GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND SKETCHES AFIELD 277 



rounding group of Sagittaria, a pair of spotted sandpipers are 

 spending their moments. In the small stream emptying into 

 the pond the thirsty snails have been saved from utter exter- 

 mination by the recent rain. Throwing over the old logs one 

 finds crayfish hidden from the warm rays of the sun, while 

 simultaneously the roofs of many spiders' homes have also 

 been dishevelled by our rashness, displaying certain species 

 of running spiders, Lycosidae, that bear a spherical egg-sac 

 attached to the end of the body. In some instances the eggs 

 are hatched and the mother is harboring a thick mat of her 

 numerous young on the back of her abdomen. 



Such a sketch as I have just chronicled may enliven interest 

 in the midsummer meadow where legions of incidents are passing 

 each year. As one recalls the stroll over the meadow there 

 comes to mind the fact that the grasses and flowering plants 

 with their associated animal life have a certain relation to 

 each other. The meadow often connects with the pond or 

 swamp, on the one hand, or with a forest on the other. Or, 

 farther on, one may find a pasture drier than a meadow. 

 Each of these have their respective plants and animal societies. 

 Further on, in the chapter on the Pasture Locust, will be 

 found a description of the adaptation of an insect to the plant 

 societies of the pasture. The plants are dependent on the 

 physical properties of the soil, chief among these being the 

 amount of water the latter contains. According to whether 

 these groups of plants inhabit water or soil of various degrees 

 of moisture, naturalists designate them by different names. 

 Those plant societies living in water, such as are found in 

 swamps and ponds, are called hydrophytic; those plants living 

 under drier conditions on land and under normal conditions, 

 as the meadows, pastures, and woods, are called mesophytic 

 societies. 



