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Pleiades
Pleiades (Ply-a-des) can be seen in winter as a cluster of small stars between Aldebaran and Algol, or, a line drawn from the back bottom, through the front rim of the Dipper, about two Dipper lengths, touches this little group. They are not far from Aldebaran, being on the shoulder of the Bull, of which Aldebaran is the right eye. They may be considered the seven arrow wounds made by Orion. They are nearer the Pole-star than Aldebaran is, and on the side away from the Dipper; also, they are nearly on a line between Beta of the Dipper (front bottom) and Capella.
Serviss tells us that the Pleiades have a supposed connection with the Great Pyramid, because "about 2170 B. C., when the beginning of spring coincided with the culmination of the Pleiades at midnight; that wonderful group of stars was visible {85} just at midnight, through the mysterious southward-pointing passage of the Pyramid."
The Moon
The moon is one fifth the diameter of the earth, about one fiftieth of the bulk, and is about a quarter million miles away. Its course, while very irregular, is nearly the same as the apparent course of the sun. But "in winter the full moon is at an altitude in the sky near the limit attained by the sun in summer, . . . and even, at certain times, five degrees higher. It is the contrary in summer, a season when the moon remains very low" (F.).
The moon goes around the earth in 27-1/4 days. It loses nearly three fourths of an hour each night; that is, it rises that much later.
BIRDCRAFTBy the National Association of Audubon Societies
Any boy who cares enough for out-doors to be a scout is sure to want a good acquaintance with the birds. Even dull people cannot help taking notice of our "little brothers of the air," on account of their beauty, their songs, and their wondrous flight. But most folks never take the trouble to try and learn the names of any except a few common birds. Scouts whose eyes are sharp and ears are keen will find the study of birds a fascinating sport, which may prove to be the best fun that the woods provide.
Knowing the Birds
It is no easy matter, this trying to get to know the birds; but scouts are not looking for the easiest jobs, and it is great sport for them to follow some shy songster through the briery thicket until a really good look can be had, to sit stock still for half an hour to watch some unknown bird come home to her nest, or to wriggle on all fours through the grass to have a glimpse over the top of the knoll at the ducks in the pool beyond.
The only equipment necessary for bird study is an opera or field glass, a note-book and a good bird reference book. As soon as you get a good look at a strange bird, notice its colors and markings, and then, if it moves, follow it up until you have seen practically all of its most prominent features. It will be impossible to carry these facts in your head, and unless some definite memorandum is made at the time you will probably {86} be hopelessly perplexed when you go to consult the bird book later. As it is hard to jot down satisfactory notes in the field, while catching fleeting glances of some timid bird, a handy little booklet has been prepared in which observations can be recorded very rapidly. These can be procured for fifteen cents apiece from the National Association of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City.
Location _______________________
Date _______________________
Hour _______________________
Weather ___________________
Wind _______________________
SIZE:
Smaller than wren
Between wren and sparrow
Between sparrow and robin
Between robin and crow
Larger than crow
SEEN
Near ground or high up
In heavy woods
Bushy places
Orchard
Garden
Swamp
Open country
Near water
Name ______________________
Order ______________________
Family _______________________
Genus_______________________
Species ______________________
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Each booklet contains outline figures of the five leading types of birds: (1) small perching birds, (2) hawks, (3) snipes, (4) herons, (5) ducks. On the page opposite is a list of numbers corresponding to colors. You can quickly mark on the outline the proper numbers, and note with your pencil any marks on the bird. Then check the other data on the page, add any additional memoranda, and you have your "bird in the hand," ready to take back and look up at your leisure.
Careful Observation
Notice particularly the "range" of the birds in your reference book, and eliminate all those not stated as occurring in your territory. Notice too, dates of the birds' coming and going, and do not expect to find species at any other time of year than within the dates mentioned. By thus narrowing down the possibilities the task is much simplified. As a final resort, the National Association of Audubon Societies stands ready to help all scouts who are positively "stumped," and if the descriptive slips are mailed with return envelopes to the secretary of the association, 1974 Broadway, New York City, an identification will be made, if the information furnished renders it in any way possible.
The next time you see a bird that you have once identified, you will probably remember its name, and in this way you will be surprised to find how rapidly your bird acquaintance will grow. After a time even the flight of a bird or its song will be enough to reveal an old acquaintance, just as you can often recognize a boy friend by his walk or the sound of his voice, without seeing his face. And what a new joy in life there is for anybody that really knows the birds about him. He can pick from the medley of bird songs the notes of the individual singers; he knows when to look for old friends of the year before; no countryside is ever lonely for him, for he finds birds everywhere and knows that any moment he may make some rare discovery or see a bird before unknown to him.
Bird Lists
A scout should make a list of all the birds he has positively identified. This is his "life list" and is added to year by year. In addition he will keep daily lists of the birds seen on special trips in the field. Two or more patrols can enjoy a friendly rivalry by covering different regions and seeing which can observe the largest variety of birds. Hundreds of well-known {88} ornithologists often have the fun of this kind of competition, sending in their lists to a central bureau. As many as one hundred and twenty different kinds of birds have been counted in a single day by one energetic band of bird-lovers. Such a list is, however, attainable only under exceptionally favorable circumstances and by skilled observers who know their country thoroughly. For most scouts, thirty to forty species on a summer day, and fifty to sixty during the spring migration, would be regarded as a good list.
Bob-white at feeding station
Nesting Season
Undoubtedly the most interesting season to study birds is during the nesting period which is at its height in June. It takes a pair of sharp eyes to find most birds' nests in the first place, and once found, there are dozens of interesting little incidents which it is a delight to watch. Only a foolish scout would rob himself of his chance to observe the secrets of nest life by stealing the contents, or would take any delight in piling up a collection of egg shells whose value at its best is almost nothing, and whose acquisition is necessarily accompanied by {89} genuine heart pangs on the part of the rightful owners. It is more exciting to try to hide yourself near the nest so skilfully that the birds will carry on their domestic duties as though you were not near. A blind made of green cloth and set up near the nest like a little tent will often give opportunity for very close observation. It is surprising how near many birds will allow one to come in this way. Even though the blind looks very strange and out of place, the birds soon seem to get used to it, so long as it is motionless and the inmate cannot be seen. A simple type of blind can be constructed by sewing the edges of long pieces of green cloth together, drawing in the top with a cord, and then draping it over an open umbrella.
Bird blind
How to Photograph
From such a hiding place, photographs can often be secured of timid birds at their nests. In attempting to take photographs it must be remembered that cameras of the pocket variety or fixed box type are almost useless. Most of them cannot be worked without special attachments at closer range than six feet, and, even if the focus is correctly guessed, the image is apt to be very small. In this work it is far better to invest in a cheap camera (second-hand if need be) with which one can obtain a definite image on the ground glass where the plate or film is to be. Focus the camera on some spot where it is expected the bird will come; usually this is on the nest or young, sometimes it is the food, a favorite perch, or some form of decoy. The next requisite is patience. If the coveted opportunity arrives, set off the shutter by hand in the {90} blind, or, where this is not possible, by means of a long thread, after carefully hiding the camera with boughs, leaves, sods, etc.
How to Know
An idea of the details of a bird's life which a scout may come to know, may be had from the following table:
So varied is a bird's life that there is still plenty to be learned about even our common birds. It is quite possible for a scout to discover some facts that have never yet been published in books.
Red-breasted nuthatch
What One Boy Did
A boy once originated the idea of varying the usual "bird's nesting" craze into a systematic study of the breeding of our common birds. In one spring he found within the limits of a single village one hundred and seventy robins' nests. "One hundred were in suitable situations on private places, forty-one were in woods, swamps and orchards, eight were placed under bridges (two being under the iron girders of the railroad bridge), four were {91} in quarries, sixteen were in barns, sheds, under piazzas, etc., and one was on the ground at the foot of a bush."
In addition to searching out the birds in their natural haunts, there is a great fascination in trying to attract them to our homes. During winter evenings boy scouts can busy themselves making nesting boxes. Even an old cigar box or a tomato can with a hole in it the size of a quarter will satisfy a house wren. Other boxes which are suitable for bluebirds, chickadees, tree swallows, purple martins, and starlings, will, if set up in March, often have tenants the very first season. In many cases it is feasible to have hinged doors or sides on the nesting boxes, so that they may occasionally be opened and the progress of events within observed. It is needless to add, however, that great caution must be exercised to prevent desertion of the nest, or other disturbance of the birds' home life. Under favorable circumstances, even some of the shyer inhabitants of the woods, such as woodpeckers, owls, and ducks can be induced to patronize artificial cavities, if they are made right and erected right.
Downy woodpeckerObservation box, open
Caring for Birds
Another way of attracting birds in summer is by providing drinking and bathing places. A little artificial pool protected from cats, will be a source of joy to the birds and of delight to the observer from morning to night. Apply to the {92} National Association of Audubon Societies for information as to where ready-made nest boxes and fountains can be procured, also books on this subject, as well as on the subject of making friends of the birds through feeding.
House wren and tomato-can houseBirch-bark house
The Bird Lunch Counter
How best to feed the birds is almost an art in itself. A winter lunch counter spread with suet, nuts, hemp seed, meat, and crumbs will attract nuthatches, chickadees, downy and hairy woodpeckers, creepers, blue jays, etc. Canary seed, buckwheat, oats and hay-chaff scattered on the ground beneath will provide an irresistible banquet for other feathered boarders. A feeding place of this sort can be arranged for convenient observation from a window, and afford no end of diversion and instruction. But whether close to home or far afield, the great secret of success in such work is regularity. Begin to put the food out early in November, and let the birds get to know that they are always sure to find a supply of dainties in a certain spot, and the news will soon spread among them. In wintry weather, especially, it is amazing what can be accomplished by feeding the birds regularly, and at least the following birds have been induced to feed from the human hand: chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, red-breasted nuthatch, brown creeper, Carolina wren, cardinal, evening grosbeak, tufted titmouse, Canada jay, Florida jay, Oregon jay, and redpoll. Even in spring untiring patience has resulted in the gratification of this supreme ambition of the bird-lover, and bluebird, robin, cat-bird: chipping sparrow, oven-bird, brown thrasher and yellow-throated vireo have been known to feed from the hand of a trusted friend, even with plenty of food all around. What scout can add to this list?
Protecting the Birds
Many a boy thinks that just because a bird is alive and moves it is a proper target for his air rifle or his sling shot. {93} Let us be thankful that there has now arisen a new class of boys, the scouts, who, like the knights of old, are champions of the defenceless, even the birds. Scouts are the birds' police, and wo betide the lad who is caught with a nest and eggs, or the limp corpse of some feathered songster that he has slaughtered. Scouts know that there is no value in birds that are shot, except a few scientific specimens collected by trained museum experts. Scouts will not commend a farmer for shooting a hawk or an owl as a harmful bird, even though it were seen to capture a young chicken. They will post themselves on the subject and find that most hawks and owls feed chiefly on field mice and large insects injurious to the farmer's crops, and that thus, in spite of an occasional toll on the poultry, they are as a whole of tremendous value. The way the birds help mankind is little short of a marvel. A band of nuthatches worked all winter in a pear orchard near Rochester and rid the trees of a certain insect that had entirely destroyed the crop of the previous summer. A pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks were seen to feed their nest of youngsters four hundred and twenty-six times in a day, each time with a billful of potato-bugs or other insects. A professor in Washington counted two hundred and fifty tent caterpillars in the stomach of a dead yellow-billed cuckoo, and, what appeals to us even more, five hundred bloodthirsty mosquitoes inside of one night-hawk.
White-breasted nuthatchBluebird at entrance of nesting-box
It must not be forgotten that large city parks are among the best places for observing birds. As an example of what can be accomplished, even with limited opportunities, there was a boy who happened to know where some owls roosted. {94} Now all owls swallow their prey whole, and in digesting this food they disgorge the skulls, bones, fur, and feathers in the form of hard dry pellets. This boy used to go out on Saturday or Sunday afternoon and bring home his pockets full of pellets, and then in the evening he would break them apart. In this way he learned exactly what the owls had been eating (without killing them) and he even discovered the skulls of certain field mice that naturalists had never known existed in that region. He let the owl be his collector.
Patrol Work
It is a good idea to keep at patrol headquarters a large sheet on the wall, where a list of the year's bird observations can be tabulated. Each time a new bird is seen, its name is added, together with the initial of the observer, and after that its various occurrences are noted opposite its name. The keenest eyed scouts are those whose initials appear most frequently in the table. In addition, the tables will show the appearance and relative abundance of birds in a given locality. For patrols of young boys, a plan of tacking up a colored picture of each bird, as soon as it is thoroughly known, has been found very successful, and the result provides a way to decorate the headquarters.
Such pictures can be obtained very cheaply from the Perry Pictures Co., Boston, Mass., or the National Association of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City.
MOLLUSCA--Shells and ShellfishBy Dr. William Healey Dall, of the United States Geological SurveyFig. 1White lipped snail (Polygyra albolabris)
Among the shy and retiring animals which inhabit our woods and waters, or the borders of the sea, without making themselves conspicuous to man except when he seeks the larger ones for food, are the mollusca, usually confounded with crabs and crayfish under the popular name of "shellfish," except the few which have no external shell, which are generally called slugs. Hardly any part of the world (except deserts) is without them, but, shy as they are, it takes pretty sharp eyes to find them. Some come out of their hiding places {95} only at night, and nearly all our American kinds live under cover of some sort.
The mollusks can be conveniently divided into three groups: those which inhabit fresh water, those which breathe air and live on dry land, and lastly those which are confined to the sea. The land shells, or snails, have generally thin shells of spiral form and live upon vegetable matter, many of them laying small eggs which look like minute pearls. Their hiding places are under leaves in shady or moist places, under the bark of dead trees or stumps, or under loose stone. They creep slowly and are most active after rain. Some of our larger kinds are an inch or two in diameter, (see Fig. 1., the white-lipped) but from this size there are others diminishing in size to the smallest, which are hardly larger than the head of a pin, In collecting them the little ones may be allowed to dry up. The big ones must be killed in boiling water, when the animal can be pulled out with a hook made of a crooked pin, leaving the shell clean and perfect. The slugs are not attractive on account of the slime which they throw out and can only be kept in spirits. Some of the species found in California are as large as a small cigar, but those of the states east of the Rocky Mountains are smaller and have mostly been introduced from Europe, where they do a lot of mischief by eating such garden plants as lettuce.
Many of the fresh-water snails are abundant in brooks and ponds, and their relations, the fresh-water mussels, are often very numerous in shallow rivers. They have a shell frequently beautifully pearly, white or purple, and sometimes have the brown outer skin prettily streaked with bright green.
Fig. 2 Whelk (Buccinum umatum)Fig. 3 Pond snail (Lymnaea palustris)
The principal fresh-water snails are the pond snail (Lymnaea; see Fig. 3); the Physa (see Fig. 6), which is remarkable for having the coil turned to the left instead of the right; and the orb-snail, (Planorbis: see Fig. 4) which has its coil flat. All of {96} these lay minute eggs in a mass of transparent jelly, and are to be found on lily pads and other water plants, or crawling on the bottom, while the mussels bury themselves more or less in the mud or lie on the gravelly bottom of streams. There is also a very numerous tribe of small bivalve shells, varying from half an inch to very minute in size, which are also mud lovers and are known as Sphaerium or Pisidium, having no "common" English names, since only those who hunt for them know of their existence.
On the seashore everybody knows the mussel (Mytilus: see Fig. 5), the soft clam, the round clam, and the oyster, as these are sought for food; but there is a multitude of smaller bivalves which are not so well known. The sea-snails best known on the coast north of Chesapeake Bay are the whelk (Buccinum: see Fig. 2), the sand snail or Natica, which bores the round holes often found in clam shells on the beach, in order to suck the juices of its neighbors, and the various kinds of periwinkles (rock snails or Littorina) found by the millions on the rocks between tides. These, as well as the limpets, small boat-shaped or slipper-shaped conical shells found in similar places, are vegetable feeders. Altogether, there are several hundred kinds found on the seashore and the water near the shore, and a collection of them will not only contain many curious, pretty, and interesting things, but will have the advantage of requiring no preservative to keep them in good condition after the animal has been taken out.
Fig. 4 Orb-Shell (Planorbis trivolvis)Fig. 5 Black Mussel (Mytilus)Fig. 6 Bubble snail (Physa heterostropha)
The squids, cuttle-fishes, octopus, and their allies are also mollusks, but not so accessible to the ordinary collector, and can only be kept in spirits.
Books which may help the collector to identify the shells he may find are:
For the land and fresh-water shells:
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"Mollusks of the Chicago Area" and "The Lymnaeidae of North America." By F. C. Baker. Published by the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
For the American Marine Shells: Bulletin No. 37. Published by the United States National Museum, at Washington.
For shells in general: "The Shell Book." Published by Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N.Y.
On the Pacific Coast the "West Coast Shells," by Prof. Josiah Keep of Mills College, will be found very useful.
REPTILESBy Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, Curator National Museum
By reptiles we understand properly a certain class of vertebrate or backboned animals, which, on the whole, may be described as possessing scales or horny shields since most of them may be distinguished by this outer covering, as the mammals by their hair and the birds by their feathers. Such animals as thousand-legs, scorpions, tarantulas, etc., though often erroneously referred to as reptiles, do not concern us in this connection. Among the living reptiles we distinguish four separate groups, the crocodiles, the turtles, the lizards, and the snakes.
The crocodiles resemble lizards in shape, but are very much larger and live only in the tropics and the adjacent regions of the temperate zone. To this order belongs our North American alligator, which inhabits the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the coast country along the Atlantic Ocean as far north as North Carolina. They are hunted for their skin, which furnishes an excellent leather for traveling bags, purses, etc., and because of the incessant pursuit are now becoming quite rare in many localities where formerly they were numerous. The American crocodile, very much like the one occurring in the river Nile, is also found at the extreme southern end of Florida.
The turtles are easily recognized by the bony covering which encases their body, and into which most species can withdraw their heads and legs for protection. This bony box is usually covered with horny plates, but in a large group, the so-called soft-shell turtles, the outer covering is a soft skin, thus forming a {98} notable exception to the rule that reptiles are characterized by being covered with scales or plates. While most of the turtles live in fresh water or on land, a few species pass their lives in the open ocean, only coming ashore during the breeding season to deposit their eggs. Some of these marine turtles grow to an enormous size, sometimes reaching a weight of over eight hundred pounds. One of them is much sought for on account of the delicacy of its flesh; another because of the thickness and beauty of its horny plates which furnish the so-called tortoise-shell, an important article of commerce. Turtles appear to reach a very old age, specimens having been known to have lived several hundred years. The box tortoise of our woods, the musk turtles, the snapping turtles are familiar examples of this order, while the terrapin, which lives in brackish ponds and swamps along our sea-coasts, is famous as a table delicacy.
Harlequin snake
The lizards are four-legged reptiles, usually of small size, living on the ground or in the trees, out very rarely voluntarily entering water. The so-called water lizards are not lizards at all, but belong to the salamanders and are distinguished by having a naked body not covered with scales. Most of the true lizards are of very graceful form, exceedingly quick at running; others display the most gorgeous coloration which, in many of them, such as the chameleons, changes according to the light, or the temperature, or the mood of the animal. Not all of them have four legs, however, there being a strong tendency to develop legless species which then externally become so much like snakes that they are told apart with some difficulty. Thus our so-called glass-snake, common in the Southern states, is not a snake at all, but a lizard, as we may easily see by observing the ear openings on each side of the head, as no snake has ears. This beautiful animal is also known as the joint-snake, and both names have reference to the exceeding brittleness of its long tail, which often breaks in many pieces in the hands of the enemy trying to capture the lizard. That these pieces ever join and heal together is of course a silly fable. As a matter of fact, the body in a comparatively short time grows a new tail, which, however, is much shorter and stumpier than the old one. The new piece is often of a different color from the rest of the body and {99} greatly resembles a "horn," being conical and pointed, and has thus given rise to another equally silly fable, viz., that of the horn snake, or hoop snake, which is said to have a sting in its tail and to be deadly poisonous. The lizards are all perfectly harmless, except the sluggish Gila monster (pronounced Heela, named from the Gila River in Arizona) which lives in the deserts of Arizona and Mexico, and whose bite may be fatal to man. The poison glands are situated at the point of the lower jaw, and the venom is taken up by the wound while the animal hangs on to its victim with the tenacity of a bulldog. All the other lizards are harmless in spite of the dreadful stories told about the deadly quality of some of the species in various parts of the country.
Rattlesnake palate
The snakes form the last group of the reptiles. Universally legless, though some of the boas and pythons have distinct outer rudiments of hind limbs, they are not easily mistaken. And it is perhaps well so, for unless one is an expert at distinguishing between the poisonous and the harmless kind it is just as well to keep at a respectful distance from them. It is safest not to interfere with them, especially as those that are not poisonous are usually very useful in destroying rats and mice and other vermin, except perhaps those living in trees and feeding on eggs and young birds, which certainly do not deserve our protection. Of course the rattlesnake is not to be mistaken. The horny appendix to its tail, with which it sounds the warning of its presence, is enough to distinguish it. It should here be explained that both lizards and snakes at various intervals shed the outer layer of their skin, the so-called epidermis. This transparent layer, after a certain length of time, loosens and is usually stripped off whole by the animal crawling out of it and turning it inside out, as a tight glove is turned. Now, at the end of a rattlesnake's tail there is a horny cap which is {100} called the button, and being narrowed at the base and more strongly built than the rest of the epidermis it is not shed with the rest of the skin, but remains attached.
Thus for each shedding a new joint or ring is added to the rattle. How often the shedding takes place depends on various circumstances and may occur an uncertain number of times each year. Such a rattle, loose-jointed as it is, is rather brittle and the tip of the sounding instrument is easily broken and lost. It will therefore be easily understood that the common notion that a rattlesnake's age can be told by the number of the rings in its rattle is absolutely erroneous. Another equally common and equally erroneous notion relates to the tongue of the snake, which the ignorant often term its "sting" and which they believe to be the death-dealing instrument. Of course, the soft, forked tongue which constantly darts out and in of the snake's mouth is perfectly harmless. It serves rather as a "feeler" than as a taste organ. The wound is inflicted by a pair of large, curved, teeth or fangs, in the upper jaw. These fangs are hollow and connected by a duct with the gland on the side of the head, in which the poison is formed. Pressure on this gland at the time of the strike--for our poisonous snakes strike rather than bite--squirts the poison into the wound like a hypodermic syringe. The fangs when shed or damaged are replaced within a short time with new ones, so that a poisonous snake can only be made harmless for a short period by breaking them off. Only in exceptional cases need snake bites prove fatal. It is estimated that in North America only about two persons in a hundred bitten are killed by the poison, though many more die from carelessness or bad treatment, the worst of which is the filling up with whiskey, which aids the poison rather than counteracts it. The essential things in case of snake bite are: (1) keeping one's wits; (2) tying a string, or the like, tightly around the wounded limb between the wound and the heart, and loosening it about once in fifteen minutes, so as to admit the poison slowly into the circulation; (3) making the wound bleed freely by enlarging it with a knife or otherwise; (4) if permanganate of potash be handy it should at once be applied to the {101} wound; (5) treat the wound as antiseptically as it is possible with the means at hand and hurry to a doctor.
Copperhead
The danger depends greatly on the amount of the poison injected, hence upon the size of the snake. It is for this reason that the big Florida rattlesnakes which grow to six feet and over are more to be feared than are other poisonous snakes. Of these, we have in our country, besides the rattlesnakes, the water moccasin, or cotton mouth, the copperhead, and the coral snake. The latter is a bright-colored snake of red, yellow, and black rings found in the South, but it is usually small, and not aggressive, so that but few cases of poisoning are known. The other two are common enough, the former from Norfolk, Va., south, the other all over the eastern country from Texas to Massachusetts. They are usually confounded, however, with two perfectly harmless snakes, the cotton mouth with the common water snake, the copperhead with the so-called spreading adder, but as their differences have to be learned from actual inspection and are very hard to express in a description which would help to identify living specimens, it is wisest to keep away from all of them.
See "The Poisonous Snakes of North America." By Leonard Stejneger, published by Government Printing office, Washington.
Water moccasinChrysalis
INSECTS AND BUTTERFLIESUnited States Bureau of Entomology(Illustrations are copies from Comstock's "How to Know theButterflies," through courtesy of D. Appleton & Company.)
There is an advantage in the study of insects over most other branches of nature, excepting perhaps plants, in that there is plenty of material. You may have to tramp miles to see a certain bird or wild animal, but if you will sit down on the first patch of grass you are sure to see something going on in the insect world.
Butterflies
Nearly all insects go through several different stages. The young bird is very much like its parent, so is the young squirrel or a young snake or a {102} young fish or a young snail; but with most of the insects the young is very different from its parents. All butterflies and moths lay eggs, and these hatch into caterpillars which when full grown transform to what are called pupae or chrysalids--nearly motionless objects with all of the parts soldered together under an enveloping sheath. With some of the moths, the pupae are surrounded by silk cocoons spun by the caterpillars just before finally transforming to pupae. With all butterflies the chrysalids are naked, except with one species which occurs in Central America in which there is a common silk cocoon. With the moths, the larger part spin cocoons, but some of them, like the owlet moths whose larvae are the cutworms, have naked pupre, usually under the surface of the ground. It is not difficult to study the transformations of the butterflies and moths, and it is always very interesting to feed a caterpillar until it transforms, in order to see what kind of a butterfly or moth comes out of the chrysalis.
Take the monarch butterfly, for example: This is a large, reddish-brown butterfly, a strong flier, which is seen often flying about in the spring and again in the late summer and autumn. This is one of the most remarkable butterflies in America. It is found all over the United States. It is one of the strongest fliers that we know. It passes the winter in the Southern states as an adult butterfly, probably hidden away in cracks under the bark of trees or elsewhere. When spring comes the butterflies come out and begin to fly toward the north. Wherever they find the milk-weed plant they stop and lay some eggs on the leaves. The caterpillars issue from the eggs, feed on the milkweed, transform to chrysalids; then the butterflies issue and continue the northward flight, stopping to lay eggs farther north on other milkweeds. By the end of June or July some of these Southern butterflies have found their way north into Canada and begin the return flight southward. Along in early August they will be seen at the summer resorts in the Catskill Mountains, and by the end of October they will have traveled far down into the Southern states where they pass the winter.
Empty chrysalis and butterfly
The caterpillar of the monarch or milkweed butterfly is a very striking creature. It is nearly two inches long when full grown. Its head is yellow striped with black; its body is white with narrow black and yellow cross-stripes on each {103} segment. On the back of the second segment of the thorax there is a pair of black, whiplash-like filaments, and on the eighth joint there is a similar shorter pair. When this caterpillar gets ready to transform to chrysalis, it hangs itself up by its tail end, the skin splits and gradually draws back, and the chrysalis itself is revealed--pale pea-green in color with golden spots. Anyone by hunting over a patch of milkweed anywhere in the United States during the summer is quite apt to find these caterpillars feeding. It will be easy to watch them and to see them transform, and eventually to get the butterfly.
The same thing may be done with anyone of the six hundred and fifty-two different kinds of butterflies in the United States.
Larva getting ready to transformFull grown larva