STATE PO.MOLOGICAL SOCIETY. TJ 



on ,the top of stiff white hairs, nearly half an inch tall. T have 

 seen them on all sorts of things, such as apples, cucumhers, and 

 cabbages, and once on a screen door. 



Just |as soon as the ice is melted in the brooks and marshes 

 the fairies start their band concerts. First are the pipers or 

 Pickering tree frogs, then the deeper bass of the bull frogs, and 

 in the soft, warm nights of May, the love songs of the toads. 

 It hardly seems. possible, that so ugly looking a fairy could have 

 so sweet a voice. Yet Hamilton Gibson in "Sharp Eyes,'' says, 

 "It is to me the sweetest sound in Nature." Those warm moon- 

 light nights, ushered in at sunset by the songs of the hermit 

 thrush and veery, followed by the sweet thrilling love songs 

 of the toads and the plaintive call of the whippoorwill, are the 

 pleasantest nights of the year. I listen and listen and fight away 

 sleep as long as I can. , 



For a few days the last of June, if one is near a lake he will 

 sometimes see about sunset clouds of may-flies in the air. 

 These are delicate greenish-yellow insects, with a wing expanse 

 of nearly two inches, and two or three long thread-like organs 

 from the end of the body. Their first life stage is in the water 

 where they crawl about in the mud as little black creatures, 

 with a row of legs and gills on both sides of the body. From 

 these, hatch these beautiful winged fairies, which only live long 

 enough to mate and drop their eggs back into the water for an- 

 other generation. Last .Tune I saw them at Wayne pond flying m 

 clouds like great snow flakes, while the beach was lined with 

 the empty skins of the nymphs. The dragon-fly or devil's 

 darning needle has a similar life history. When I was a child 

 I used to believe that they would sew up my mouth if I told a 

 lie. That is why I grew up so truthful, and now feel obliged to 

 tell the children that they are not only harmless, but are one of 

 the good fairies, as they live chieflly on mosquitoes and other 

 small insects. 



The white faced hornets are good fairies also, for they live 

 on flies, slugs, and many other injurious insects, so boys should 

 be taught that when they burn a hornets' nest, they are injuring 

 good friends. 



Bumble-bees which live in the deserted nests of fieUl mice, 

 are of great value in fertilizing flowers. They are the only 

 bees which have a tongue long enough to reach into the honey 



