^96 



THE GLIDE TO NATURE. 



little matron brooded over a similar odd- 

 ity in a near-by nesting-place. 



To-day the little widow passes up and 

 down on foot amid her kind: partaking 

 of their feasts, hustling' out of the way 

 of their drooping or uplifted wingsi; 

 fluttering in wingless fashion to bathe 

 or drink beside them, but while she is 

 ever alert for her own safety in this 

 winged, restless company, none ever 

 seem to notiee she is there. 



If any realize that she is a scion of 

 the old stock they utterly ignore the 

 knowledge. She is never wooed to take 

 up lodging in the dove-eotes, she cir- 

 culates unnoticed among her own but 

 her own know her not, and she drifts' 

 back month in and month out, toward 

 human companionship, and shelters quite 

 alone in the little box by the human 

 hearth-stone. 



Conditions were different with her at 

 one time. There was one little friend 

 who made no delay in wooing her on 

 first sight. Like herself, a new though 

 unimproved model of his kind, he missed 

 not only the beauty but the utility of 

 plumage, and beat the air fruitlessly 

 with his feathcrless wings, endowed only 

 with downless quills : gazed with appar- 

 ent longing after the circling creatures 

 of his kind, who swept above and around 

 him but learned to know that for him 



the joy of Might was denied. 



It has not been so very long since the 

 two occupied the little box in company, 

 and the little wife carried sticks and 

 straws in the corner with thoughts of 

 house-keeping. Those were happy days 

 for her, even if the master of the house 

 • lid give her an occasional rap over the 

 head if she displeased him, nor did she 

 ever retaliate, but would stand back and 

 look at him like some exaggerated ques- 

 tion mark while many a quill stood stiff- 

 ly on end ; this was all. 



But there have been no straws or 

 sticks carried to the box for many a 

 week. That all ended with the day when 

 the little mate lay bloody and dead on 

 the lawn, and there was a new bird- 

 grave under the apple tree. 



Having no useable wings to carry her 

 where she would in hunting for her little 

 lover, she must have been very tired in 

 those first days when she was always 

 going ; seldom resting. 



The little widow seems to possess all 

 the character qualities requisite for an 

 acceptable and adored heroine, but if 

 you will observe her portrait you will 

 discover why she is ignored by every 

 dove of the cotes, and why she drifts 

 back day by day alone to the little box 

 by the human hearth-stone. 



Georgk Kungle. 



BYAID 

 THE LENS 



WIN OS HOOKED XOGETHEB IN FLIGHT. 



Some one has said, "Mow well nature 

 rewards looking into even the smallest 

 matters !" The wing of an insect is a 

 small matter, so giuzy, so apparently 

 delicate and yet so strong; with its brac- 

 ing veins that run between the two thin 

 membranes that form the organ ; the 

 hairs and bristles on the two surfaces; 

 and perhaps most interesting of all, the 



fold and the hooks which the honeybee 

 possesses and without which the insect 

 would be deprived of a good deal of its 

 wing power. 



Bees have four wings, two on each 

 side. To have these two act independ- 

 ently of each other or even partly so 

 would be a waste of muscular force and 

 would result in a weak and uneven flight 

 or in none. Nature does her little things 



