66 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



A good prescription for a weak heart 

 or constitution is, "Join The Agassiz 

 Association." It's worth while. 



Bethiah Waterman, 

 President Senior Chapter. 



Some Observations by Members of 



This Chapter. 



The Flicker's Nest. 



Out in the old dead tree in front of 

 our school there is a flicker's nest. The 

 little round hole in the tree looks as if 

 the father bird had been working- very 

 hard. The nest is so high that we can not 

 see into it. 



The other day the father bird was 

 tapping on the tree for his mate, but 

 she did not come. We are going to 

 watch the nest and see if we can see 

 the birds. — Mary AIii.bank. 



A Starling's Nest. 



Last year outside of our house a star- 

 ling's nest was built in our apple tree. 

 Every morning this family of starlings 

 would wake us up at half-past four or 

 five. This starling laid four eggs and 

 it was not long before there were some 

 little starlings. This summer they are 

 back again and in the very same nest. 

 Eleanor Pier. 



^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 



Our Gardens. 

 We each have a garden on the 

 grounds of our school. It is measured 

 out in little beds for each child. We 

 planted corn, radishes and beets or 

 turnips. The flowers are candytuft 

 and mignonette. Some radishes are up 

 and there are tulips in blossom. 



Clarissa Mackcee. 



The Flicker's Nest. 



Out; '(ie of the building there is a 

 tree. 0:ie day some flickers came and 

 they thought that the tree would be a 

 good place for a nest so they began to 

 pick and pick. In a little while the 

 hole was finished. When they were 

 making the hole they tapped and it 

 was a funny little noise that they made. 

 The little red head bobbing up and 

 down looked very odd. The nest is too 

 high for us to look into. It must be a 

 lovely little home down there. 



Frances Holmes. 



The Flicker's Nest in Our Chimney. 



About a week ago there was a flicker 



trying to make his nest in our chimney. 



In the morning at five o'clock he used 

 to wake us up. He made a lot of noise 

 on the chimney. 



We waited a few mornings to see 

 if he would stop making that horrible 

 noise, but he would not. So I told my 

 grandmother about it and she had a 

 man put some bags around the top of 

 the chimney. 



A few days later we heard the flicker 

 again, so we looked to see if he had 

 made a hole in the bag and we found 

 out that he had. We were going to 

 have another bag put on the chimney, 

 but the flicker went away and has not 

 come back since. 



Elizabeth Anderson. 



The Robin's Nest. 



W'e have a robin's nest in a maple 

 tree right outside of our window at 

 school. We watched the robins build 

 the nest. One robin would stay there 

 while the other would bring the straw 

 and pieces of rag. It is about halfway 

 up the tree. The leaves are now so far 

 out that you can hardly see the nest. 

 Margaret Houston. 



That Woodchuck Story. 



BY WILLIAM R. LODGE, CUYAHOGA FALLS, 

 OHIO. 



Woodchuck Day or Groundhog Day 

 or Candlemas Day has been much ridi- 

 culed, yet so far as the woodchuck's 

 coming out is concerned, it is a mystery 

 to many people- It is a fact, however, 

 that the groundhog does awaken from 

 his long' sleep on the second day of Feb- 

 ruary. This has been proved conclu- 

 sively at the Silver Lake Park Zoo of 

 Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. For eight years 

 we kept here a white woodchuck that 

 was caught in Northampton Township 

 and presented to the late R. H. Lodge by 

 Frank Wetmore. Mr. Lodge made care- 

 ful experiments to ascertain whether or 

 not the animal would come out on the 

 second of February, and learned that it 

 would. 



The woodchuck was kept in a small 

 round cage about two and one-half feet in 

 diameter, with an oak bottom and an oa! 

 top, with quarter-inch rod irons, placed 

 vertically about two and one-half inches 

 apart, on centers and separating the top 

 from the bottom. This was about two 

 and one-half feet high and gave ample 

 room for him to stand up and be fed 

 tlirough the bars- Early in November 

 the cage was filled with forest leaves- 



