1120 Home Nature-Study Course. 



and thin, the orange snout approach stealthily within half an inch of the smug 

 aphid, and then there was a flash as of lightning, something too swift to see coming 

 out of the eft's mouth and swooping up the unsuspecting louse. Then there would 

 be a gulp or two and all would be over. If the aphid happened to be a big one 

 the eft made a great effort to swallow it. Sometimes the eft would become 

 greatly excited when it first saw the plant-louse and would sneeze and snort in 

 a very comical way, just as a dog does when eager for game. 



The following is the life-history of the orange spotted newt; its scientific name 

 is Die}nyctylus viridescens. The egg was laid in a fresh water pond on the 

 still borders of a stream where there is a growth of water weed. The egg, 

 which is about the size of a small pea, is fastened to a water plant. It is covered 

 with a tough but translucent envelope and there is at the center a little yellowish 

 globule. In a little less than a month the eft hatches, but it looks very different 

 from the form with which we are most familiar. It has gray stripes upon its 

 sides and three bunches of red gills on each side back of its head, and has also a 

 fin along the back so that it is as expert a swimmer and breather of water as is 

 any fish. It has no legs at first. But after a time it becomes greenish above 

 and the lower side is buff, and by the middle of August it develops legs and 

 has sufficiently changed its form so that it is able to live upon land. It loses the 

 bright red gills and the tail loses its fin, and when the eft moves out on the land 

 it is well equipped with lungs to breathe the air. Soon the coat changes to ttie 

 bright orange hue which makes it so conspicuous when seen on moist soil or grass. 

 It usually keeps hidden among the mosses or under the leaves or in decaying wood 

 and damp and shady places ; but after a rain and the whole world is damp it feels 

 enough confidence to go out in the open and hunt for food. For two and one-half 

 years it liyes this land life and then starts back for the water. It may be by this 

 time far from a body of water, but it seems to know instinctively where to go. 

 Again it is transformed in color, becoming olive green above and buff below, 

 although it still has the red spots upon the back. Its tail develops a fin and in 

 some mysterious way it develops the power to breathe again the oxygen of the 

 water. It is here in the water that it finds its mate and finishes a career which 

 is surely hazardous. The eft often sheds its skin, like a snake, and has a strange 

 habit of swallowing its cast-off clothing. 



THISTLES 



THE COMMON OR LANCE-LEAVED THISTLE {Cirsium lanceolatum) 

 THE CANADA THISTLE (Cirsium OTvense) 

 When the hardy settlers of New England followed the Pilgrims to 

 that stern and rock-bound coast, they brought with them a few horses, 

 cattle and sheep, and in the fodder provided for those animals they 

 brought several plants as hardy and unconquerable as themselves. 

 America had a few thistles of her own but none so terribly armed and 

 able to fight their way in the new country as The Common or Lance- 

 leaved Thistle and The Canada Thistle, both of which are naturalized 

 emigrants from Europe. The first named is a biennial, the second per- 

 ennial. In several states there are laws forbidding agriculturists 



