38 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



desk to remove the specimen. For- 

 tunately the Hd was but partly off when 

 the tarantula sprang to the top and put 

 two legs over the edge. I shall never 

 forget the look of anger in those fierce 

 black eyes, and I did not blame him. 

 But I feared his fangs. By means of a 

 book I pushed him back in the can, 

 and secured the lid. I then called for 

 help from two men in the house. With 

 difficulty in preventing his escape they 

 transferred the tarantula to a glass jar 

 half filled with alcohol. It was some 

 hours after he was immersed in this 

 before all movement of his legs ceased, 

 showing that life was extinct. 



Once again I had the opportunity for 

 observing at close range the largest and 

 most curious insect I had ever seen. 

 I discovered it one morning on the out- 

 side of the window screen. It was 

 more than five inches in length, light 

 green in color and its slender neck and 

 small head rested on its long forelegs 

 that were doubled back at the middle 

 joint in a kneeling posture. A moment 

 later a bluebottle fiy settled on the 

 screen. Instantly the long legs of this 

 insect new to me sprang forward to 

 grip the fly, and during a last frantic 

 buzz its head was nipped oft' by strong 

 mandibles, and the rest of the body 

 leisurely devoured. 



I called in a friend to see my visitor 

 and was told that for California it was 

 an unusually large specimen of the 

 mantis. The Mexicans call it "the 

 praying mantis" from its supplicating 

 position when at rest. But from what 

 I had just witnessed I should have 

 spelled that descriptive word with e 

 instead of a. My friend told me that 

 in South America the mantis grows so 

 large and strong that it can catch 

 small birds for food. So closely do they 

 resemble the foliage of the branch on 

 which they rest that birds fearlessly 

 alight close by them. T was assured 

 that they are harmless to human be- 

 ings, but as this mantis caught sight of 

 us it assumed such a threatening atti- 

 tude before flying away that T was 

 thankful for the screen and had no 

 desire for a closer acquaintance. 



The Birth of a Butterfly. 



BY h. W. BROWNEIvL, NEW YORK CITY, 



All of us have doubtless seen hundreds 

 of caterpillars. Most of us dislike them, 

 but were it not for these crawling, and 

 often repulsive, creatures, the world 



Carnations. 



Carnations are the floral standbys, 



Always spicv, always sweet; 

 Not so short-lived as the roses, 



They are for all occasions meet. 



— Emma Pcirc 



MILKWKED CATERriLLAR. 



would be without butterflies, — those 

 fairy-winged sprites of the air that do 

 their share in Nature's work while help- 

 ing to make the world more gladsome. 



The butterfly is but the final stage in 

 the metamorphosis ( which is a big word 

 for little people and means a changing 

 from one state of life to another and a 

 more perfect one) of the caterpillar. I 

 am going- to describe for you this wonder, 

 for it is a wonder, and is by no means 

 the least of the many that Nature is con- 

 stantly performing. 



There are countless thousands of cater- 

 pillars oTOwing- to their full size and 

 changing into butterflies everywhere 

 around us during the summer months and 

 yet few people ever see the process. The 

 Milkweed butterfly, also called the Mon- 

 arch, is the commonest of all our butter- 

 flies. It is not only commoni in this coun- 

 try but is found all over the world, which 

 cannot be said of any other of our but- 



