The lady has surely a beautiful face,
She has surely a queenly air;
The bonnet had flowers and ribbon and lace;
But the bird had added the crowning grace--
It is really a charming affair.
Is the love of a bonnet supreme over all,
In a lady so faultlessly fair?
The Father takes heed when the sparrows fall,
He hears when the starving nestlings call--
Can a tender woman _not care_?
--_Anon._
STRANGE PLANTS.
One of the most remarkable growths in the government botanical gardens
is the so-called barber plant, the leaves of which are used in some
parts of the East by rubbing on the face to keep the beard from
growing. It is not supposed to have any effect on a beard that is
already rooted, but merely to act as a preventive, boys employing it to
keep the hair from getting a start on their faces. It is also employed
by some Oriental people who desire to keep a part of their heads free
from hair, as a matter of fashion. A curious looking tree from the
Isthmus of Panama bears a round red fruit as big as an apple, which
has this remarkable faculty, that its juice rubbed on tough beef or
chicken makes the meat tender by the chemical power it possesses to
separate the flesh fiber. One is interested to observe in the botanical
green houses three kinds of plants that have real consumption of the
lungs--the leaves, of course, being the lungs of a plant. The disease
is manifested by the turning of the leaves from green to white, the
affection gradually spreading from one spot until, when a leaf is all
white, it is just about to die. Cruelly enough, as it would seem, the
gardeners only try to perpetuate the disease for the sake of beauty and
curiosity, all plants of those varieties that are too healthy being
thrown away.
A BRIGAND BIRD.
The kea is an outlaw bird of New Zealand for each of whose bills the
government offers a reward of a shilling. The kea is a gourmand. It
prefers the kidney of a sheep to any other part of the beast.
Coming down out of the mountains in winter, it attacks the sheep,
alighting on their backs, and tearing away the hide and flesh until it
reaches the titbits which it seeks.
How the birds learned to tear away the skin to get at the flesh forms
a curious story of the development of bird knowledge. The birds had
been feeding on the refuse of cattle and sheep killed for human
consumption. They learned to associate the idea of meat with the living
animal, and now they kill the sheep for the meat without waiting for
human aid or consent.
The Maoris have a legend about this bird to the effect that it used
to be a strict vegetarian, building its nest on the ground. The sheep
came and trampled on the nests, and the birds attacked them furiously,
drawing blood.
They liked the flavor of flesh, and have ever since been eating it.
The bird builds its nest in trees now, out of the reach of the sheep's
hoofs.
THE BROOK.
Little brook, little brook,
You have such a happy look,
Such a very merry manner as you swerve and curve and crook;
And your ripples, one by one,
Reach each other's hands and run
Like laughing little children in the sun!
Little brook, sing to me,
Sing about a bumble-bee
That tumbled from a lily-bell and mumbled grumblingly
Because he wet the film
Of his wings and had to swim,
While the water bugs raced round and laughed at him.
Little brook, sing a song
Of a leaf that sailed along
Down the golden braided center of your current swift and strong,
And the dragon-fly that lit
On the tilting rim of it,
And sailed away, and wasn't scared a bit!
And sing how oft in glee
Came a truant boy like me
Who loved to lean and listen to your lilting melody,
Till the gurgle and refrain
Of your music in his brain
Caused a happiness as deep to him as pain!
Little brook, laugh and leap!
Do not let the dreamer weep;
Sing him all the songs of summer till he sink in softest sleep;
And then sing soft and low
Through his dreams of long ago,
Sing back to him the rest he used to know.
--_Anon._
[Illustration: BLOOD-ROOT.
BY PER. HARRIET E. HIGLEY.
A. W. MUMFORD, PUBLISHER, CHICAGO.
COPYRIGHT 1900, BY
NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.]
THE BLOOD-ROOT.
WILLIAM KERR HIGLEY, Secretary of the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
Thou first-born of the year's delight,
Pride of the dewy glade,
In vernal green and virgin white,
Thy vestal robes arrayed.
--_Keble._
The true lover of flowers, though he may be enraptured by those under
cultivation, finds a greater satisfaction in the study and observation
of those that are developed only under the influence of Nature's laws.
In the field, the forest, and even in the sea there are plants not only
pleasing to the eye, but that are doubly interesting because of the
wonderful provision made for them to assure their survival. Plants,
like animals, have their enemies, and sometimes it seems that, with
thoughtful care for its own protection, a species will gradually change
its habits, thus conveying a sense of danger to its descendants.
Many of the peculiarities of plants, that fit them for existence, may
be readily studied by the novice in botany as he tramps the fields in
search of recreation. There is nothing more delightful and charming to
the botanist than to seek the reasons for the beauties in Nature and to
find why plants live and exist as they do.
Many delicate plants seek the shelter and protection of the borders
of the forest. They do not penetrate far within, but remain near the
open, where the sunlight can reach them. The blood-root (_Sanguinaria
Canadensis_) is of this character. Beautiful and delicate, it seems to
shun the storm and wind and to retire from the gaze of man.
The blood-root belongs to the poppy family (_Papaveraceæ_), which
includes about twenty-five genera and over two hundred species. These,
though widely distributed, are chiefly found in the temperate regions
of the North. To this family also belong the valuable opium-producing
plant (_Papaver somniferum_), the Mexican or prickly poppy (_Argemone
Mexicana_), the Dutchman's breeches (_Bicuculla Cucullaria_), the
bleeding-heart (_Bicuculla eximia_) and the beautiful mountain fringe
(_Adlumia fungosa_). A large number of the species are cultivated for
ornamental purposes. The poppy is also cultivated for the commercial
value of the opium it produces. All the species produce a milky or
colored juice. Here, indeed, we may say that behind beauty there lurks
a deadly foe, for the juice of nearly all the species has active
narcotic properties. This property is a means of protection to the
plant under consideration, for its acrid taste is distasteful to
animals.
The red juice that exudes from all parts of the plant of the
blood-root gives it both its common and its generic names, the latter,
_Sanguinaria_, is derived from the Latin word _sanguis_, or blood.
This interesting plant is a native of Eastern North America, deriving
its specific name from the fact that it is found in Canada. It blossoms
in April or May. Usually but a single flower is borne by the naked
stalk that rises from the underground stem to the height of about
eight inches. The flowers are white, very rarely pinkish, about one
and one-half of an inch in diameter. The number of petals varies from
eight to twelve, and they fall very soon after expansion. The sepals
disappear before the bud opens.
A single leaf is produced from each bud of the underground stem. It is
wrapped around the flower-bud as the latter rises from the soil and
does not develop to full size till after the period of blossoming is
over. The necessary food material for the production of the flower was
stored in the underground stem during the preceding season. Thus the
green leaf is not needed early in the growth of the plant.
The adult leaf is kidney-shaped, smooth, and five to nine lobed. When
fully grown they are often more than six inches in diameter. The
leaf-stalk, which may be over one foot in length, and the radiating
veins vary in color from yellowish to orange. Few leaves are more
beautiful and graceful than these, both during their development and
when fully mature.
It is said that the Indians formerly used the juice of this plant as a
dye, and thus it is sometimes called red Indian paint and red puccoon.
TANSY CAKES.
Many of our garden herbs still in common use for purposes of seasoning
are in reality British plants, says Longman's Magazine. Among them may
be mentioned mint and marjoram and thyme and calamint, all of which
may be found in their native haunts. Fennel is abundant on sea cliffs
in many places in the south of England. Wild hyssop is perfectly
naturalized on the picturesque ruins of Beaulieu Abbey and wild balm
used to be found within the ancient walls of Portchester castle. The
garden parsley was formerly abundant on the shingly beach at Hurst
castle, where it used to be gathered for domestic purposes. One native
herb, however, much in use among our fore-fathers is now seldom seen
in kitchen gardens--we mean _Tanacetum vulgare_, the common tansy,
the dull yellow flowers of which are often conspicuous by the side
of streams. The young leaves and juice of this plant were formerly
employed to give color and flavor to puddings, which were known as
tansy cakes, or tansy puddings.
In mediæval times the use of these cakes was specially associated
with the season of Easter and it is interesting to notice that in the
diet rolls of St. Swithin's monastery at Winchester, which belong to
the end of the fifteenth century, we come across the entry "tansey
tarte." It has been said that the use of tansy cakes at this season
was to strengthen the digestion after what an old writer calls "the
idle conceit of eating fish and pulse for forty days in Lent," and it
is certain that this was the virtue attributed to the plant by the
old herbalists. "The herb fried with eggs which is called a 'tansy,'"
says Culpepper, "helps to digest and carry away those bad humors that
trouble the stomach." It seems more probable that the custom of eating
tansy cakes at Easter time was associated with the teaching of that
festival, the name "tansy" being a corruption of a Greek word meaning
"immortality."
THE PARTRIDGE CALL.
Shrill and shy from the dusk they cry,
Faintly from over the hill;
Out of the gray where shadows lie,
Out of the gold where sheaves are high,
Covey to covey, call and reply,
Plaintively, shy and shrill.
Dies the day, and from far away
Under the evening star
Dies the echo as dies the day,
Droops with the dew in the new-mown hay,
Sinks and sleeps in the scent of May,
Dreamily, faint and far.
--_Frank Saville in the Pall Mall Magazine._
OUR FEATHERED NEIGHBORS.
BERTON MERCER.
Some few years ago, while living in the village of West Grove, Chester
County, Pennsylvania, I observed an unusual number of different birds
in our own immediate yard and garden, nearly all of which built their
homes within the narrow limits of our property.
Being deeply interested in the bird kingdom, and appreciating their
friendship and confidence, I carefully watched the progress of their
daily labors and their respective traits and individual habits. Our
buildings consisted of a house, small stable and a carpenter shop, and
I was much gratified to observe so many pretty birds nesting at our
very doors.
In the front yard stood three tall pine trees. In one of these a
pair of black birds made their nest and reared two broods of young.
A goldfinch also chose one of the lower branches of the same tree,
in the forks of which the clever little fellow hung a most beautiful
cup-shape nest. It appeared to be made of various mosses, lichens, and
soft materials, closely woven and cemented together, and the lining
inside consisted of thistle-down. Four pretty eggs were deposited in
due course and, as far as I know, the young were safely raised and
departed with their parents in the fall. I had the pleasure of seeing
the entire family frequently perched on the seed salad stalks in our
garden feeding in fearless content.
On both sides of the front porch was a lattice covered with woodbine.
In the top of one of these a robin chose to build her home, and showed
remarkable tameness during the entire nesting period. On the back
porch, also covered with woodbine, a pair of chipping sparrows built
their nest, a beautiful little piece of workmanship, displaying skill
and good taste. A happy little family was raised here in safety. Not
ten feet from the chipping sparrow's nest, we nailed up a little
wooden box which was tenanted for several years by a pair of house
wrens, in all probability the same two. These little birds afforded us
many hours of pleasure watching their cunning ways and listening to
their cheery song.
In another box raised on a high pole in the garden, we had a pair of
purple martins for two seasons and they helped to swell the population
of our bird community. Placed in a hedge row bordering the yard, I
observed the nest and eggs of a song sparrow, and their happy notes
were to be heard all day long. In a small briar patch in the corner of
the garden a cat bird made her home, and became quite tame, raising
four little ones successfully. In the eaves of the shop (although not
wanted or cherished) the English sparrows held sway and we destroyed
their nests on two or three occasions, as they repeatedly tried to
drive away some of our other pets.
Summing up we have a total of nine different birds which nested within
our small domain, and in each instance they seemed to feel a sense of
security and protection from all harm. In addition to those nesting on
our premises, we were favored with frequent visits from many more, such
as vireos, orioles, cardinals, indigo birds, chickadees, nuthatches,
snow birds, sparrow hawks, flickers, etc., according to the time of
year.
Prior to the summer in question, my father had been very ill, and
as he was then getting better he spent many days on the porch. This
afforded ample opportunity for him to study our birds, and they in
like manner became so accustomed to his presence that they were quite
fearless. Especially was this the case with the chipping sparrows above
mentioned. They became unusually tame during the season and the mother
bird finally ate out of father's hand or would sit on the toe of his
boot and pick crumbs from his fingers.
[Illustration: WESTERN BLUE GROSBEAK.
5/6 Life-size.
FROM COL. F. KAEMPFER.
A. W. MUMFORD, PUBLISHER, CHICAGO.
COPYRIGHT 1900, BY
NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.]
THE BLUE GROSBEAK.
(_Guiraca cærulea._)
This beautiful specimen of the finch family is found in the southern
United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific, although very local
and irregularly distributed. It is occasionally found north to Kansas,
Illinois, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The male is brilliant blue,
darker across the middle of the back. The female is yellowish brown
above, brownish yellow beneath, darkest across the breast, wings
broadly edged with brownish yellow. Sometimes there is a faint trace of
blue on the tail. The young resemble the female. Males from the Pacific
coast region have tails considerably longer than eastern specimens,
while those from California are of a much lighter and less purplish
blue.
The blue grosbeak is a very inconspicuous bird. Unless seen under the
most favorable circumstances the adult male does not appear to be blue,
but of a dusky color, and Ridgway says may easily be mistaken for a
cow blackbird, unless carefully watched; besides they usually sit
motionless, in a watchful attitude, for a considerable time, and thus
easily escape observation.
The blue grosbeak frequents the thickets of shrubs, briars and tall
weeds lining a stream flowing across a meadow or bordering a field, or
the similar growth which has sprung up in an old clearing. The usual
note is a strong harsh _ptchick_, and the song of the male is a very
beautiful, though rather feeble, warble. At least two broods are raised
during a season.
ODD PLACES CHOSEN.
GUY STEALEY.
It would seem that nature had provided enough space and a sufficient
variety of nooks and corners for birds to choose from and build their
nests in; yet it is a strange fact that many of them often prefer to
follow man, and select, for their homes, some spot he has planned and
made.
In the fields one often sees the nests of robins and blackbirds built
between the rails of pole fences, and sometimes catbirds choose this
situation for a home. Around the barns will be found the swallows and
their curious nests of mud. Then there are those cheerful and always
friendly little birds, the wrens, which think that our houses are
just the homes they would like, too; and any box or can, or what is
prettiest of all, a miniature cottage placed on a fence, will rarely
ever remain unoccupied during the summer. Even the shy bluebirds, whose
sheen of feathers seems to be borrowed from the sky, like to peep into
these.
Of all the wild birds, I believe I love the wrens the best. They are
always so busy and yet so companionable. Last spring, when the days
began to get warm, I left the window of my room open to admit the fresh
free air; and on going in there one day I spied one of these spry
little fellows peeping and hopping around the curtains, which were
looped up, forming a cozy recess. He did not seem to be alarmed at my
presence, but calmly went on with his inspection; and would you believe
it, the next morning the pair of them were busy constructing their nest
in this nook. I let the window remain open all summer, and they raised
their family there.
But the strangest of all strange sites in which I ever found a nest was
nearly at the bottom of a deep well! This well was walled up with rock
and a couple of brown field birds carried twigs and grass down it and
formed their nest on a projecting spur of stone. Why they should choose
such a location as this it is hard to tell.
THE YOUNG NATURALIST.
There are other armies in South Africa besides the Boers and the
British; armies of very little folk, which go out on foraging
expeditions when their colonies stand in need of supplies--forays
planned and executed with military precision, and, as a general thing,
uniformly successful.
I speak of an army of ants.
A close observer, residing in South Africa, describes one of these
forays in the following way:
"The army, which I estimated to number about fifteen thousand ants,
started from their home in the mud walls of a hut and marched in the
direction of a small mound of fresh earth, but a few yards distant. The
head of the column halted on reaching the foot of the mound and waited
for the rest of the force to arrive at the place of operations, which
evidently was to be the mound of fresh earth. When the remainder had
arrived and halted so that the entire army was assembled, a number of
ants detached themselves from the main body and began to ascend to the
top of the mound, while the others began moving so as to encircle the
base of the mound.
"Very soon a number from the detachment which had ascended the mound,
or lilliputian kopje, evidently the attacking party, entered the
loose earth and speedily returned, each bearing a cricket or a young
grasshopper, dead, which he deposited upon the ground and then returned
for a fresh load. Those who had remained on the outside of the mound,
took up the crickets and grasshoppers as they were brought out and bore
them down to the base of the hill, returning at once for fresh victims.
Soon the contents of the mound seemed to be exhausted, and then the
whole force returned home, each ant carrying his burden of food for the
community."
* * * * *
My very young readers will be surprised, no doubt, to hear me speak of
wasps as cement-makers, or paper-makers, but such, in truth, they are.
You can form no idea of the industry and toil these little folk expend
upon the structure they call home. Nothing pleases them better than to
find an old fence rail covered with a light gray fuzz of woody fiber
loosened from decaying wood by excessive soakings of rain. Dozens of
these little pulp-gatherers will descend upon the rail, and as fast as
each of them obtains a load away he flies to the place where the home
building is already going on.
This may be in a clump of bushes near a stream, and as fast as they
deposit their load of fiber down they fly to the stream, and having
secured a mouthful of water back they go to the nest to beat the
fiber into a thin sheet, which they deftly join to the main body,
the jointure being imperceptible. Such a throng of workers coming
and going, some to the fence, some to the nest, some to the brook,
each addition to the structure being the tiniest mite, yet growing
perceptibly under the united efforts of the little builders.
TAR.--One of the commonest substances met with in city or town is tar.
A paper roof covered with tar makes a very good protection against
sun and rain provided a suitable amount of gravel covers the tar. The
kind of tar most used is called coal-tar or gas-tar. This is made at
the gas factory from the distilling of soft coal. Tar that comes from
different varieties of pine and spruce is used to cover ropes and hulls
of ships. It is from his having some of it usually clinging to his
hands and clothes that the sailor boy came to be called "Jack Tar,"
and from his fondness for the sea one of the royal family of England
got the pet name of "Royal Tarry Breeks." It is strange that there has
been no change in the work of getting this kind of tar from the wood
for over twenty-three hundred years. The wood is placed in holes dug
in the ground and covered carefully with turf so as to keep out the
air and prevent too much burning. Some of the wood is left free so the
air may get at it and burn it enough to make heat enough to distil the
pitch from the rest of it. This is gathered into barrels and is black
because of the smoke that gets into it. It was this sort of tar that
Benjamin Franklin had his experience with one time in Philadelphia.
He was running along on the tops of tar barrels on the wharf one fine
day with his Sunday clothes on. The head of one barrel was not in good
condition, and so Benjamin went down into it. The next issue of his
paper had a very amusing account of the accident in which Franklin used
his powers to make puns to great advantage in making fun at his own
expense.
ANTS.--Would you like to get a clean skeleton of any small animal?
Place the body near or upon an ant hill and the little workers will
clean it off for you perfectly, picking every bone as clean as if they
were under contract with a forfeit for every scrap of flesh, skin,
or sinew left upon any bone. They like meat so well that they will
attack animals that are many times larger than themselves and carry
the work to a successful end. There are three kinds of ants in an ant
hill--males, females, and neuters. The males and females have wings and
do no work to speak of. They are always waited upon very carefully by
the neuters who have no wings, but are noted for their industry, skill,
and strength. It has been said that the ant stores up large quantities
of grain in the summer for winter use. Whoever said that was not well
acquainted with his subject. In winter the ants neither eat nor work.
Some of the neuters have their jaws, or mandibles, made much larger
than the rest. These are the soldiers, and they fight with greater
fierceness than any other creatures. Huber, the blind naturalist who
told the world so many astonishing things about bees, describes a great
fight he once saw between two colonies of these little warriors. "I
shall not say what lighted up discord between these two republics,
the one as populous as the other. The two armies met midway between
their respective residences. Their serried columns reached from the
field of battle to the nest, and were two feet in width. The field of
battle, which extended over a space of two or three square feet, was
strewn with dead bodies and wounded; it was also covered with venom,
and exhaled a penetrating odor. The struggle began between two ants,
which locked themselves together with their mandibles, while they
raised themselves upon their legs. They quickly grasped each other so
tightly that they rolled one over the other in the dust. When night
came they stopped fighting, but the next morning they went at it again
and piled the ground with slain and wounded." Their stings hurt because
they carry a liquid that is like that found in nettles and in the hairs
and other parts of certain caterpillars. This is called formic acid,
and is made by chemists for certain purposes. The red ant dislikes to
work if he can get slaves to do it for him. Perhaps we should say if
_she_ can get it done for _her_, because these neuters are rather more
like females than like male ants. They make war purposely to get into
the homes of other colonies to carry away their eggs and baby ants.
They bring these up to wait upon them. When they go on a journey the
slaves have to carry their owners, and sometimes they even feed them
until they refuse to feed themselves. They have been known to die of
hunger with plenty of food within easy reach, but with no slave at
hand to place it before them. In going out to fight for the offspring
of other ants they go in regular columns, and those that are left
after the slaughter return home in the same order, their solid trains
sometimes extending more than a hundred feet. Some ants keep cows.
Plant lice have honeydew in their bodies, and when well fed they give
out a great deal of it. Ants are fond of it. They sometimes confine the
plant lice, feed them, and milk the honeydew from the bodies of their
captors. A German scientist named Simon, has recently returned from
Australia with some great stories about ants. He says he suffered much
from their attacks. In trying to get rid of them in many ways he at
last hit upon the idea of spreading a poison where they would have to
pass across it. He used prussiate of potash which is sometimes used
in photography. Another name for it is cyanide of potassium. He says,
"How astonished was I when I saw the whole surface of the heap strewn
with dead ants like a battle-field. The piece of cyanide, however, had
totally disappeared. More than one-half of the community had met death
in this desperate struggle, but still the death-defying courage of the
heroic little creatures had succeeded in removing the fatal poison, the
touch of which must have been just as disagreeable to them as it was
dangerous. Recklessly neglecting their own safety, they had carried it
off little by little, covering every step with a corpse. Once removed
from the heap, the poison had been well covered with leaves and pieces
of wood, and thus prevented from doing further damage. The heroism of
these insects, which far surpasses what any other creature, including
even man, has ever shown in the way of self-sacrifice and loyalty,
had made such an impression on me that I gave up my campaign, and
henceforth I bore with many an outrage from my neighbors rather than
destroy the valiant beings whose courage I had not been able to crush."
In the extreme southwest of the United States are colonies of ants that
have a peculiar custom of setting apart some of their number to give up
their lives for their fellows in a strange way. They feed upon honey
until they are unable to walk. Then their fellows take the greatest
care of them and feed them so their bodies are distended enormously. A
number of these ants when fed so highly look very much like a bunch of
little grapes, they are so round and translucent. When food is scarce
later the other ants come to their heavy mates and eat them with great
relish.
AIR.--The wear and tear in our bodies is replaced by new material
carried to the spot by the blood. The heart forces the blood out along
the arteries in a bright red current. It comes back blackened with the
refuse material. It passes to the lungs, where it comes into contact
with the air we breathe. It does not quite touch the air, but is acted
upon by the air through very thin partitions much as the cash business
is carried on in some houses and banks with the cashiers all placed
behind screens, where they may be seen and talked to but not reached.
Purified in the lungs by contact with fresh air, the blood goes back
to continue the good work of making the body sound. But if the air
has been used before by someone in breathing it has become bad and
the blood does not get the benefit from contact with it in the lungs
that nature intended. Ordinarily a man breathes in about four thousand
gallons of air in a day if he is taking things easily, but when he is
hard at mental or physical work he needs much more than this. Air that
has been hurt by being breathed is restored to the right condition
by the leaves of trees and plants. In large cities where people are
crowded together there is a lack of good air. But nature is continually
rushing the air about so that new may take the place of what has been
used, rain washes it out, and the storm brings in from the country just
the kind of air the city man needs in his lungs.
BIRD LIFE IN INDIA.
In India bird-life abounds everywhere absolutely unmolested, and the
birds are as tame as the fowls in a poultry yard. Ring-doves, minas,
hoopoes, jays and parrots hardly trouble themselves to hop out of the
way of the heavy bull-carts, and every wayside pond and lake is alive
with ducks, geese, pelicans, and flamingoes and waders of every size
and sort, from dainty beauties, the size of pigeons, up to the great
unwieldy cranes and adjutants, five feet high.
IRELAND'S LOST GLORY.
There is perhaps no feature of Irish scenery more characteristic and
depressing than the almost universal absence of those tracts of woods
which in other countries soften the outlines of hills and valleys. The
traveler gazing on its bald mountains and treeless glens can hardly
believe that Ireland was at one time covered from shore to shore with
magnificent forests. One of the ancient names of the country was "The
Isle of Woods" and so numerous are its place-names derived from the
growth of woods, shrubs, groves, oaks, etc., that (as Dr. Joyce says)
"if a wood were now to spring up in every place bearing a name of this
kind the country would become clothed with an almost uninterrupted
succession of forests." On the tops of the barest hills and buried in
the deepest bogs are to be found the roots, stems and other remains of
these ancient woods, mostly of oak and pine, some of the bogs being
literally full of stems, the splinters of which burn like matches.
The destruction of these woods is of comparatively recent date.
Cambrensis, who accompanied Henry II. into Ireland in the twelfth
century, notices the enormous quantities of woods everywhere existing.
But their extirpation soon began with the gradual rise of English
supremacy in the land, the object in view being mainly to increase
the amount or arable land, to deprive the natives of shelter, to
provide fuel, and to open out the country for military purposes. So
anxious were the new landlords to destroy the forests that many old
leases contain clauses coercing tenants to use no other fuel. Many
old trees were cut down and sold for twelve cents. On a single estate
in Kerry, after the revolution of 1688, trees were cut down of the
value of $100,000. A paper laid before the Irish houses of parliament
describes the immense quantity of timber that in the last years of the
seventeenth century was shipped from ports in Ulster, and how the great
woods in that province (290,000 trees in all) were almost destroyed.
The houses passed an act for the planting of 250,000 trees, but it
was of no avail, and so denuded of timber had the country become that
large works started in Elizabeth's reign for the smelting of iron were
obliged to be stopped at last for want of charcoal. The present century
has continued the deplorable story of destruction. In forty years, from
1841 to 1881, 45,000 acres of timber were cut down and sold. Every
landlord cut down, scarcely anyone planted, so that at the present day
there is hardly an eightieth part of Ireland's surface under timber.
BIRDS AND REPTILES RELATED.
Fossil remains have been found of birds with teeth and long bony
tails, and also of reptiles, with wings; great monsters they must have
been--veritable flying dragons.
In 1861, in the lithographic slates of Solenhofen, Bavaria, a fossil
feather was found which was the subject of considerable discussion
among naturalists. Again, in 1862, a curious skeleton was disinterred
from the same place, in which most of the bones exhibited the marks of
a true bird, but the skeleton had a most remarkable tail, containing
twenty distinct bones. From each of these bones proceeded a pair of
well-developed feathers, similar to the single feather which had been
previously found. Here was an animal which could be called a birdlike
reptile or a lizardlike bird, with equal propriety. Its twenty caudal
segments or vertebræ were a bar to its entrance to every existing
family of birds, while it was equally out of place among reptiles.
[Illustration: SHELLS
Reduced 1/10.
FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES.
A. W. MUMFORD, PUBLISHER, CHICAGO.
COPYRIGHT 1900, BY
NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO
Root Murex
Burnt Murex
Purple Murex
Venus Comb
Apple Murex
Branched Murex
Horned Murex
Two-colored Murex]
THE ROCK SHELLS.
FRANK COLLINS BAKER,
Curator of the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
The rock shells or murices are among the most beautiful and interesting
of all the mollusks or shell fish, and are a favorite among collectors.
Their peculiar spiny shells and brilliant colors caused them to be
among the first mollusks studied by naturalists and we find them,
therefore, described in the earliest works on natural history.
There are about two hundred different kinds of rock shells, mostly
confined to the tropical and subtropical seas, although a few are found
in temperate climes. The greatest number of these are found about rocks
at low water but not a few are inhabitants of waters as deep as fifty
fathoms or more. In our own country they are abundant along the coast
of Panama, the Gulf of California, Florida and the islands of the West
Indies, but the largest number of varieties comes from the Indian
Ocean, Japan, the Philippines and Australia. The more brightly colored
varieties are from tropical seas, while the dull, plain species are
from subtropical or temperate climes.
The murices are peculiar in having their shells ornamented by numerous
projections, which vary from long, needle-like spines to simple fluted
frills. What these spines and frills are for would probably puzzle
the ordinary observer, as they would seem at first sight to be in the
way. In some cases they are simply ornamental, but in the main they
are protective and enable the animal to escape being eaten by some
voracious fish. This is known as protective adaptation and was probably
brought about in this manner: the murices, or their ancestors, did
not at first have spiny shells, and they fell an easy prey to the
fishes. As time went on a few individuals, through some modification
of environment, developed small spines or prominences. The animals
having these were not eaten by fishes as the knobs and spines caused
the fishes pain when swallowed, therefore they preferred the animals
with smoother shells. In time this modification caused a weeding-out
process, the animals with smoother shells being exterminated and those
with spiny shells increasing in numbers and becoming more spiny as one
generation succeeded another. This continued until the present time and
is going on even now.
Another interesting fact concerning the development of this
ornamentation is that the smoother shells inhabit rocky shores where
the waves are constantly beating in with greater or lesser violence,
while the more spiny individuals live in protected and comparatively
still water. This adds additional weight to the theory expressed in the
last paragraph, for the fish which feed upon these shells do not, as
a rule, inhabit localities where the water is rough, as along a rocky
shore, but live abundantly in protected bays and lagoons in which the
spiny murices are found.
There are shown on the plate eight species of rock shells, all more
or less common. The first one for us to consider may be called Venus'
Comb, (_Murex tribulus_) and is found in China, Japan and the Indian
Ocean. It belongs to a group of shells which is characterized by a long
snout or canal, and long, pointed spines. The color is yellowish; in
one variety the spines are tipped with black.
A shell which is found on the mantel in every household is known as the
Branched Rock Shell (_Murex ramosus_), which is widely distributed,
being found in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, New Zealand, Australia
and the Central Pacific Ocean, and attains a large size, some specimens
reaching the length of a foot and weighing several pounds. The aperture
is frequently tinged with a deep, beautiful pink. In many households
the large shells of this species are used for flower pots, suspended
from a hook over the window by a set of chains, and for this purpose
they are certainly very ornamental.
The Apple Murex (_Murex pomum_) is of home production, being found on
the shores of Florida and throughout the West Indies. It is not as
attractive as the shells just mentioned, but is very common, every
collector possessing several specimens in his cabinet.
In the aperture of this species will be noticed a dark brown object
which is known as an operculum or door, and its use is to close the
aperture when the animal withdraws into its shell, so that the latter
may be safe from its enemies. All of the rock shells possess this
organ, which is attached to the back part of the animal's foot.
A peculiar and somewhat rare shell is the Horned Murex (_Murex
axicornis_), found in the Indian Archipelago, whose shell is made up
of many curiously fluted spines. The Burnt Murex (_Murex adustus_), is
an inhabitant of the Indian Ocean, Japan and the Philippines, and its
name, which signifies burned, is well chosen, for all its spines and
frills and most of the shell are black in color and look just as though
the shell had been scorched. The aperature is often beautifully tinged
with pink or dark red.
A common rock shell found in the Mediterranean Sea as well as on the
Atlantic coast of France and Portugal and the Canary Islands, is the
Purple Murex (_Murex trunculus_). This is a light brown, three-banded
shell about two inches in length and is famous as having been used by
the ancients to obtain their beautiful and rich purple dye. On the
Tyrian shore these shells were pounded in caldron-shaped holes in the
rocks, and the animals were taken out and squeezed for the dye which
they secrete. If the animal of one of our common purpuras, a small
shell found along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, be squeezed, it will
exude a purple fluid which will stain fabrics a reddish purple. It is
probable that much or most of the royal purple of the ancients was
obtained from these lowly creatures.
Although the most beautiful shells of this family are supposed to live
in the warm, tropical seas of the Indian Ocean, it is nevertheless true
that many of the most brightly colored rock shells live in the warm
waters of Panama and Mazatlan. The Root Murex (_Murex radix_) is one of
these shells, which attains a length of five inches and weighs several
pounds. The shell is white or yellowish-white and the spines and frills
are jet black, the two colors producing a peculiar effect. Another
beautiful shell from the same locality (Panama) is the Two-colored
Murex (_Murex bicolor_), a shell attaining somewhat larger dimensions
than the last. The spines are reduced to mere knobs in this species,
there are but a few frills, and only two colors, the shell being
greenish-white and the aperture a deep red or pink, plainly showing
whence the name, bicolor, two-colored. This shell is collected by
thousands at Panama and shipped all over the United States to curiosity
stores at summer watering places and other vacation resorts, where they
are sold at from a few cents to a dollar each, according to quality.
SPRING HAS COME.
Would you think it? Spring has come;
Winter's paid his passage home;
Packed his ice-box--gone--half way
To the Arctic pole, they say.
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| Transcriber's Note: |
| |
| Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. |
| |
| Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant |
| form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. |
| |
| Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. |
| |
| Mid-paragraph illustrations have been moved between paragraphs |
| and some illustrations have been moved closer to the text that |
| references them. |
| |
| Italicized words are surrounded by underline characters, |
| _like this_. |
| |
| The Contents table was added by the transcriber. |
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