504. POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



then apparently lifeless, with the antennae resting close along the 

 back, above which the wings are folded. But one or two warm 

 days are necessary to restore it to activity, and I have seen it on 

 the wing as early as the 2d of March, hovering over the open 

 flowers of the little snow trilliuna. 



All the species of ants survive the winter as mature forms, 

 either in their nests in the ground or in huddled groups in half- 

 rotten logs and stumps, while here and there beneath logs a soli- 

 tary queen bumblebee, bald hornet, or yellow jacket is found 

 the sole representatives of their races. 



Thus insects survive the winter in many ways and in many 

 places, some as eggs, others as larvse, still others as pupae, and a 

 large number as adults all being able to withstand severe cold 

 and yet retain vitality sufficient to recover, live, grow, and re- 

 plenish the earth with their progeny when the halcyon days of 

 spring appear once more. 



In the scale of animal life the vertebrates or backboned ani- 

 mals succeed the insects. Beginning with the fishes, we find that 

 in late autumn they mostly seek some deep pool in pond or stream 

 at the bottom of which the water does not freeze. Here the her- 

 bivorous forms eke out a precarious existence by feeding upon 

 the innumerable diatoms and other small plants which are always 

 to be found in water, while the carnivorous prey upon the her- 

 bivorous, and so maintain the struggle for existence. The moving 

 to these deeper channels and pools in autumn and the scattering 

 in the spring of the assembly which has gathered there consti- 

 tute the so-called migration of fishes, which is far from being so 

 extensive and methodical as that practiced by the migratory 

 birds. 



Many of the smaller species of fishes, upon leaving these win- 

 ter resorts, ascend small, clear brooks in large numbers for the 

 purpose of depositing their eggs, as, when hatched in such a place, 

 the young will be comparatively free from the attacks of the 

 larger carnivorous forms. Among the lowest vertebrates often 

 found in numbers in early spring in these meadow rills and 

 brooks is the lamprey, or " lamper eel," as it is sometimes called. 

 It has a slender, eel-like body, of a uniform leaden or blackish 

 color, and with seven purse-shaped gill openings on each side. 

 The mouth is fitted for sucking rather than biting, and with it 

 they attach themselves to the bodies of fishes and feed on their 

 flesh, which they scrape off with their rasplike teeth. Later in 

 the season they disappear from these smaller streams, probably 

 returning in midsummer to deeper water. Thoreau, who studied 

 their habits closely, says of them : " They are rarely, seen on their 

 way down stream, and it is thought by fishermen that they never 

 return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of 



