THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



269 



upon them, nor to dogmatize, which 

 is worse. 



One of these so-called "meteoric" 

 plants is a very queer orchid of the 

 genus Pogonia. 'I his queer plant is 

 called the whorled pogonia from the 

 circle of glossy, parallel-veined leaves 

 just beneath the flowers. The latter 

 are in no way showy but strange to 

 a degree. 



They are of a purple, dusky hue, 

 mingled with dark green, and support- 

 ed on stalks longer than the ovary. 

 The outer sepals are narrowly linear, 

 more than twice the length of the in- 

 ner, spreading from an erect base, and 

 more or less twisted. The whole flower 

 has an animal-like appearance. The lip, 

 that characteristic part of an orchid, has 

 a narrow crest down the middle, but 

 is beardless. The flowers are gener- 

 ally solitary or, rarely, a pair to a 

 stem. 



Owing to its sombre colors one is 

 apt to overlook it even in years when 

 it is frequent. Some seasons, as we 

 have said, it fails ; at all others we have 

 it brought in or sent from six or eight 

 widely scattered localities. It grows 

 in dense woods, in clumps of several 

 or many plants, and is spoken of in 

 Gray's Manual as "rather rare." This 

 in the new edition is changed to the 

 words, "not common," which indicate 

 greater frequency than the older ex- 

 pression. 



The fringed gentian is another in- 

 stance of what we have called meteoric 

 plants, and is even more typical than 

 the last cited instance. Everyone knows 

 its queer way of failing all of a sud- 

 den in moist choice localities. 



Other plants might be mentioned, 

 but these are enough to emphasize 

 our text. Will some one hazard an ex- 

 planation? 



readers of this magazine ever saw a 

 squirrel moving her little ones from 

 one nest to another. The cat seizes her 

 kitten by the nape of the neck and lifts 

 it as high as she can. Unless it is 

 quite small its hind parts drag on the 



ground. 



How Squirrels Transport Their Young. 



BY JOHN S. FERNALD, BELFAST, MAINE. 



We are all familiar with the method 

 by which animals of the cat tribe trans- 

 port their young from place to place, 

 and most 'of us recall our youthfu? 

 anger at the family cat the first time we 

 saw her carrying one or her kittens in her 

 mouth. But I doubt if many of the 



A squirrel, however, is wiser, or at 

 least has a better method of doing this. 

 She induces the little one to lie down 

 on its back before her, when she 

 grasps the loose skin on its belly in 

 her mouth. It then clasos its fore legs 

 and head around one side of her neck 

 and its hind legs and tail around the 

 other, thus making of itself a sort of 

 fur scarf for its mamma. The mother 

 and baby are then ready for a trip up 

 or down a tree or over the ground of 

 lawn or forest or even to make a. good 

 run from a pursuing cat or other 

 enemv 



The Unfriendliness of Birds Toward 

 Herons. 



Brooklyn, New York. 



To the Editor : 



In Castleton, Vermont, where I spent 

 the summer, I was greatly interested 

 in watching a pair of green herons 

 wdiich came every day for two or three 

 weeks in mid summer to a brook near 

 the house. If nesting they showed no 

 sign's of being busy, for they would sit 

 on some bare limb a half hour or more 

 at a time, making their toilet in most 

 thorough fashion. When stretched out, 

 the neck, with head and bill, seemed 

 longer than the body; but soon after 

 alighting the head was drawn down 

 close so there seemed to be no neck 

 at all, and the whole bird looked as 

 round as a bobwhite. 



Most small birds did not seem to 

 take much notice of the herons, but 

 the herons stretched out their long 

 necks at the small birds as they flew 

 by. A kingbird, however, dove at a 

 heron and snapped his bill, but the 

 heron held his ground simply ducking 

 his head. 



Late in the season I once saw three 

 at a time, but previously there had 

 never been more than one or two. 



Caroline M. Hartwell. 



