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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



comes, they by a strange instinct leave 

 their nest, well built, well designed 

 and many layered, and go to some- 

 sheltered place under a fence rail or 

 the limb of a tree, where, according 



HOT AND COLD— A HORNETS' NEST IN 

 THE SNOW. 

 Photograph by Rollin Blackman, Albion, Irdiana. 



to human notions, the protection is 

 much less complete than in the aban- 

 doned nest. Sometimes when we take 

 down these nests in mid-winter, we 

 find that Mies and wasps have appre- 

 ciated the home more than its builders. 

 Note how firmly this nest has been 

 placed among the branches and twigs. 



An Astonishing Printer's Error. 

 By one of the mysteries of printer- 



dom, the entire heading, name and ad- 

 dress of the author of the article on 

 photographing snakes, in our January 

 number, was omitted. The title should 

 have been: "The Scientific Photogra- 

 phy of Snakes," by R. \V. Shufeldt, M. 

 D., 3356 Eighteenth Street, Washing- 

 ton, D. C. Dr. Shufeldt is not only an 

 expert with the camera, but an expert 

 in matters of reptilian anatomy, and a 

 diligent student in man}- departments 

 of nature. 



Skunks' Tails. 



That is the name of the black, coarse, 

 fur-like growths to be found abundant- 

 ly in many places in marshy lowlands. 

 As these are by country people com- 

 monly referred to as skunks' tails, I 

 in my boyhood always supposed that 

 they really were skunks' tails, and that 

 these interesting animals shed those 

 appendages much as a snake sheds its 

 skin. Some forty years ago almost any 

 assertion regarding nature could be cir- 

 culated and be more generally accepted 

 than in these modern days of more 

 careful observation. This name, and 

 the erroneous belief, originated many 

 years before the beginning of the care- 

 ful study of nature by the Agassiz 

 Association. In these objects there is 

 an imperfect suggestion of the tail of 

 a skunk. But the fact is that the fuzzy 

 appearance which suggests the tail does 

 not suggest the skunk, although the 

 broken ends of these growths are some- 

 times remotely suggestive of the nose 

 and the pose of the skunk's head. 



Our students of nature readily recog- 

 nize these growths as the. root masses 

 of ferns. 



TIIF. FERN ROOT MASSES. 



