My morning walk up to the beech wood often brings me new knowledge and
new glimpses of nature. This morning I saw a hummingbird taking its bath
in the big dewdrops on a small ash-tree. I have seen other birds bathe
in the dew or raindrops on tree foliage, but did not before know that
the hummer bathed at all.
I also discovered that the webs of the little spiders in the road, when
saturated with moisture, as they were from the early fog this morning,
exhibit prismatic tints. Every thread of the web was strung with minute
spherules of moisture, and they displayed all the tints of the rainbow.
In each of them I saw one abutment of a tiny rainbow. When I stepped a
pace or two to the other side, I saw the other abutment. Of course I
could not see the completed bow in so small an area. These fragments are
as unapproachable as the bow in the clouds. I also saw that where a
suspended dewdrop becomes a jewel, or displays rainbow tints, you can
see only one at a time--to the right or left of you. It also is a
fragment of a rainbow. Those persons who report beholding a great
display of prismatic effects in the foliage of trees, or in the grass
after a shower, are not to be credited. You may see the drops glistening
in the sun like glass beads, but they will not exhibit prismatic tints.
In only one at a time will you see rainbow tints. Change your position,
and you may see another, but never a great display of prismatic tints at
one time.
In my walk the other morning I turned over a stone, looking for spiders
and ants. These I found, and in addition there were two cells of one of
our solitary leaf-cutters, which we as boys called "sweat bees," because
they came around us and would alight on our sweaty hands and arms as if
in quest of salt, as they probably were. It is about the size of a honey
bee, of lighter color, and its abdomen is yellow and very flexible. It
carries its pollen on its abdomen and not upon its thighs. These cells
were of a greenish-brown color; each of them was like a miniature barrel
in which the pollen with the egg of the bee was sealed up. When the egg
hatches, the grub finds a loaf of bread at hand for its nourishment.
These little barrels were each headed up with a dozen circular bits of
leaves cut as with a compass, exactly fitting the cylinder, one upon the
other. The wall of the cylinder was made up of oblong cuttings from
leaves, about half an inch wide, and three quarters of an inch long, a
dozen of them lapped over one another, and fitted together in the most
workmanlike manner.
In my boyhood I occasionally saw this bee cutting out her
nesting-material. Her mandibles worked like perfect shears. When she had
cut out her circular or her oblong patches, she rolled them up, and,
holding them between her legs, flew away with them. I have seen her
carry them into little openings in old rails, or old posts. About the
period of hatching, I do not know.