much-used term “spore.’’ The finest dustlike par-
ticles that they find in the sori are the spores. If a few
leaves are permitted to dry over a sheet of paper, spores
may be obtained in quantity. It may be too difficult a task
for the children to undertake, but if any wish to volunteer,
FLOWERLESS PLANTS 437
let them try to rear some fern plants from the spores.
To do this the spores must be kept uniformly damp. Have
an inch of wet sand in a small aquarium and lay on this
a fragment of mossy flowerpot, thickly dusted over with
spores. Cover the aquarium with a piece of glass; keep
the sand wet and watch carefully to see what grows on it.
It might be well to set the aquarium in a greenhouse, if
one is available, so that it may be kept at a constant tem-
perature. If the experiment succeeds, the strangest thing
of all will come to light, viz., that the spores do not produce
ferns but, instead, tiny little plants, consisting each of a
single heart-shaped leaf. This is called a “ prothallium,”’ and
from the underside of this a little fern will finally grow.
Mosses. — The mosses are still smaller plants that do not
bear flowers but reproduce by spores. These are often
borne on slender stems in little capsules. A collection of
as many of the common sorts as the children can find may
well be transplanted to the fern bed. There are 6750
species known. How many different kinds can the chil-
dren find in their school yard?
Liverworts. — These are little mosslike plants, but their
stems are always flat, or, in other words, carry a leaf-like
expansion on either side. Their fruiting capsule opens by
two or four valves and never by a lid such as we find in
the mosses. There are several beautiful little plants of
this kind well adapted for the school aquaria. How many
different kinds can the children find ?
Lichens. — These are a step lower in the scale of plant
life. They have no stems but are leaf-like growths, gray or
yellowish green, on rocks, boards, the bark of trees, or the
ground. Their spores are borne in little cups on the surface.
438 NATURE. STUDY AND -LIEE
An abundance of these plants will probably occur on the
stones in the fernery or on the tree trunks in the school
yard. It is not intended, for these elementary lessons, that
any of the different species be learned, for we have no
common English names with which to designate them.
There are 5600 named species, but it will be sufficient if the
class study and draw two or three of the commonest in the
neighborhood and learn to associate the name “lichen” with
them. It may be possible to explain to the class that
a lichen consists of two different plants living together :
a white fungus, consisting of a felt work of minute threads,
such as we shall see in the moulds and mushrooms ; and
much smaller, generally greenish plants, alge, entangled
in the meshes of the fungus. The fungus furnishes sup-
port and moisture to the alga, and, in return, the algze by
means of their green coloring matter and sunshine supply
food to the fungus. The algze can live without the fungus,
for they can find support and moisture for themselves, but
the fungus invariably dies if deprived of the help of the
algee, for it cannot get food enough from the stone to which
it clings, and without chlorophyll it cannot draw food from
the air by the aid of light. From this point of view the
lichens serve as an introduction to the two next plant.
groups, —the alge and the fungi.
Alge. — We can always find algz in the school aquaria,
often as incrustations or velvety growths on the glass, or
as green slimes attached to the plants or floating on the
surface. Snails, tadpoles, and clams will be required to
keep the aquarium clear. Algze vary in size, from plants
as small as a fern spore to the large brown rockweed, fucus,
that clings to the rocks and piles all along the coast. As
FEQWERLESS” PEANTS 439
Dr. Brooks has shown, they supply, directly or indirectly,
the food for all animal life of the ocean. Oysters feed upon
little else, and their quality is influenced by the kinds of
algze that grow in the water over their beds. Alga may
be classified according to color: (1) the blue greens, found
as slimy patches on damp wood or stones, or in shallow fresh
water ; (2) the green alge, found in fresh water chiefly ;
(3) brown alge, kelps, rockweeds, etc., found on the coast,
chiefly marine; and (4) red alge, the “seaweeds,” or “sea
mosses,” also mostly marine. Ask the children who go to
the seashore to bring back a few handfuls of such as they
can find. They may be dried as they come from the salt
water and at any time floated in fresh water upon cards or
white paper. To come to know them as objects of beauty
is deemed sufficient. There are at present described and
named 14,854 species of alge. How many kinds have the
class been able to discover ?
Fungi. — In descending the scale of plant life, from trees,
wild flowers, and garden plants, we left flowers and seeds
behind when we came to the ferns. In passing now from
the alge to the fungi we leave the green coloring mat-
ter, the chlorophyll, by which these higher plants use the
sunshine to help them build wood, leaves, and fruit from
water, soil, and air.!
The fungi form an enormous group of most interesting
and important plants. Numbering the 970 species of
1 To illustrate this important relation between green plants and the sun-
shine ask a few of the class to sprout a number of plants — potatoes, beans,
corn, squash, and peas— and keep them for a week in the dark. Then let
the class watch them from day to day to see them develop the green color
and begin to grow as they are exposed to the light. A few may be kept in the
dark by inclosing them in tubes of black paper for still further comparison.
440 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
bacteria with them, 43,830 different kinds are now described,
nearly one-quarter of all the plant species known to science.
In size they range from large mushrooms and giant puff-
balls, of many pounds in weight, to moulds and bacteria,
so small that it would require 10,000 placed side by side to
measure an inch, — far too minute to see with the unaided
eye, even as a speck of dust on a polished mirror. The
prime characteristic of this large group is absence of the
green coloring matter, chlorophyll, of the higher plants.
Lacking this, the fungi are unable to build up living matter
from the elements by the aid of sunlight; hence, they
commonly grow in dark or shady places, and they must
depend for their food upon other organisms, animals, or
plants, either dead or alive. While we shall find many
and beautiful colors, the prevailing tone throughout the
whole group is white or gray. A few of the higher
plants, notably Indian pipe, pine sap, dodder, have lost
more or less of their chlorophyll and, at the same time,
have become parasitic upon other plants. Those fungi
that live upon dead matter are saprophytes,; those that live
upon the tissues of plants or animals to their detriment are
parasites. Still other species, especially bacteria, subsist
upon or in living organisms with mutual benefit and are
called symbiotes, 2.e., ‘ together-livers.”
When we inquire what this group of plants does in the
economy of nature, we must study them in connection with
their foods, as above specified.
By far the greater number subsist upon dead matter —
the remains of animals and plants. Imagine all the trees,
plants, and animals that have died since the world began,
whose bodies did not happen to have been burned or eaten,
FLOWERLESS PLANTS A4I
still lying as they fell, and we have a picture of what nature
would be without the beneficent work of fungi; that is,
they cause decay. They return to Mother Earth the mat-
ter which has lived, that it may live again. Without them
all available food in the world would soon be locked up in
dead forms, and new life would be impossible.
This is a rather knotty point; but it may be attacked in a direct
and simple manner by asking the children: ‘ Where does our food
come from? What is its last
or ultimate source?”’ They
will say: “It comes from
plants, wheat, corn, fruits,
vegetables; and animals,
beef, mutton, pork, fish, fowl,
etc.” “But where do the
animals that we eat obtain
their food?” “It comes
from the plants ; so that, in
the last analysis, the food of
animals, man included, comes
ar. Syrbiotic
> a Bacteria %\)
i ee 04
from plants, directly or in-
directly.” The next question
is: ‘Where, then, do the
plants get their food?”
“With the help of sunshine : :
: m, m, represents free nitrogen drawn in
green plants derive the food fromathieiaie
with which they build up
leaves and grains and fruits and woods from the soluble materials
7
WNITRATES
Fic. 178. THE CIRCLE OF PROTEID Foop
MATERIALS
in the soil and from the invisible matters in the air.” Now comes the
crucial question: “Can a green plant grow in wood, or leaves, or
fresh meat, ze., in the undecayed body of an animal or plant?
Have any of the class ever seen a green plant, not a parasite,
growing in this way?”
The diagram, Fig. 178, will make these relations plain. In their
elementary physiology lessons the children may have had simple
442 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
discussions of the three classes of foods: /fa¢s and o7ls, starches and
sugars, and, most important of all, profezds, or nitrogen-containing
foods, such as flesh, the white of egg, or the gluten or similar sub-
stances of wheat and other vegetable foods. This is the great essen-
tial food for all animal life. On no amount of fats or sugars can any
animal sustain its life for more than a few days.
Without the help of the fungi we might, with a great deal of
labor, burn everything that died and thus return the elements to the air
and to the soil ; but in burning nitrogenous compounds we should return
their nitrogen to the air along with all the other gases, and the green
plants are not able to take nitrogen directly from the air. They
require nitrogen in some soluble form, as nitrates in the soil ; so that
the burning of nitrogenous compounds is a most wasteful process. In
fact, up to within a few years it used to be said that when a rifle is
fired a man is killed, whether the bullet strikes one or not. This
was thought to be true, because it was supposed that in burning the
soluble nitrate in the powder, thus returning the nitrogen to the air,
the nitrate could not be recovered and that eventually some one
would starve for the lack of it. How certain bacteria are able to
take free nitrogen from the air, and thus give food to plants and
everything that lives, we shall discuss in the next chapter.
Another line along which this may be explained to the children in
a practical way has reference to their plant lessons. When the chil-
dren were given seeds and asked to see who could rear the best
plant, many of them immediately asked: «What will make a plant
grow best? What can I feed my plant to make it grow fast?”
The answer is #7trazes, chiefly of potassium and sodium. ‘These are
the main constituents of chemical fertilizers, now so commonly used.
No knowledge of chemical formulas is necessary to make this plain,
Simply get a little potassium nitrate, let the children see, handle, and
taste it, burn a little of it, and, finally, dissolve a teaspoonful in a quart
of water and treat a certain plant with it once a week. It would be
well to have two similar plants growing in two pots of rather poor
soil and give this solution to one and not to the other, to let the class
see how it makes the plant grow. This is a simple elementary les-
son in fertilization of the soil. and will serve to show the réle that
nitrates play in plant growth.
FLOWERLESS PLANTS 443
Thus we see in a general way that the fungi reduce dead nitroge-
nous matter to soluble plant food in the soil. Leaves, twigs, and
wood decay to form vegetable mould and animal matters ; manures
and composts must be thoroughly rotted before they become available
for plant foods.
A smaller group of fungi live as parasites upon or within plants
and animals, and thus cause the majority of those diseases commonly
known as contagious or infectious. We should know something
about these and how they may be controlled, and to this end we
may describe a few that commonly attack garden plants and trees, as
well as some that are of great importance in relation to home and
school. sanitation.
Finally, a small group of bacteria are truly symbiotic and live
within the roots of plants, especially of the clovers and peas, and
possess the power of absorbing nitrogen from the air and of fixing it
in soluble form as food for the plants. As with the lichen and the
alga, the root supplies moisture and support, while the microbe manu-
factures plant food in return. It has long been known that clover,
for example, enriches the soil in which it grows, and this fact is now,
in a measure, explained.
The above facts are given to aid the teacher in planning the les-
sons and in appreciating the value of the observations and experiments
that follow.
Mushrooms. — The best time during the school year to
study mushrooms is in the fall, after a spell of wet weather.
We may begin by asking the class how many know mush-
rooms and have found them growing in the neighborhood.
The children may know them better by the popular name
“toadstools,” which is commonly used to designate poi-
sonous or worthless mushrooms; but, since this is not a
helpful term, we had better make the distinction by calling
them ‘poisonous mushrooms” instead. Possibly one of the
class knows some one who is raising mushrooms and can
tell the rest how it is done. Ask the children each to dig
444 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
up one or two mushrooms, being sure to get the “ roots,”
and bring them to school for the next nature-study period.
Look over the specimens and place the amanitas by
themselves. Then have the class sort the others into piles
according to their characteristic forms and structures, put-
ting the puffballs, the gill-bearing kinds, all having tubes,
Fic. 179. THE DEADLY AMANITA
The gills; a button just pushing out of the cup; a mushroom showing cap, or
pileus, stem, and cup, or volva at base of stem
and those with fine pores underneath, and such as present
branching forms, the Clavarias, each ina pile by itself. We
thus see that there are marked and interesting differences
in form and structure.
To understand the growth of these strange plants have
some of the children carefully wash the earth away from
FLOWERLESS PLANTS 445
the base of the stem, selecting specimens with a large ball
of earth. They should find an irregular mass of white
threads, some of them running into the bottom of the stem.
They may also find among these threads “buttons” of
various sizes, These are young mushrooms that will grow
larger and finally push their way up into the air, —for what
purpose we shall see in a moment. Have the class com-
pare their specimens and try to find a series from the
smallest “button” to a full-grown mushroom. Do any in
the class know what relation the white threads bear to the
mushrooms? While not conspicuous these are really the
main part of the plant. They are called the “mycelium” of
the mushroom. This mycelium may grow for months or
even years, sending thread after thread in every direction
through the soil or through the wood of a tree, absorbing
food and increasing in size. It is thus the vegetative or
nutritive part of the plant. We shall find something
similar when we study the moulds. When the proper con-
ditions arrive, generally after heavy rains (for mushrooms
are almost all water), the “buttons”
through the surface, often ina night. Fig. 179 will serve
to explain the conspicuous parts of a mushroom — stem,
enlarge and push up
cap or pileus, gills or spore-bearing structures. Emphasize
the fact that the mushrooms that we ordinarily see are only
the spore-bearing, or reproductive, part of the plant. They
are pushed up into the air by the mass of the mycelium, in
order that the spores may be carried in every direction by
the winds.
Let us next ask the children to study the sporing of
their mushrooms. From any large specimen the spores
are probably being shed, from between the gills or from
446 NATURE STUDYAN Dr LIFE
within the tubes or pores, in a constant shower; but they
are far too small to see. Cut off the stem close to the
gills and lay the mushroom, gills down, on a piece of paper
and cover it with a glass so tight that not the slightest
current of air can enter. The spores will then fall straight
down and draw a picture of the under surface of the mush-
room. We make, in other words, a “spore print.” A few
Fic. 180. THE DEADLY AMANITA
Spore print
of these will greatly aid the children in forming clear ideas
about spores as we have found them in the ferns and mosses
and are soon to study them in the moulds and bacteria.
The spore dust of a ripe puffball should also be studied in
this connection. The important fact to be brought out is
that spores are so small that they become invisible as they
ht that they are readily
oO
lg
disperse in the air and are so ]
FLOWERLESS PLANTS A47
carried by air currents. Thus they form a constituent of
dust. If the gills or tubes of a mushroom are dark colored,
we will make the spore print on white paper, if white, on
black paper, and if we care to keep the spore prints, we
will use paper over which a thin coating of mucilage has
been laid. This may be allowed to dry, as the moisture
in the spores will cause them to stick to it.
The food value of mushrooms has been exaggerated by
popular writers. Chemical analyses have shown that they
are about as nutritious as cabbage. Rated at twenty-five
cents a pound, which is from one-fourth to one-tenth the
usual price, they cost about ten times as much for actual
nutrition obtained as beef at fifteen cents per pound and
124 times as much as wheat flour at two and one-half
centsa pound. However, they afford variety; a few species
are said to be “delicious,” and a very few are poisonous.
As a people we are behind most European nations in
knowledge of mushrooms and, hence, in ability to utilize
them for food. The main reason for introducing their
study into nature-study courses is to give definite instruc-
tion, first, about the few poisonous species and, second, to
point out a number of the more valuable kinds that now
go to waste in large quantities in our woods and pastures
and even city lawns and gardens. To do this adequately
would require a book, but a few points of general impor-
tance may be given in connection with the following partial
outline of their classification.
Since the conspicuous part of a mushroom is a mechanism
for producing and disseminating the spores, they are natu-
rally classified by the position and form of the spore-bearing
surfaces or parts.
448 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
Puffballs, L ycoperdacee. — Puffballs have a rind or wall
and produce their spores within a closed cavity. When the
spores are ripe the wall ruptures, and off they go with every
puff of wind in the well-known clouds of dust. No puff-
ball, so far as known, is poisonous if taken while the flesh
is perfectly white, but some caution must be observed not
Fic. 181. PUFFBALLS
to mistake for a puffball
”
”)
a- “button ~ or “egg
of some other kind of
Fic. 182.
A CorAL MUSHROOM
fungus.
Coral Mushrooms, or Cla-
varias, Clavariacee~. — These grow either
in the form of single clubs or many-
branched masses. The spores are shed
from the entire surface of the branches.
So far as is known, all the clavarias that 5. 85) “A Mone
are of any size are edible.
Morels, Cup Fungi, D/scomycetes. —These have a stem
and cap, but unlike most mushrooms the spores are borne
in pits distributed over the convex surface. They appear
early in the season, May and June, are generally free from
insects, and may be dried for future use ; all the common
species are edible. A morel may be recognized by its resem-
blance to Fig. 183, which is AJorchella conica. Morchella
FLOWERLESS PLANTS 449
esculenta, the esculent morel, has an oblong or egg-shaped
cap, and in JZ. deliciosa, the “delicious ’’ morel, the cap is
nearly cylindrical.
Stinkhorn Mushrooms, P/adloide~.— These might be
omitted, did they not too often force themselves upon, our
attention. Their vile odors, suggestive of decaying animal
matter or escaping sewer gas, strike consternation to the
householder, and he is likely to begin a vain, because mis-
directed, search for the cause of offense. The odor prob-
ably serves the plant by attracting
insects, which in return for their
feast disseminate its spores. While
there are several kinds, differing in
color and somewhat in structure
and form, the general appearance of
the plant as shown in Fig. 184 will
be sufficient to classify any specimen
that may be brought in. The stink-
horns are not given in the books as
poisonous; in fact, most of them have
Sesreputation of being “edible”? if Fic. 184 STINKHORN
taken in the egg stage. The most Sake eae
frequent question about them, however, relates not to their
edibleness, but rather to methods by which they may be
exterminated. They are apt to grow about rotting wood in
damp places, and since we know that the main portion of
the plant, the mycelium, consists of a mass of fine threads
beneath the surface it will probably be necessary only to
scrape up and clear away any decaying wood and. possibly
turn over the soil to a depth of a foot effectually to rid the
place of the nuisance.
450 NATURE SEUDY AND LIFE
Trembling Mushrooms, 77eme//inew@.— These strange fungi
derive their name from their gelatinous consistency. The
spores are borne over the entire surface. They occur
generally on decaying twigs or wood, drying up so as to
be scarcely distinguishable and swelling again when wet. .
Little or no food value attaches to the group, but none
have been reported as poisonous.
Agarics, Agaricacee@. — Any mushroom having the spore-
bearing surface arranged in folds or gills radiating from
the stem, or from the point of attachment when no stem
is present, is an agaric. Possibly the chief reason for
introducing the study of mushrooms .into elementary
courses is to enable the pupils to distinguish certain
extremely poisonous plants of this group, the amantitas.
The distinguishing features of Amanita phallotdes, our
most deadly species, are sufficiently well indicated in Fig.
179; but the way to teach them is to have the specimens
brought in wherever this is possible. Amanita verna,
appropriately called the “destroying angel,” so closely
resembles A. phallordes that it may be considered, for ele-
mentary purposes, a white variety of it. A. muscarta, the
fly agaric, is generally larger than A. phalloides and differs
from it in having the cap bright yellow, varying to orange
and even red. Crumbled into a saucer of sweetened water,
it serves as an effective fly poison, whence its name. The
gills are white, rarely yellowish, and the cap is typically
dotted over with whitish flocks or scales formed from the
part of the volva that clings to the cap as it expands.
These may dry up and blow off and hence be absent from
old specimens —a fact that should be borne in mind if we
are to make the acquaintance of A. c@sarta,
FLOWERLESS. PLANTS 451
Two or three amanitas are edible, notably A. rudescens
and A. c@saria, but the variations in size, color, and other
characteristics that occur, as they grow under different
conditions of soil and weather, are so great, and their resem-
blance to the poisonous species so close, that we must pass
them over to the specialists.
A. rubescens is dingy red, and the flesh quickly turns red when
broken. The gills are white, and there is scarcely any trace of a cup
at the base of the stem, since nearly the whole of the volva is carried up
and remains as warts scattered over the cap. A. c@saria, the imperial
agaric, c7bus deorum, reddish or orange
fading to yellow with age, is one of the
most beautiful and “delicious ” of mush-
rooms. While its cap resembles some-
what A. muscaria in color, it rarely has
any flocks from the volva on it, and the
gills are bright yellow.
From Figs. 179 and 180.we see
the general characteristics of this
group of deadly plants. No one
infallible rule or test can be given
to distinguish an edible from a
4 P Fic. 185. COMMON MEADOW
poisonous agaric; but the death MR Sok
cup or a scaly bulbous stem, the veil
or annulus, and the white spores, taken together, indicate
that a specimen belongs to the amanita family and must
be avoided. These poisonous mushrooms are common in
the woods but occur on open meadows or lawns. The
common meadow mushroom, Agaricus campestris, the spe-
cies raised for markets, has brown spores, flesh-colored to
dark-brown gills, and, since it is not inclosed in a volva or
sac in its early stages, it has no cup at base of stem or
452 NATURE STUDY AND? LIE
warts on the cap, but has a well-marked veil on the stem.
It grows in open meadows and pastures, though species
much like it are found in woods.
This is considered far enough for elementary pupils to go in the
classification of the agarics. Still, many others are likely to be brought
in, and it may be helpful, rather than otherwise, to distinguish a few
of the more prominent groups.
The shaggy mane and ink cap, of the genus Coprinus, are com-
mon about rich lawns and barnyards after wet weather. The spores
are black, and the gills turn black and liquefy as the plant reaches
maturity. The black fluid thus formed, mixed with the spores, falls in
inky drops from the cap. If taken before the gills turn black, they
are edible.
The milky mushrooms, of the genus Lactarius, form an interest-
ing group, easily distinguished by the milky, or colored, juice which
exudes from any part of the plant when it is broken. The juice of
these mushrooms may be tasted if care is taken not to swallow any
of it, and those that are not bitter or peppery may be considered
edible.
The Russulas (Lat. russus, red”) are the brilliantly colored mush-
rooms — red, pink, purple, blue, green, and yellow — that enliven the
woods of summer and early fall. In form and fragile structure they
resemble the milky mushrooms, but none of them exude any milky
juice when wounded. One of them, A. evetica, is rated as poisonous
by most authors, but its acrid taste is sufficient to prevent a person
from eating enough to do serious harm. In color it passes from rose,
when young, to blood red and finally to tawny or yellow when old.
Other species of russulas which have a mild and agreeable flavor
are considered edible.
Pore- or Tube-Bearing Mushrooms, /0/yporacee. — Numbers
of mushrooms will probably be brought in which resemble
the agarics in form but, instead of gills, have innumerable
tubes or pores, from which the spores are dropped. Most
of these, except the Bo/etz, grow upon wood, stumps, and
FLOWERLESS PEANTS 453
trees, both dead and alive, and many are directly respon-
sible for the death of trees upon which they are found.
Boletit. If the mushroom is soft, not woody,
and has tubes easily separable from the rest of
the cap, it belongs to the genus Boletus. Several
Boleti are pronounced edible, but, as with the
amanitas, taste is not a safeguard against the
poisonous kinds. Satan’s Boletus, 2. satanus,
B. luridus, B. alveolatus, and other allied species
are set down in most of the books as poisonous.
Mcllvaine pronounces them “remarkably fine
eating.
to eight inches in diameter, brownish yellow to
dull white in color. The tubes are yellow, except at their mouths,
which are bright red. The stem is thick and swollen and is marked
with red reticulations near the cap. The flesh is whitish but changes
to reddish or violet when wounded. JZ. /u7vidus is similar, but smaller,
two to four inches broad, brownish olive above, and the flesh turns
blue when broken.
Fistulina. If the tubes hang separate, z.e., are not cemented
together in a mass, the mushroom is a /7s¢#/ina. The common spe-
cies is /. hepatica, the beef tongue, or beefsteak fungus, which
grows sometimes in huge masses on oak and chestnut stumps. Its
color is red, variegated above and streaked in lines of growth.
Below, the spore surface is pale, tinged with
” B. satanus is a large mushroom, three Fic.186. A BoLeTus
yellow or pink. The beefsteak mushroom is
certainly not poisonous, and some consider it
edible in spite of its marked acidity.
Polyport. If the tubes cling together, are
inseparable from the cap, and the plant becomes
woody or corky with age, it is probably a
Fic. 187. A Potyrorus, Polyporus. These are the “bracket fungi,”
OR BRACKET MusH-
“punks,” and “conchs” often found growing
ROOM ,
upon trees. A few Polyfori are “ edible,” after
a fashion, when young and tender, but the chief reason for studying
them relates to their injury of trees. Have the class examine the
454 NATURE STUDY" AND -EVEE
trees in the neighborhood and report the number attacked by these
fungous growths. Can the children discover how the fungus gains
access to the wood? They may find some broken limb or some
place where the bark has been injured, to account for the infection.
With shade and garden trees all wounds should be painted over as
soon as made, to protect the trees from the spores of fungi. In gen-
eral, decaying wood, stumps, branches, or trees upon which these
fungi have begun to grow should be cut and burned, to prevent
infection of healthy trees. Any piece of rotten wood will show
how the fungous growth affects the tree. Seek for pieces that con-
tain plainly visible mycelium, white threads, permeating the wood.
These, as with mushrooms that grow on the ground, form the nutri-
tive part of the plant, absorbing certain elements from the wood
cells, thus causing them to soften and crumble.
At certain seasons the spore-forming portion is
pushed out into the air.
Spine-Bearing or Hedgehog Mushrooms,
Hydnacee.— If a mushroom, instead of
gills or tubes, has spines that point
toward the earth, it may be called by
Fic. 188. A HEDGE-
= either of the above names, or, botanic-
HOG MUSHROOM
ally, it isa /fydnum. The class contains
most variant forms. Some are umbrella shaped with central
stems, others grow on wood and may form a mere flattened
layer closely attached to it, while others may develop shelf
or bracket forms, like many of the Po/yport, Other species
grow in branching forms, like the coral mushrooms, but
are distinguished from them by the fact that the teeth or
spines always point earthward instead of upward. Several
common species are said to be edible, and no //yduum
described in the books is stated to be poisonous,
I have endeavored to give a few suggestions that may
form an introduction for a child to a large, interesting, and
FLOWERLESS PLANTS AGE
important group of plants. It has been done with the
purpose of preventing accidents from mushroom poisoning,
and at the same time of opening the way toward a study of
fungi that may lead to better utilization of the valuable
kinds. In any favorable locality a continued search would
probably be rewarded by finding at least five or six hundred
different species of mushrooms. It is not strange that a
few out of this number should be poisonous. If we are to
use mushrooms, we should know them as we know apples
and potatoes. They are fragile and plastic, vary under
differing conditions, change color with age, etc., so that
to know a species means ability to recognize it in all its
different guises, and this is no slight task. TZake one at
a time is a good rule, and be sure you know it whenever
and wherever met with. Soon you will have become
acquainted with a group of interesting friends and acquaint-
ances and fascinating enemies.
The way mushrooms have been tested to ascertain whether they are
edible has been described somewhat as follows: Take a bit of the fresh
mushroom the size of a pea, chew it and hold in the mouth for a minute
or two, reject, wait twenty-four hours and note whether any bad effects
supervene. If not, chew another bit of a perfectly fresh specimen the
size of a pea and swallow. Wait a day and note effects.
Mushrooms often change their flavors on being cooked. If no
bad effects have been produced thus far, cook and eat a small piece.
Do not season, so that you may be able to describe the flavor accu-
rately. If the tests indicate that the species may prove a valuable
addition to the common dietary, gradually increase the amount eaten
until thoroughly convinced that it is wholesome. The final step in
the procedure is to try the mushroom on your friends.
I give these directions with the view not of encouraging people
to begin testing mushrooms promiscuously, but rather of preventing
accidents from careless or ignorant testing.
456 NATURE STUDY AND LEE
When we come to know them as well as we do the
common nuts and wild berries and fruits of the fields and
woods, mushrooms will add spice, interest, and variety to
every walk, excursion, hunt, or camping trip. But a few
general precautions should be added, and those already
given may be briefly summarized.
1. Never be tempted into eating a mushroom in the
“button ”
this time the marks by which the different species are
distinguished are not developed. Many accidents have
happened from disregard of this sensible precaution.
stage, especially one found in the woods. At
2. Reject all mushrooms that show signs of decay.
Any food may become unwholesome or even poisonous if
tainted. All specimens infested by insects should also be
discarded.
3. Reject all mushrooms that have a cup or sac or scaly
bulb at base of stem, a veil or annulus, and white spores.
These three characters combined point infallibly to the
deadly amanitas ; but, at first, reject all that show any trace
of a cup and use extreme caution in dealing with any
members of this group.
The statement of Dr. George Francis with regard to all
other mushrooms is: “Being certain that you have no
amanitas, it is not unsafe to make cautious trial of any
species whose raw taste is not objectionable.”
CHAPTER: XXVIII
FLOWERLESS PLANTS (Continued)
Moutps, MILpEws, YEAST, BACTERIA
Ir we have studied the mushrooms and have seen
the mycelium, it will be an easy step to understand the
moulds, and from these, through the familiar yeast plant,
we may pass to the study of the bacteria. We shall not
have far to seek for specimens of moulds and mildews.
We may find them too often on plants and trees that we
are trying to rear. After a period of wet weather they
may cover the books on our shelves, the clothes in our
closets, — not to speak of the eternal vigilance necessary
to prevent them from appropriating any food that is not
sealed against their attacks. While many may be inclined
to consider them too minute for elementary lessons, in
the mass they are easily seen, and their relation to proper
sanitation of the home and to fungous diseases of plants
makes them an essential part of the plan for nature study.
As a whole, too, the group plays a necessary and benefi-
cent réle in nature.
Moulds. — A jelly glass, or even a medicine vial, furnishes
ample room for a garden of these instructive plants, and
they may be cultivated on almost anything for soil. First
we will take some kind of liquid culture medium in which
we can see all the different parts of the mould plant as it
457
458 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
grows. Fruit juice as it comes from preserves, — as clear
and colorless as possible, — diluted one-half and filtered
or strained through fine cheese cloth, makes an ideal
medium. Fill the vial or glass half full and sprinkle a
little dust from the schoolroom over the surface. Cover
and set aside to observe from day to day. Three such
cultures should be made, one of which should be kept in
a dark place, one in a room where direct sunlight does
not fall upon it, and the
third should be kept in
the sunshine as much
of the time as possible.
It would be better if
each of the pupils had
a vial and one-third
kept theirs in the dark,
another third, on their
desks, in the shade, and
the other third, in the
sunshine. Then let
them compare notes
Fic. 189. MouLtp GARDENS
during the nature-study
The liquid culture is seen at the right. The
others show arrangement for solid cultures. A period and decide under
little water is put in to keep the air moist, and what conditions moulds
the material is supported on a piece of glass
grow best. Let them
vary the experiment to see if they can discover conditions
under which moulds are unable to grow at all. Experi-
ment by leaving the dust in the bright sunshine for one,
two, or three days before planting it in the fruit juice.
It should be kept in a dry vial stoppered with a plug of
cotton batting. But before we can go further with this
FLOWERLESS PLANTS 459
experiment we must be sure that we have killed all the
germs that may be in the culture medium. Can any of
the children suggest a way to do this? How is it done
in their homes in the canning of fruit ?
A convenient way is to plug the bottles with a wad of cotton
batting and let them stand in a tightly covered steamer over boiling
water for half an hour. This kills growing mould plants and bac-
teria, but not all the spores that may be present in the liquid. The
heat will be likely to start any such spores into growth, so that if they
are steamed again on the following day, or before the spores have
had time to germinate and form spores again, we may be reasonably
sure that no germ remains alive in our cultures. Two or three of
these vials should be set aside to compare with others that are
planted with dust or with the spores of different.moulds ; and, if all
the germs have been killed and the cotton is not removed, the cul-
tures will remain clear, and no growth of any kind will appear in
them. This is known as “sterilizing.” With a number of the culg¢
tures thus sterilized we may plant them with dust or the spores of any
mould we wish to study. To do this, pick up a little of the dust or
spores with the point of a clean needle and apply to the culture.
After a day or two, if there are any mould spores in
the cultures, we should see a fine woolly growth spreading
over the surface and sending its delicate threads down
into the liquid. This is the mycelium, and the threads
are known as hyphe. The function of the mycelium, as
in the mushrooms, is to absorb nutriment. Next we
observe that a number of the hyphez near the center of
the mycelium are growing up into the air, and the forms
they assume are characteristic of different species of
mould. Four of these typical forms are shown in Fig. 190,
but it is not intended to go farther into any details that
require the use of the microscope. A number of the
larger moulds, however, have fruiting hyphz an inch or
460 NAD URES Sil UID Yo 2ANiD Sere:
two in length, on the tips of which the beadlike spore
cases are plainly visible to the naked eye.
We may next have the pupils substitute for the culture
medium in their bottles various solid materials — bread,
potatoes and other vegetables, meats, and a variety of dif-
ferent fruits. Each pupil may provide a different mate-
rial, and in this way the class will gain a notion of how
omnivorous the moulds are.
An experiment that must not be omitted consists in
inoculating a number of different fruits with mould spores,
Fic. 190. DIFFERENT KINDS OF MOULD
a, milk mould; 4, blue mould; c, black mould; d@, white mould
to observe the process of decay. Here again the children
may take different fruits for variety’s sake — some apples,
some pears, others plums, peaches, grapes, each child
taking different varieties so far as practicable. We will
suppose that the pupils have each three fruits of the
desired variety. Having cautioned them to secure per-
fect specimens with stems attached and no breaks of the
skin, let them cach put one fruit aside, perfect ; let them
FLOWERLESS PEANTS 461
make a single puncture with a pin in the second and
rub in some mould spores or a little dust ; put this away
with the first; and let them puncture the third, but,
instead of inoculating it, let them leave it, puncture side
up, exposed to the air on their desks. They may vary the
experiment still further by having different pupils use for
their inoculations a number of the moulds described
below. This experiment coordinates itself with practical
fruit culture and the need of ‘hand picking” of choice
fruit. It also carries a larger lesson related to intelligent
cleanliness in care of the skin and treatment of scratches,
cuts, and bruises, since in this function of protection the
skin of an apple and that of a child are much alike.
Our experiments and observations cannot go far before
we see that there are many different kinds of moulds.
We notice, first, that while the mycelia of all appear much
alike to the naked eye (generally white, like cotton bat-
ting), the spores are of different colors; and these may
serve as a basis for elementary classification.
Blue Mould, Penzczllium glaucum.— This is the commonest mould
we have, and its blue velvety growths over bread and all sorts of foods
and on the leather of shoes and gloves have made it only too familiar
to all. Its manner of spore formation is shown in Fig. 190, 6.
Black Mould, 4sferg7llus niger.— This is another common house-
hold form on bread, vegetables, and fruits.
White Mould, A7ucor mucedo. — The white moulds are especially
good for elementary lessons on account of their comparatively large
size. They grow on all kinds of food, and after covering the mass
with a white cottony mycelium they send up fruiting hyphae, often
one or two inches in height, which terminate in little black beads
— miniature puffballs —in which the spores are produced. These
are seen, enlarged in Fig. 190, @, and natural size in the “mould
gardens” in Fig. 189.
462 NATURE “STUDY AND | EIFE
Mildews, or Moulds of the Garden. The moulds that attack
plants are commonly known as mildews, rusts, blights, or
smuts. The number of these minute parasitic fungi is
legion, and as a group they rank with destructive insects
in rendering the raising of flowers and fruits difficult and
interesting. We can introduce into the course only a
few of the more important, such as are most closely asso-
ciated with the children’s garden studies. They may be
considered as types to indicate methods of study that can
be applied to many other kinds. The methods of uni-
versal application, for preventing fungous diseases of
plants, relate to intelligent cleanliness of garden and
premises (the burning of rubbish and dead leaves that
may harbor the spores) and to so planting and pruning
as to admit sunlight and air to every part of the plant.
For recent information about more special methods we
should send to our State Experiment Station for the
latest Spray-Calendar.
_ The Black Knot, Plowrightia morbosa. — Request the children to
Search their plum and cherry trees, bring in specimens, and report
the distribution and prevalence of this fungus in the neighborhood.
The summer crop of spores is produced in June. The knot at this
time is greenish brown and velvety. The winter spores are produced
in capsules in the black mass. From about December and for the
rest of the winter these capsules are perforated and the spores are
shaken out by every puff of wind, like pepper out of a pepper box.
The spores that happen to lodge behind a bud or in a crotch or
crevice send their mycelial threads into the living wood, where they
multiply greatly and thus cause the swelling or knot. Finally, they
send fruiting hyphe to the surface, and the life story is repeated.
A single knot is thus a menace to an orchard or neighborhood; one
should never be permitted to develop spores, but should be cut off
and éurned as soon as any swelling appears.
FLOWERLESS PLANTS 463
The Brown Rot, Monzilia fructigena. — Plum, cherry, and peach
trees are often stripped of their entire crop by this destructive fungus.
It probably consumes more of these fruits than all the boys and girls
in the country. The class should study its prevalence and distribu-
tion in the neighborhood along with that of the black knot. It is
characteristic of this
fungus that affected
fruits cling to the
branch over winter,
often cemented to-
gether in clusters.
In this condition
they are said to be
“mummied” (see
Fig. 192). The life
story of the brown
rot is like that of all
moulds: a spore
lodges on a fruit,
germinates and _ fills
the fruit with its
mycelium, and the
fruiting hyphe grow
out to scatter the
spores. If the pupils
will inoculate a few
plums, they will see
how rapidly this
fungus works, and
by so doing appre- Fic. 191. THE BLACK KNOT
ciate the necessity of (Photograph of collection prepared by Burton N. Gates,
aged sixteen, for his class in the high school)
picking and burning
affected fruits before the spores are cast. Remedies for J/onz/a are
pruning to let in light and air, thinning plums and peaches so that
no two fruits touch, picking and burning all diseased fruits as soon
as detected, and burning all mummified fruits in the fall, since they
produce another crop of spores in the spring.
464 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
Peach-Leaf Curl, Exvoascus deformans.— By attacking the leaves,
blossoms, and growing twigs of the peach this fungus sometimes
causes the loss of the entire crop, and great damage to the trees. If
present in the neighborhood, the pupils will have no difficulty in
finding specimens for study. Peach-leaf curl is so easily prevented
by spraying that there is no excuse for allowing an orchard to be
affected by it.
Peach Yellows. — No fungus has been discovered in connection
with this disease, although it has been sought for with great diligence.
Expert testimony inclines to the view that it is not-due to a germ of
FiG. 192. PLUMS DESTROYED BY BROWN ROT
any kind. Still it is clearly contagious, is transmitted by seeds or
buds, and probably by the mere presence of a diseased tree in the
orchard. How these facts can be explained on any other theory
than that of the germ origin of the disease, it is difficult to imagine.
Affected trees ripen their fruit prematurely, and many of the buds
intended for the following spring burst into a spindling, sickly, yellow
growth during the summer. No tree has been known to recover
when once attacked, and since the fruit is worthless, the sooner it is
uprooted and burned the better. Laws compel a man to do this in
a number of states where peach raising is an important industry.
Other garden fungi that should be observed and studied are:
Downy Mildew, /eronospora viticola.— This fungus attacks
grapes, especially vines allowed to grow without proper pruning.
FEOWEREESS» PEANTS 465
Orange Rust, Czoma nitens. — Raspberry and blackberry bushes
are often attacked by this fungus, the leaves and young shoots com-
ing out bright orange in the spring. The appearance is so striking
as to need no description. Affected plants should be uprooted and
burned before the spores ripen.
Rose Mildew, Spherotheca pannosa.
Apple Scab, /usicladium dendriticum.— This fungus is commonly
found as black scabby patches on the leaves and fruit and has been
estimated to injure from one-sixth to one-half of the entire apple crop.
The Grain Smuts.— A conservative estimate of the damage
caused by fungi attacking corn, wheat, oats, barley, and rye is said
to be $200,000,000 annually; and this amount is stolen so stealthily
that few realize their loss. In grain-raising sections have each pupil
gather one hundred heads of wheat and oats at random, and estimate
the percentage destroyed by smut.!
Yeast. — Moulds and mildews are plants, many of which
we can see without difficulty. We now descend a step
lower to forms that we cannot see without
a microscope, except in the mass. Greatly 0 A Q
magnified, yeast plants have the appearance
of tiny ovoidal bodies, of which it would Fe. 193.
iakee about 3000 placed side by side to Y=4st Prants
measure an inch. Still, small as they are, *how's manner
3 of growth (mag-
we can study them in a practical way. maned)
We may use our medicine vials again for this purpose. Suppose
one-half of the class have their vials each partially filled with diluted
fruit juice, such as we used in the study of moulds; and the other
half, after thoroughly cleansing and scalding their bottles, have a
large drop of freshly scalded flour or starch paste. It should be
made as transparent as possible, be free from air bubbles, and be
spread out evenly in one side of the vial. Let the pupils provide
themselves with needles mounted in sticks and pieces of clean glass,
1 “The Grain Smuts: how they are caused and how to prevent them,”
by Walter T. Swingle, Washington, 1898, Farmer's Bulletin, No. 75.
466 NATURE SPUDY AND cian
and we will place upon each of the glasses a bit of compressed yeast
the size of a pin head. Ask each to divide his yeast, first in halves,
then one-half in halves again, and so on until he has a particle that
he can just see. Let the pupils now plant these just visible particles
in their vials. They may then cork them and observe the growth
that takes place from day to day. If a piece of rubber dam is
stretched over the top of one of the bottles containing fruit juice
and tied tightly, the gases produced by the growth of the yeast will
puff up the rubber and thus help to show that something is going on
inside. The liquid will soon become turbid, full of bubbles, and at
last a mass of white substance will settle to the bottom. This is
composed of yeast plants, but may be many thousand times the
amount with which we started. The liquid will have lost its sweet
taste and will smell and taste of alcohol, or possibly of vinegar. The
particle on the starch paste will gradually overgrow the whole drop,
changing it to a whitish mass of yeast plants.
¢ 8 2
te - * | &
a bh c d
Fic. 194. FORMS OF BACTERIA
a, grippe; 2, bubonic plague; c, diphtheria; d, tuberculosis; e, typhoid fever ;
J, spiral types.
Bacteria. — The smaller a living particle is, the more
powerful may it become. This is because the smaller a
cell is, the more surface it has in proportion to its bulk
for the absorption of food. Bacteria are the smallest liv-
ing things we know and, in many ways, the most power-
ful. Different forms of bacteria are shown in Fig. 194.
Some are spherical and so minute that it would take
125,000 of them placed side by side to measure an inch.
Others are rod shaped, but so short that 1500 placed end
to end would make a line only across the head of a pin.
Many of the elongated forms are bent into commas or
FLOWERLESS PLANTS 467
twisted into spirals or corkscrews. Minute as they are,
many bacteria have threadlike appendages, with which
they swim actively about.
It has been difficult to decide whether we should class
bacteria as plants or animals. Their food and what little
structure they possess are considered to show, however,
that they are plants, related more closely to the fungi
than to any other group.
Bacteria are practically everywhere in nature. They
exist in the air as dust ; they swarm in all surface waters ;
the top layers of fertile soil are literally alive with them,
almost all of them harmless or beneficial. The udders of
healthy cows, the healthy human mouth, the healthy
stomach and intestines, all support varied flore of these
ubiquitous plants. Normally, however, they are not pres-
ent in the blood or other tissues of a healthy animal.
Bacteria were discovered by Anton van Leeuwenhoek
in 1683, but were known merely as curiosities until about
1880, when Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur demonstrated
their power to cause disease. For a time people were
greatly alarmed; they next bethought themselves that
humanity had fared well before the bacteria were discov-
ered and would doubtless continue to fare as well, or bet-
ter, thereafter. As knowledge accumulated, they realized
that there is no reason why bacteria should not be as good
to eat as other vegetables ; and finally arrived at the view
as expressed by a leading scientist, that a healthy human
body is, after all, the best microbe destroyer in the world.
Fresh air and sunshine, exercise, good food, vigor, and a
high health level give us these, and with a few reasonable
precautions we have practically nothing to fear.
468 NATURE STUDY" AND LEIEE
Small as bacteria are, they possess powers of growth
and multiplication not paralleled by any other living forms.
It is estimated that if all the oceans were nutrient broth,
with an average depth of one mile, the progeny of one
microbe might fill them full in less than five days. .
By precise methods it is possible to rear as pure a cul-
ture of a desired kind of bacteria as of any garden plant.
While we shall not be able to do this, we may make a num-
ber of instructive observations if we are on the alert and
know what to look for. The phosphorescence of decay-
ing wood, fish, or meat is due to bacteria of decom-
position. The red color, known in superstitious times as
the ‘bleeding Host,” that sometimes overspreads bread
and other foods, is caused by other harmless bacteria.
It will be difficult or impossible, without expensive
microscopes, to distinguish bacteria from yeasts and
moulds. Still, a few simple experiments may be tried.
We may use our vials again, —this time filled with hay
infusion! or with a dilute, perfectly clear broth. We may
sterilize, as before described, by boiling on two succes-
sive days, and then sow a minute quantity of dust from
the schoolroom or the street, keeping other vials stop-
pered with cotton for comparison. The vials in which
dust is sown will soon grow turbid, a scum will form on
top, and an offensive odor of decomposition will probably
make it necessary to wash the vials out before the experi-
ment has continued too long. ’
FISHES :
Dace} Acquaintance with living fishes in aquaria and in native
Pout J haunts
INSECTS:
Grasshoppers Black swallowtail
Crickets Polyphemus
June beetles Luna
Flies Elm-leaf beetle
Lice Potato beetle
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:
Rats, mice; habits, destructiveness, methods of trapping
DHE; GRADE PLAN 481
GRabD_E II
LESSONS WITH PLANTS
COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:
-
Calliopsis
StuDY OF WILD FLOWERS:
Cone flower Iris
Trilliums Mallow
Wild geranium ~ Yarrow
Robin’s plantain Tansy
Marsh marigold Healall
Bloodroot Poison sumac
FLOWER CALENDAR
GARDEN WORK:
- Vegetable garden ; lettuce, carrot, potato, onion (from seed)
FRUIT:
Grapes; layers and cuttings; save and plant the seeds
TREES:
Elms
ol Collect and plant seeds
FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Ferns
Mosses > Acquaintance with a few kinds
; |
Liverworts )
MyTus, LEGENDS, STORIES, POEMS, AND PICTURES OF THE
PLANTS AND ANIMALS FOR THIS GRADE
482 NATURE’ STUDY AND? LIEBE
GRADE III
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS
DomESTIC ANIMALS:
Rabbit; foods, habits, care
BIRDS:
Barn swallow Cedar bird
Night hawk Phoebe
Whip-poor-will Chebec
Chimney swift Junco
Humming bird Meadow lark
FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:
Leopard frog; live specimens, feeding tests with insects; learn
notes
FISHES :
Pickerel | Acquaintance with living fishes in aquaria and native
Pike J haunts
INSECTS:
Mourning cloak Caddis flies
Imperial moth Water bugs
Meal worm Strawberry insects
Rose beetles Dragon flies
Clothes moth Damsel flies
Asparagus beetle
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:
Squirrels
Chipmitsle! raming, habits, storing and planting of nuts
THE GRADE PLAN 483
GrRabD_E III
LESSONS WITH PLANTS
COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:
Mimosa
StTuDY OF WILD FLOWERS:
Solomon’s seal Chickweed
False Solomon’s seal Mountain laurel
Hepatica Lambkill
Cinquefoil Bellwort
Fringed polygala Bittersweet
Bur marigold Wild carrot
FLOWER CALENDAR
GARDEN WORK:
Vegetable garden; asparagus, beets
FRUIT:
Strawberry ; varieties, propagation by runners, seeds
TREES:
Hard maples )
Horse-chestnut } Save and germinate seeds
Hickory J
FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Lichens and alge ; recognize as classes of plants
MytTus, LEGENDS, STORIES, POEMS, AND PICTURES OF THE
PLANTS AND ANIMALS FOR THIS GRADE
484 NATURE? STRUDYOAND: ELBE
GRADE IV
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS
DOMESTICATED ANIMALS:
Fowls ; kinds, habits, care, food, rearing
BIRDS:
Vesper sparrow Brown thrasher
Catbird White-breasted nuthatch
Kingbird Red-breasted nuthatch
Cowbird Quail
Red-winged blackbird Partridge
Redstart Prairie chicken
Flicker
FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:
Green frog | Learn notes and make feeding tests with
Spotted salamander J insects
FISHES :
Suckers ; living fishes in aquaria and in native haunts
INSECTS:
Codling moth Fall webworm
Tent caterpillars Apple-leaf crumple1
Cankerworm Carpet beetles
Apple-tree borer Red admiral
White-marked tussock moth
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:
Spiders and harvestmen
THE GRADE PLAN 485
GRADE IV
LESSONS WITH PLANTS
COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:
Centaurea, Emperor William
FLOWER CALENDAR
STUDY OF WILD FLOWERS:
Meadow rue Lady’s slipper
Purple avens Blue-eyed grass
Indian pipe Thoroughwort
Sundew Jack-in-the-pulpit
Shad bush Corn cockle
Saxifrage
GARDEN WORK:
Vegetable garden; parsnips, sage, horse radish
Wild-flower garden; lessons on transplanting
FRUIT:
Apples; save and plant seeds, and learn varieties
TREES:
Butternut; germinate nut Mulberry; propagate from cuttings
FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Mushrooms; collect specimens, learn to recognize poisonous
Amanitas
MyrTus, LEGENDS, STORIES, POEMS, AND PICTURES OF THE PLANTS
AND ANIMALS FOR THIS GRADE
486 NATURE SHUDY AND LIFE
GRADE V
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS
DOMESTICATED ANIMALS:
The horse; origin, domestication, traits, uses, care
Laws regarding cruelty to animals
BIRDS:
Bobolink Red-eyed vireo
Kingfisher Indigo bunting
Chewink Brown creeper
Ovenbird Purple martin
Purple finch Sparrow hawk
FROGS AND SALAMANDERS :
Brown frog
: Feeding tests with insects, notes, rear from eggs
Red triton } as : : 88
FISHES:
Perch; feeding tests, spawning season, and habits
INSECTS:
Plant lice Honeybee
Lady beetles Bumblebee
Mosquitoes Mud wasp
Regal moth Paper wasp
Curculios
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:
Clams and snails Slugs
Muskrat
THE GRADE PLAN 487
GRADE V
LESSONS WITH PLANTS
COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:
Balsam
SruDY OF WILD FLOWERS:
Evening primrose Sarsaparilla
Meadow lily Elecampane
Buttonbush Columbine
Jewelweed Blueberries
Bishop’s cap Checkerberry
Snake’s-head Spurges
FLOWER CALENDAR
GARDEN WORK:
Vegetable garden ; spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers
Wild-flower garden ; ferns, spore formation
FRUIT:
7 ape :
Fiums | Learn varieties, and study buds, terminal, lateral,
Apricots i fruit
Nectarines
TREES:
Black walnut Cedars
Hackberry Juniper +} Study and germinate seeds
Willows Larch |
FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Moulds and yeast Black knot
Foul brood Monilia
Myrus, LEGENDS, STORIES, POEMS, AND PICTURES OF THE PLANTS
AND ANIMALS FOR THIS GRADE
488 NATURE” STUDY: AND FEIRE
GRADE VI
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS
DOMESTICATED ANIMALS:
Pigeons ; domestication, habits, feeding, and care
BIRDS : .
Maryland yellowthroat Veery
Rose-breasted grosbeak House wren
Hairy woodpecker Warbling vireo
Crossbills White-throated sparrow
Wood pewee Fox sparrow
State laws for protection of birds
FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:
Wood frog | Rear from eggs and make feeding
Red-backed salamander J tests with insects
FISHES:
Bass ; rock, large and small mouth, black
INSECTS:
Borers; peach-tree and others Botflies
Cabbage worm and parasites Apple maggot
Tiger beetles House ants
Squash bugs
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:
Earthworms Moles and shrews
THE GRADE PLAN 489
GRADE VI
LESSONS WITH PLANTS
COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:
Petunia
STUDY OF WILD’ FLOWERS:
Foam flower Celandine
Early rue Willow herb
Dogbane Clematis
Daisy fleabane Sand spurry
Speckled alder Butter and eggs
Purple Gerardia Poison hemlocks
FLOWER CALENDAR
GARDEN WORK:
Vegetable garden; cabbage, turnip, mustard
Wild-flower garden; collect wild-flower seeds and plant
FRUIT:
2am
Study varieties, grafting, budding, pruning
Peaches J ) Aes 2 8 I =]
TREES:
Birches Pines
a : i Study and germinate seeds
Tulip Sycamore J) ) id
City or town ordinances with reference to injury of shade trees
FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Apple scab Rose mildew Peach-leaf curl Peach yellows
490 NATURE -S RUDY AN D-ETEE
GRADE VII
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS
BIRDS :
Tree sparrow Yellow-billed cuckoo
Grackles White-crowned sparrow
Wood thrush Ruby-crowned kinglet
Yellow-throated vireo Golden-crowned kinglet
Black-billed cuckoo Myrtle warbler
FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:
Life story of common toad; rear from eggs, make feeding tests
with insects
Newts
FISHES:
Trout
Salmon; spawning seasons, habits
State laws concerning fishes
INSECTS:
Cutworms Ichneumon flies
Lion beetles Gypsy moth (in eastern Mass.)
Army worm Brown-tailed moth (in eastern Mass.)
Corn worm Household pests; bed bug, kissing
Sphinxes bug, roaches
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:
W oodchuck Mink and otter
Centipedes and millipedes
THE GRADE. PLAN
GRADE VII
LESSONS WITH PLANTS
COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:
Ten-weeks stock
FLOWER CALENDAR
STUDY OF WILD FLOWERS:
Ragwort St. John’s-wort
Milkwort Pitcher plant
Chicory Sweet vernal grass
Clethra June grass
Baneberry Timothy grass
Star grass Fescue grass
Blue curls Jimson weed
GARDEN WORK:
Vegetable garden Common weeds
Wild-flower garden
FRUIT:
Grape, raspberry, blackberry
Grapevine culture ; layers, runners, cuttings, seeds
TREES:
Chokecherry Box elder
Red cherry Ashes Study and germinate seeds
Black cherry Poplars J
FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Moulds Orange rust
Grain smuts Grape mildews
Review mushrooms
State laws concerning fungous diseases of plants
491
492 NATURE STUDY -AND: EIFE
GRADE VIII
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS
BIRDS:
Chestnut-sided warbler Water thrush
Blackburnian warbler ’ Bank swallow
Magnolia warbler Hermit thrush
Yellow-breasted chat Marsh hawk
Solitary sandpiper Wild ducks
Little green heron Wild geese
Red-headed woodpecker Wild swans
Study game laws
FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:
Pickering’s tree frog Mud puppy
Cricket frog
FISHES:
Eels
INSECTS:
Aphids Pear slug
Currant worms Am. copper butterfly
Rose slug Painted beauty
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:
Bat Weasel
Porcupine
THE GRADE PLAN 493
GrRavDeE VIII
LESSONS WITH PLANTS
COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:
Carnation
FLOWER CALENDAR
StupDy OF WILD FLOWERS:
Spring beauty Cassandra
Gentians Cohosh
Pale Corydalis Foxglove
Cardinal flower Loosestrife
Groundnut Herb Robert
Green brier Gold thread
Viburnum Nightshades
GARDEN WORK:
Vegetable garden
Wild-flower garden
FRUIT:
Currant, gooseberry
Methods of propagating fruit and forest trees
TREES:
Spr Beeches ) . ;
Spruces s \ Study and germinate seeds
Tupelo Lindens J) ;
State laws concerning forest fires
FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Bacteria Foul brood
Pear blight
494 NATURE STUDY AND: LIFE
GRADE IX
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS
BIRDS:
Northern shrike Herons
Pine grosbeak Eagles
Pine siskin Hawks
Sapsucker Owls
Loon Gulls
Grebes Terns
FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:
Spadefoot frog
Review and make feeding tests with frogs, toads, and salamanders
FISH:
Stickleback
INSECTS:
Scale insects Wood nymphs
San José scale Fritillaries
Honeybee and cross-fertilization Swallowtails
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:
Skunk Fox
THE GRADE PLAN 495
GRADE IX
LESSONS WITH PLANTS
COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:
Tea rose
Review and classify a number
StuDby OF WILD FLOWERS: of the common plants under :
Rhodora Dodder Rose family
Pipsissewa Blazing star Lily family
Pyrola Meadow beauty Mustard family
Pimpernel Lobelia - Pulse family
Spicebush Clover Parsley family
Arethusa Pokeweed Aster family
Larkspur Sunflowers Grass family
FLOWER CALENDAR
GARDEN WORK:
Vegetable garden
Wild-flower garden
FRUIT:
Quince Review fruits, varieties, culture
and propagation
TREES :
“esas eae \ Study and germinate seeds
Hornbeam Fir J -
Influence of forests on: soil formation; surface waters; climate
FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Bacteria, intelligent cleanliness Symbiotic bacteria
Board of Health regulations and statistics
INDEX
[Numbers in blackface type indicate an illustration on the page cited.]
A, B, C of landscape gardening, 1 36.
Abused street trees, 372.
Acadian hairstreak, 268.
Achemon sphinx, 209.
Acris gryllus, 300.
Active education, 132.
Af geria pyri, I9t.
polistiformis, 191.
tipuliformis, 191.
fésculus pavia, 114.
Aésthetic values of nature study,
20-22.
Agarics, 450.
Agrostemma githago, 113.
Agrostis, 198.
Aims and purposes of a nature-study
course, I.
Alder aphids, 209.
Alexander the Great, 4o.
Algz, 103, 438, 483.
Amanita caesaria, 450.
muscaria, 450.
phalloides, 450.
rubescens, 451.
verna, 450.
Amblystoma punctatum, 302.
American copper butterfly, 264, 492.
false hellebore, 117.
laurel, 114.
Pomological Society, 150.
Amphicerus bicaudatus, 193.
Anacreon, 335.
Anarsia lineatella, 193.
Anasa tristis, 225.
Anemone, 479.
Angelus Silesius, 102.
Animal species, 7.
Anisopteryx pometaria, 196.
Anopheles, 68-70, 70.
Anthonomus quadrigibbus, 204.
Anthrenus scrophularia, 59, 75-78.
76, 78.
Antiopa, 47, 262, 268.
Ants, 86-88, 86, 87, 415, 488.
Ant’s nest, how to make, 418, 488.
Aphids, 210, 214, 486, 492.
Aphis maidis, 210.
mali, 210.
Apple, 485.
curculio, 204.
leaf crumpler, 206, 484.
maggot, 202-204, 203, 48¢.
of Peru, 115.
root plant louse, 215.
scab, 465, 489.
Appleseed, Johnny, 158, 159.
Apple-tree aphid, 210.
borers, 191, 192, 484.
Apple tree, how to rear, 169.
tent caterpillar, 195.
498
Apricot, 152, 180, 487.
Aquaria, feeding of the animals in,
403.
construction of, 394-399, 395,
396, 398, 399.
Aquarium, scavengers of, 403.
cements, 399.
how to stock, 400.
Arbor day, 391.
Arbutus, 479.
Arethusa, 495.
Army worm, 225, 490.
Arnold Arboretum, 364.
Arnold, Edwin, 274.
Ashes, 491.
Asiatic crab apple, 158.
Asparagus beetle, 222, 482.
Aspidiotus perniciosus, 219.
Asters, 479, 495-
Astragalus Lambertii, 117.
mollissimus, 117.
Audubon Societies, 344.
Society,proposed pledge for, 34 5.
Australian roach, 85.
Babcock, Charles A., 345.
Bacteria, 103, 440, 466, 466, 493, 495-
ways by which they enter the
body, 471.
Balsam, 96, 97, 487.
Baltimore oriole, 45o.
nest of, 321.
Banded hairstreak, 268.
Baneberry, 491.
Bank swallow, 492.
Bark lice, 215.
Barn swallow, 342, 482. e
swallow’s nest, 336.
Basilarchia arthemis, 268.
astyanax, 268.
NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
a’ ala
Say)
Bass: rock, large and small mouth,
black, 488.
Bat, as insect destroyer, 187, 405,
492.
feeding of, 406.
Beal; F. B1., 345.
Bear corn, 117.
Beaver poison, Il.
Bedbug, 82, 82, 490.
Beeches, 493.
Bee hunting, 240.
Bees, races of, 241.
Bellwort, 483.
Big ivy, 114.
Biological type, 289.
Birches, 489.
Bird bath, 330.
census, 319, 320, 321.
food chart, 323.
homes, 332.
house, 337.
houses, 332.
Bird-Lore, 344, 345, 351-
directory of State Audubon
Societies, 345.
Birds, climatic influences upon, 311.
decrease of, 311.
eating codling moth, 187.
enemies of, 312-317.
food for the young, 361.
foods of, 322, 347-
nesting materials, 340.
rate of increase, 308.
Bird taming, 347.
Bishop’s cap, 457.
Bismarck apple, 157, 158.
sittersweet, 117, 453.
Black ant, small, 56, 86.
bee, 239, 241.
Blackberry, 491.
INDEX
Black-billed cuckoo, 490.
Blackburnian warbler, 492.
Black cherry, 113, 491.
knot, 462, 463, 487.
mercury, 107.
mould, 461.
nightshade, 117.
roach, 85-86.
swallowtail, 268, 48o.
Thalessa, 247.
walnut, 487.
Blanks for lessons with plants, 139,
145, 148.
Blazing star, 495.
Blissus leucopterus, 226.
Bloodroot, 102, 481.
Blood-sucking cone nose, 83, 83.
Blowpipe, 57.
Blueberries, 487.
Bluebird, 333, 340, 342, 349, 478.
Bluebottle fly, 63, 64.
Blue curls, 491.
emperor, 268.
jay, 323, 480.
mould, 461.
Mountain Forest, 9, 16.
swallowtail, 268.
Blue-eyed grass, 485.
Satyrus, 266.
Bluets, 479.
Board of health regulations, 474, 495.
Bobolink, 323, 342, 486.
Boleti, 453, 453-
Bolles, Frank, 336.
Bollworm, 225.
Bombardier beetles, 256.
Bordered skipper, 270.
Borers, 488.
Borer signs around base of peach
tree, 190.
499
Botflies, 414, 488.
Box elder, 491.
Brackett, G. B., 173.
Braconids, 250.
Branch ivy, 117.
Brightwen, Mrs., 345.
Brinton, Dr., on property, 127.
Broad-leaf laurel, 114.
necked Prionus, 192.
Brown creeper, 349, 486.
elfin, 268.
emperor, 266.
frog, 298, 486.
rot, 463, 464.
tailed moth, 490.
thrasher, 323, 342, 349, 484.
Browning, Mrs., 33.
Brunella, 481.
Bucephalus, 4o.
Budding a peach tree, 175-179, 175,
489.
Budding knife, 175.
Buds, lessons on, 161, 487.
Buffalo herd, g.
moth, 75.
Bufo lentiginosus, 297.
Bug, correct use of word, 423.
Bugbane, 117.
Bull, Ephraim, 159.
Bullfrog, 298, 480.
Bumblebees, 242, 486.
Buprestis divaricata, 193.
Burbank, Luther, 159.
plum, 160.
Burdock, 479.
Bur marigold, 483.
Burnham, Wm. H., 23.
Burroughs, John, 302, 309, 324.
Butter and eggs, 489.
Buttercup, 479.
500 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
Butterflies and moths, 260.
Butterflies, table of, 264-273.
Butternut, 485.
Buttonbush, 487.
Cabbage butterfly, 225, 262, 266.
Plusia, 225.
worm and parasites, 61, 488.
Caddis flies, 258, 482.
Czoma nitens, 465.
Cajeput, oil of, $2.
Calico bush, 114.
California poison sumac, IIo.
Calliopsis, 481.
Calliphora crythrocephala, 63.
Calosoma calidum, 256.
scrutator, 255.
Canary, 349.
Cankerworms, 196, 454.
Caper spurge, 115, 116.
Carbon bisulphide, 74.
Cardinal flower, 493.
Care of young birds, 354—-357-
Carlyle, 144.
Carnation, 493.
Carniolan bee, 239, 241.
Carpenter ant, 416.
Carpet beetle, 75-78, 76, 78, 484.
beetle, black, 78.
beetle, remedies, 77.
‘ashes, I10.
‘assandra, 493.
cat, the, 41-43, 342, 349, 480.
Par a er
destruction of birds by, 312.
‘atalogue of fruits, 150, 152.
‘atbird, 323, 342, 349, 484.
‘aterpillars, 49, 265-273, 421.
‘atopsilia eubule, 266.