356 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



appear on the chestnut-trees and begin 

 to lay their egg's, there also appears the 

 little, wasp-like parasite which has been 

 mentioned. It is an active creature, hav- 

 and a loner hair-like 



ing f< iur 



wings 



wasp which works its way up to the 

 surface of the ground and is soon on the 

 chestnut-trees busily engaged in looking 

 for weevil punctures in which to lay its 



pcrcrc 



THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW. 

 An enemy of the chestnut weevil. 



SNAP-SHOT OF SHREW IN CAPTIVITY. 

 Feeding on "chestnut-worms." 



stinger, or ovipositor, which it carries 

 projecting straight behind. If caught, 

 it will emit a strong, disagreeable odor 

 that will cling to the hand after repeated 

 washings. 



This little wasp searches about over 

 the burrs until it finds a puncture in 

 which one of the beetles has deposited 

 its egg. Into this puncture it inserts 

 its ovipositor which is just long enough 

 to reach the egg of the weevil. Here, 

 near the weevil's egg it lays its own egg 

 and then flies away. I have frequently 

 seen these wasps laying their e^s in the 

 weevil punctures but, in spite of careful 

 search, I have never been able to find a 

 single egg. The egg must be very small 

 and no one knows exactly where it is 

 deposited or how it looks. It is known, 

 however, that when the little grub 

 hatches from the egg it lives internally 

 on the chestnut-worm. No apparent in- 

 jury is done to the worm until the next 

 summer at just about the time it would 

 change to a pupa. Then the parasitic 

 grub kills its host, emerges from its 

 body and constructs a gauze-like cocoon 

 in the cell prepared by the chestnut-worm 

 for its own puparium. From this cocoon 

 there emerges in a short time the adult 



BIRD NESTS IN MAIL BOX. 



A remarkable story of bird intelligence 

 is told by Henry Babb of Bowdoinham, 

 whose mail box is on the R. F. D. route. 

 One side of this box is broken, and some 

 time ago, Mr. Babb found a bird had built 

 her nest in the box, going in through the 

 hole made by the broken place. The bird 

 set up housekeeping in this novel home, 

 and now there are five young birds and the 

 mother. Several times the mail carriers 

 have tried to drive the bird away, and at 

 first they took out the nest and threw it 

 away, but every time the bird returned, and, 

 after the young ones came, they gave up 

 trying to dislodge them. Last week Mr. 

 Babb found the signal set on the box and 

 looked for mail, but found none in the box. 

 This happened a number of times, so often 

 that he decided that someone had tampered 

 with the box. So he asked the neighbors 

 to watch out. One day, when a neighbor, 

 George Hackett, drove by, he saw a bird 

 flying from the box with something in its 

 mouth. He followed the bird to a tree 

 some distance away, and there the bird 

 stopped, and, after dropping the article she 

 carried, flew away. Mr. Hackett went un- 

 der the tree and found four letters ad- 

 dressed to Mr. Babb. Each one had been 

 brought apparently by this unusual mes- 

 senger. Just why the same tree was selec- 

 ted every time seems strange. One theory 

 advanced to account for the removal of the 

 letters is that their presence in the box 

 interfered with the domestic arrangements 

 of the feathered lodger, who took this way 

 to get rid of them. — From newspaper. 



