August Fourth

KINGBIRD.

The clusters of white berries of the red-twigged osier, or kinnikinnik, so common in damp localities, will turn blue later on. The northern Indians remove the thin outer bark from the twigs, and after scraping off the inner green bark with a knife, they dry it over a camp fire, powder it between the palms of the hand, then mix it with tobacco and smoke it.

The ant lion is the peculiar larva of a fly. It forms small, funnel-like depressions in the dry sand or dust, throwing out the grains with its broad, flat head. You probably have seen an unfortunate ant struggling desperately to gain the top of the death pit. Gradually the drifting sand carries it nearer and nearer the jaws of the ant lion, waiting at the bottom, and finally it falls a victim to Nature's ingenuity.

The moist and shaded highland where the thorn apple, willow, red-twigged osier, and second-growth maples thrive, is the haunt of the mild and timid woodcock. Tracks in the mud may be seen where one has been walking about, and here and there clusters of holes smaller than a lead pencil tell that it has been "boring" for worms with its long, sensitive bill.

The harvest fly (cicada, "lyre-man," or dog-day locust) is really not alocust. Unlike its relative, the seventeen-year locust, which for seventeen years remains in the ground, a larva, it produces young yearly. In the woods and villages, its monotonous buzzing, sizzling note is heard, and is taken as a sign of warm weather.

As though ashamed of man's carelessness. Nature covers the fire-swept forests with beds of purple flowers, called "fireweed." Sometimes acre after acre of these tall flowers sway back and forth beneath the charred or naked tree trunks, a pleasant relief to the eye of the traveller.

Look carefully among the leafy boughs and you may find the home of a leaf-rolling caterpillar. "The little creature begins by spinning a thread and fastening one end to some fixed point, and then attaches the other end to the loose leaf. By means of powerful, muscular movements of the front part of the body, ... it hauls away on the ropes, slowly pulling it to the desired point, where it is held in place by a new and stronger thread. In this tent it resides, eating out the interior, and adding new stores of food, by sewing new leaves to the outside of the tent." (Packard.)

Families of barn and eave swallows now begin to congregate and to act restlessly. Flocks of red-shouldered blackbirds, mixed with purple and bronzed grackles, feed silently in the willows along the waterways, or are flushed from the grain fields. In the woods the chickadees, vireos, and warblers of many kinds keep company while they search among the trees for food. These are the first real signs to make the bird lover feel his feathered friends are soon to leave him.

The muskrats now begin to build their winter houses, mounds of leaves, sticks, reeds, and aquatic vegetation, brought from the borders or the bottom of the ponds and streams, and piled from two to four feet above the surface of the water. The entrance to theone large chamberis always below the surface, and in this snug room a family of muskrats will spend the winter, but theydo not hibernate.

The Indian pipe, or corpse flower, is found only in heavily shaded woods. Like the fungi, to which it is kin, it subsists on decaying vegetation. Its ashy color and queer, fantastic shape make you hesitate to pick it, and after you have overcome the feeling and snipped off the stem, you find that it soon turns black, and is useless as an ornament.

RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS.

Queen Anne's lace, wild carrot, and bird's nest, are the names given to the delicate, white lace-like flower which grows in such abundance in the open countries throughout the eastern States. Several flat-topped flower heads are arranged on stems along the stalk, and after the flowers have bloomed the stems of each head contract and form a sort of basket about the size of a hummingbird's nest.

"Now comes the season of our insect instrumentalists.... I have called them instrumentalists, for there are no insects, to my knowledge, that make any sounds with their mouths; they seem to be entirely void of vocal organs.... The song is produced by the rubbing or beating of some portion of the body against some other portion, these portions being so modified as to produce the rasping sound." (Brownell.)

The small-mouthed black bass is one of the gamiest of our fresh water fish. "The eggs are bound together in bands of ribbons by an adhesive substance. They adhere to stones on which they are deposited. The small-mouthed black bass ceases to take food on the approach of cold weather, and remains nearly dormant throughout the winter." (Bean.)

Often spending the entire winter in southern New York and New England, the American goldfinch and the cedar waxwing are the latest birds to begin nest building. The young have just now left the nest, while the other birds have long since ceased their domestic duties, and the white-breasted swallow will soon start on his southward journey.

If you will visit the zoological park at this time, you will find that since you last saw the buck deer, the antlers have hardened-like bone. The velvet, too, is hanging from them in shreds, and the buck thrashes his antlers against the bushes, and rubs them on the tree trunks, in an effort to rid them of the velvet. Soon they will be in prime condition for battle with his rivals or his enemies.

Children believe that a hair from the tail or mane of a horse will turn into a snake if left in water long enough. The so-called "hair snake" lives in the bodies of insects, such as grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles. The eggs of thewormare taken into the system when the insect drinks. Once hatched, the worm gnaws at its victim's vitals until the insect dies. They take to the water when full grown and lay their eggs in a long chain.

CEDAR WAXWING.

There are more than eighty species of our national flower, the golden-rod, in the United States. While a cluster of golden heads swaying in the breeze is beautiful indeed, it is with regret that we watch its ripening, for, like the harvesting of grain, and the flocking of bluebirds, it tells us of the approaching autumn.

The female mosquito lays her eggs in a mass, that floats upon the surface of the water. The larvæ are the "wigglers" that swim about in a jerky sort of way in the rain barrels or pools of stagnant water. They float near the surface and breathe through a tube at the end of the body. When ready to emerge from this larval stage, they crawl out on a stick, stone, or bush, the skin on the back splits, and the mosquito emerges.

The narrow spear-pointed leaves of the walking fern cling to the moss-covered rocks, and in graceful curves reach out until their tips touch the ground and take root again. These fronds in turn take up the march, and so they creep about the rocks wherever there is soil sufficient for them to get a foothold. They are also reproduced by spores in the regular fern-like way.

The fresh-water clam furnishes us with a good quality of pearl, and from the shells pearl buttons are made. Along the muddy bottom of our inland lakes and rivers, you may see the clumsy writing in the mud where they have crawled. During a clam's infancy it lives a parasitic life, embedded in the body of a fish. It then emerges and drops to the bottom of the lake or river, where it spends the remainder of its life.

"Those horrid tomato worms are eating all my plants. They are positively the most repulsive creatures I know." A few weeks later a beautiful sphinx moth flutters into your chamber window. Do you recognize it as your hated enemy? It is he,—a "wolf in sheep's clothing."

The cardinal flower, or red lobelia, lives in the marshes and along the streams, where it often trespasses so near the brink, that a slight freshet floods its roots. "We have no flower which can compare with this in vivid coloring." (Dana.) In some localities it has been in bloom for weeks.

Some evening after a thunder-shower, take a light and stroll along the garden path, or by the flower bed. Go slowly and step with caution, and you will see large numbers of angle worms—"night walkers" the fishermen call them—stretched out on the ground. Half of their length is hidden in the hole, ready at the slightest jar or noise to pull the remainder underground.

Woodchucks, or "groundhogs," are very busy at this season of the year. They work overtime even on moonlight nights, for they have a contract with Nature to blanket themselves with layers of fat half an inch thick. If the contract is not filled before winter sets in, death may be the forfeit. Eat, eat, eat; they spend every minute digging up the grass roots, and eating off the clover heads, and they often make excursions into the farmer's garden.

Butter-and-eggs prefers the unsheltered lands where the sun can beat upon it. It came from Europe and "like nearly all common weeds this plant has been utilized in various ways by the country people. It yields what was considered at one time a valuable skin lotion, while its juices mingled with milk constitutes a fly poison." (Dana.)

Be sure to kill any bee-like insect that you see hovering about your horse's fore legs, for it is a bot-fly. After the eggs have been attached to the horse's leg-hairs, they hatch and the horse licks the larvæ and swallows them. Attaching themselves to the walls of the stomach, they live there for some time, but finally pass through the horse and fall to the ground, where they transform into bot-flies.

The solitary sandpiper is one of the early migrating birds that is now returning from its northern nesting grounds. It is always found near water, singly or in twos and threes. It has a habit of holding its wings over its head as it alights, showing conspicuously their dark tips. Like all sandpipers, it is not supposed to perch in trees or bushes; nevertheless it does so frequently when a person approaches its young or its nest.

Have you ever watched a spider making its web? The sticky fluid, which becomes a silk strand upon coming in contact with the air, pours from several holes, or spinnerets, at the end of the body. The threads are guided by the feet, and when the spinnerets are held apart, several strands are spun, but by contracting them one heavy rope is made.

Most crickets die at the approach of winter, but some hibernate. It is only the males that sing, and they do it by rubbing together the inner edges of the outside wings. They live on the moisture from the roots of various kinds of vegetables, and are not above eating insects.

In various localities the Oswego tea is known as "bee balm," "fragrant balm," "Indian plume," and "mountain mint." "The bee balm especially haunts those cool brooks, and its rounded flower-clusters touch with warmth the shadows of the deep woods of midsummer. The Indians named the flower,o-gee-chee, 'flaming flower,' and are said to have made a tea-like decoction from the blossoms." (Dana.)

Small mammals are abundant in the Adirondacks. Chipmunks and red squirrels are very tame, and if one sits still in the woods they will approach within a few feet. By watching at the base of logs and stumps, you can often see a red-backed mouse or a long-tailed shrew. The latter is the smallest of American mammals, its body being scarcely two inches in length.

Mr. Scudder says that katydids have a day and a night song. He has watched one, and when a cloud obscured the sky, it, and all of those within his hearing, stopped singing and began their night song, but as soon as the sun came out, they again changed to their original song.

What a fine time the robins, cedar-birds, catbirds, and flickers are having in the choke-cherry bushes these days! Twenty or thirty of them may fly from a bush of ripened fruit as you approach. The streaked and speckled breasted young robins and cedar-birds are loath to leave their feast.

It is hard to believe that the yellow butterflies with the black tips and spots on their wings, so common about moist spots in the road, were once cabbage worms. Mr. Packard says that this species was introduced from Europe to Quebec about 1857. It rapidly spread into New England and has reached as far south as Washington, D. C. About Quebec it annually destroys $250,000 worth of cabbages.

The bottle, closed, or blind gentian loves the damp fields and somewhat open road-sides. It resembles a cluster of bright blue buds about to open, but they never do. Neltje Blanchan says that bumblebees have hard work to rob it of its nectar and pollen. Climbing clumsily over the corolla, it finds the space between the lips and forces its head and trunk through the opening. Presently it backs out, and, with its feet and velvety body covered with pollen, flies away to fertilize some other gentian.

Muskrats, like children, make "collections." A muskrat's "playhouse" is usually placed on a partly submerged stump, log, boulder, or the float of a boat-house. In some such place is piled all sorts of rubbish,—sticks, stones, bones, iron, glass, clam shells, and what not. Near by one may find a thick mat of aquatic grass, used by the owner as a resting-place. When camped in the vicinity of a playhouse, you will hear the clink of touching stones at night, and the splash of water.

Damp, shaded flats along streams or spring-holes, are where the jewel-weed, or touch-me-not, clusters. The orange-colored blossoms have gone to seed and hang in tiny pods upon the stems. Touch one, and if it is ripe, it will burst with a suddenness that startles you.

You must be unfamiliar with the country if you have never felt the sting of the nettle. The rib of the nettle leaf is armed with tiny, hollow spines, each of which is connected with a microscopic sack or bulb filled with poison, called formic acid. When the skin is pierced by the spines, the bulb is pressed, and the poison injected into the wound. Every boy of outdoor life knows that mud will relieve the irritation.

The true locusts are the field insects commonly called "grasshoppers." They belong to a class of insects whose metamorphosis is not complete,—that is, they do not go through all of the several stages of transformation. The young, on emerging from the ground where the eggs were laid the summer previous, look like abnormal wingless grasshoppers. Grasshoppers live but a single season.

The little green heron will steal cautiously along the water's edge, with head drawn in, and beak pointed forward. Then he stops, and with a sudden lunge catches a minnow or a polliwog in his bill, and swallows it head foremost. When flushed, he laboriously wings his way across the stream and, alighting in the shallow water or in a tree, flirts his tail, stretches his long neck, and stands motionless a few minutes before starting on another fishing trip.

At this season the banks of the rivers and streams shine with the golden blossoms of the wild sunflower, artichoke, Canadian potato, or earth apple. In late summer and early spring, freshets wash away the earth, leaving the edible, tuberous roots exposed for the muskrats, woodchucks, mice, squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits to feed upon.

Patiently Madam Spider sits and holds the cords of her telegraph system, waiting for some unfortunate to announce to her its capture. When she receives this message, out she rushes, and while the victim struggles she holds him with her legs, while other legs are busy binding him with cords.

The American goldfinch is very much in evidence these days. He sways back and forth on the heads of the Canadian thistles, and clings to the ripened sunflower heads, the fruit of which he is very fond. When disturbed he flies away in graceful undulations, calling back to you, "Just-see-me-go; just-see-me-go; just-see-me-go."

When overburdened with honey and bee-bread, large numbers of honey bees are drowned while attempting to cross wide stretches of water. Put your hand in the water and let one crawl into the palm. It will not sting so long as you do not squeeze or touch it. Note the two dots of golden pollen adhering to the cups on the hind feet. Gradually the bee regains strength and begins to dry itself. First fluttering its wings, then combing its fuzzy head and trunk with its legs, finally it is off in the direction of its hive.

Clinging to the old stump fences, and covering the low bushes by the roadside, the wild clematis, or traveller's joy, smiles at the wayfarer and defies the efforts of the farmer to exterminate it. As the blossom goes to seed, a charming, foamlike effect is produced by the appearance of the many stamens and pistils.

This week the rose-breasted grosbeak, kingbird, Baltimore oriole, yellow warbler, ruby-throated hummingbird and yellow-breasted chat will probably leave for the South. They all pass beyond the United States to winter, and most of them go to Mexico, Central and South America. Good luck to them on their long journey, and may they all live to return to us again next summer.

The dense forests strewn with moss-covered logs, stumps, and boulders, and the rocky, fern-clad borders of woodland rivulets, are the home of the winter wren. Quite like a mouse in actions, he works his way over and under the fallen trees; in and out of the rocky crevices, until you quite despair of guessing where he will next appear.

YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT.

The next time you go into the country, catch two or three locusts (grasshoppers), and examine their bodies for locust mites. They are tiny red mites usually clustered at the base of the grasshopper's wings, and are easily found if you raise the wings slightly and look under them. Often they are found on house flies.

Nature employs many ingenious devices for distributing the seed of her plants. The downy seeds of the Canadian thistle, dandelion, prickly lettuce, dogbane, and milkweed are cast over the land by the winds. The common tare, the jewel-weed, and the wood sorrel have devices for throwing their seeds. Seeds of many species of plants are contained in burrs or "stickers" that adhere to the coats of animals and are carried miles before they are finally planted.

A belted kingfisher, when suddenly seized with a fit of playfulness, will skim over the water and plunge beneath the surface, sending the spray in all directions. Emerging, he continues his flight, repeating the performance every fifty feet or more, at the same time "rattling" loudly as though in great ecstasy.

The thick, chunky purple heads of the Canadian thistle always attract the bumblebees, and you find them as eager for its nectar as they were for the Joe-Pie weed a month or so ago. It is wonderful how much abuse a bumblebee will stand before he loses his temper. He is much more tractable than his cousin, the honey bee, or any of the wasps.

Some animals lay by a supply of fat for winter, which they absorb while resting in comparative quiet in their burrows. Others are endowed with a hoarding instinct, so they gather and store nuts, grain, seeds, and fruit to last them until spring, while the remainder are forced to live upon the food that the season affords them,—a life of privation, in many instances.

The monarch butterfly is one of the common butterflies seen in early fall. It is something of a wanderer, going North in the spring and migrating South in the fall. Have you ever watched them floating through the air, high above your head and tried to estimate how high they were?

Fishermen often find piles of clam shells heaped under the exposed roots of trees or stumps, at or near the water's edge. This is the work of muskrats. After carrying the clams from the bed of the stream, the rats take them to the bank and leave them for the sun to open. Then they eat the clams, after which the shells are disposed of in little heaps.

Next to the red-shouldered hawk, the red-tailed hawk is the most common of the large hawks in Eastern North America. Although the farmers shoot it on sight, and the barn-yard fowls hurry to shelter at its cries, it is one of the farmer's best friends, because of the great number of grasshoppers and mice it captures. Its cry is a loud, high-pitched, "long-drawn out squealing whistle which to my ear suggests the sound of escaping steam." (Chapman.)

You hear the mitchella-vine spoken of as "partridge berry," "twin-berry," and "squaw-berry." It is a small-leaved vine, very common in woods and shaded thickets. Winter does not harm its fruit, so it is a welcome treat to many birds and mammals in early spring. The buds appear in pairs, which form a double fruit with two eyes, or navels, thus giving it the name of "twin-berry."

The water skate, or water strider, resembles somewhat a "granddaddy longlegs." It runs about over the surface of the water in search of microscopic insects, casting grotesque shadows on the bottom. It does not dive like the water boatman, but if it chooses it can take wing, and is often seen to spring into the air and grasp its prey.

Our common sunfish builds a nest of stones and gravel on the bottom of a stream. "The male watches the nest and drives away all intruders. The species is usually hardy in captivity, but is subject to fungus attacks, which yield readily to a treatment with brackish water." (Bean.)

On moonlight nights skunks come out into the fields to feed upon beetles and grasshoppers. They are keen scented, and you will sometimes see where their claws have assisted in securing an insect that their nose has detected in the ground. They will often approach a man carrying a lantern, and after sniffing at it a few times will walk away and resume their hunt.

SKUNK HUNTING GRASSHOPPERS.

This is the month when many of our birds depart for their southern winter resorts. The common ones that leave this week are the scarlet tanager, ovenbird, chimney swift, wood thrush, indigo bunting, and redstart.

The workers and drone bumblebees die at the approach of winter, but the queen takes shelter under the bark of trees, in stone piles and in other places which offer protection, where she remains all winter. She then comes out and gathers moss and grass for a nest, or she may appropriate the deserted nest of a meadow mouse. After making several wax cells, she fills them with pollen and honey, deposits an egg in each cell, and when the young hatch, they feed upon the sweets.

"'Among the crimson and yellow hues of the falling leaves, there is no more remarkable object than the witch-hazel in the moment parting with its foliage, putting forth a profusion of showy yellow blossoms, and giving to November the counterfeited appearance of spring.'" (Newhall.)

AMERICAN REDSTART.

When surprised while feeding, gray squirrels will resort to an ingenious method of escape. As the hunter approaches, the squirrel will scurry to the opposite side of the tree trunk, and as the hunter changes his position, the squirrel does likewise, keeping the trunk of the tree between itself and the enemy.

It is not always the large winged birds with the light bodies that fly the fastest. The swifts, grouse, pigeons, and ducks are the swiftest of fliers, yet they have heavy bodies and short or narrow wings. The eagles, hawks, owls, buzzards, and herons, on the other hand, have large wings and comparatively light bodies, yet they are noted for their slow and graceful flight, still they can fly long distances.

The white-footed mouse, deer mouse, or wood mouse, usually makes his home in a hollow stump, limb, or tree trunk. To prove that he can scramble up rough bark, as well as run upon the ground, he frequently builds a large, bulky nest of dried grass in a bush or low tree. These nests have a tiny aperture in one or two sides, and they are nearly always located in trees traversed by wild grape, or other vines.

Insects "supply us with the sweetest of sweets, our very best inks and dyes, and our finest robes and tapers, to say nothing of various acids, lacs, and waxes; while few, who have not studied the subject, have any idea of the importance of insects and their products as articles of human diet." (Riley.)

Many an amateur sportsman has mistaken the fall song of the peeper, coming from the tall forest trees, for that of a game bird or mammal. It is loud and clearer than the peeper's spring song, but the resemblance is easily detected after one knows that both songs are sung by the same frog. Now since the wood birds have ceased to sing, its song is quickly noticed.

In size, shape, and actions, the English robin is similar to our bluebird, to which it is related. The English blackbird is athrush, and our robin is the largest of American thrushes. In the Bermuda Islands the catbird is called "blackbird."

"The flight of the flying fish is usually from four to six feet above the water, and it is sustained for fifty to one hundred feet. The general enlarged pectoral fins act as wings, and furnish the motive power.... On all up grades it gives a stiff wing-stroke about every three feet, rises to overtop each advancing wave, and drops as the wave rolls on, like a stormy petrel." (Hornaday.)

Mushrooms and apples are often seen resting in the branches of trees. Should you examine one, very likely you would find the marks of a rodent's teeth in its sides. This is one of the ways a red squirrel has of storing food. When he placed the mushrooms there, did he know that they would dry and be preserved? If so, why did not instinct tell him that the apples would decay before spring?

Once the alarm note of a crow is heard and its meaning understood, you can always tell when those keen-eyed birds have discovered a hawk or an owl. "Hak, hak, hak, hak, hak," they call, much louder, quicker, and in a higher key than the regular "caw, caw, caw." Rarely do they strike a hawk or owl, but they keep diving at it until it soars beyond their reach, or takes shelter in a tree.

If you can surprise a muskrat in a small pond, notice that he does not use his front feet (which are not webbed) in swimming; but, like the frog and the toad, holds them close against the sides of his body. Ordinarily the tail is used as a rudder, but when he is hard pressed, he whirls it round and round so that it acts like a screw propeller.

The brook trout is another fish that builds a nest. It makes a hollow in the bed of a brook or a spring, pushing the gravel aside with its nose, and carrying the stones in its mouth. By using its tail the cavity is shaped and then filled with pebbles, on which the eggs are laid, and covered with gravel. These "spawning" beds can now be seen in any spring-fed trout stream.

As soon as the foliage falls from the trees it is easy to collect birds' nests; and it is no sin to do so then, inasmuch as the birds mentioned this week rarely use the same nest a second season. Take a trip into the country with the sole object of hunting for nests, and you will be surprised to see how many you can find. One hundred and ninety-eight bird homes have been counted during a three hours' walk. When it is possible to take a part of the limb to which a nest is attached, it is best to do so.

Besides the large pendent nest of the Baltimore and the orchard orioles, skilfully suspended from the end of an elm, maple, apple, or pear tree limb, you will find many smallerhangingnests built by the several species of vireos. They are about the size of a tennis-ball; made of birch bark, paper, and pieces of dried leaves, fastened with spider and caterpillar webs, and they are lined with dried pine needles or dried grass.

The American goldfinch, "thistlebird" or "wild canary," usually places its nest in the angle of three twigs at the end of a slender branch that is nearly or quite perpendicular. The nest is larger than a base-ball, deeply hollowed and composed outwardly of pieces of cotton waste, plant fibres and fine bark, with a thick lining of willow or dandelion down, and other soft material.

The chebec (least flycatcher), wood pewee, and blue-gray gnat-catcher saddle their nests on the upper side of limbs, as the hummingbird does, and they use the same variety of material. They are so delicate in construction that a severe storm will send them to the ground.

The bulky basket nests of the cedar-bird and kingbird are usually found saddled on a horizontal limb in an orchard. The kingbird prefers to be near water, and will often use an elm, willow, or thorn-tree for a nesting site. From the ground, the nests resemble each other. They are about eight inches across, are composed outwardly of sticks, leaves, and moss, lined with fine roots and the like, and sometimes wood or cotton is used.

Crows usually build in pine-trees, but where there are no pines, they will choose an oak, chestnut, maple, or poplar, not always high ones either. The nest is made of sticks, leaves, bark, and mud, lined with dried grass or fine bark. Most of the large hawks make their nests in oak, maple, chestnut, or beech trees, in the groves or forests. They often occupy the same nest year after year.

Of the birds that build in bushes or small trees, the following are the common species: catbird (twigs, leaves, and grass, lined with fine roots), black-billed and yellow-billed cuckoo (a sort of stick platform with a few dried leaves for a lining), and yellow-breasted chat (leaves, sticks, and bark, deeply hollowed and lined with soft grasses). Song sparrows' nests are very common.

If it becomes necessary to protect their young, most birds seem to lose all fear. When surprised with her brood of chicks, the ruffed grouse and nearly all ground-dwelling birds will feign injury and flutter a few feet in front of the intruder, seemingly in great agony. The cries and actions are intended to lure you from the young. During the interval that you are watching or chasing her, the chicks have fairly melted into the earth.

The stickleback is a small fish that inhabits the brackish waters from Cape Ann to New Jersey. Mr. Hornaday says that the abdomen of the male has been provided with a gland filled with a clear secretion which coagulates into threads when it comes in contact with the water. By means of this, a hood-like nest large enough for the female to enter is fastened to the vegetation at the bottom of the sea, and the eggs are deposited in the nest.

Birds seem to have a common language, so far, at least, as conveying a warning of danger is concerned. The appearance of a hawk, or an owl, will cause a catbird, robin, vireo, or song sparrow to give a warning note which is at once heeded by every feathered neighbor within hearing. Instantly all is quiet until danger has passed.

Grebes are expert swimmers and divers. Before the invention of smokeless powder, the adult birds could easily dive at the flash of a gun and were beneath the surface of the water when the shot struck. On land these duck-like birds push themselves over the ground on their breasts, or waddle along in a very awkward manner. They cannot rise from the ground, and even when rising from the water they must flutter over its surface for a long distance before they are able actually to take wing.

A strong aversion for snakes prevails with many of us. Most people think that the majority of snakes are poisonous. In reality the only dangerously venomous snakes in the United States are the rattlesnakes (fourteen species), the moccasin, and the copperhead, and they are not so aggressive as is generally supposed.

How often the osprey or American fish-hawk is mistaken for an eagle! The fish-hawk is the only hawk that will poise in the air and then plunge into the water for its prey. Unlike the kingfisher, of which of course it is no kin, it carries its food in its talons instead of in its beak. In captivity it may be confined in an aviary with pigeons, quail, and other defenceless birds, and will not molest them.

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