CHILDRENS ROOM IN' SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 559 



Above the beaver is a fine spray of peacock plumes, and in the case 

 beneath him a kite carrying a snake, sonic bower birds with their play- 

 house, and some ptarmigans in both winter and summer dress. The 

 child rejoices in the bower birds. lie has a little book with a picture 

 of them, but here they are at home with their playthings. There are 

 several of them, and he wonders if they have invited in friends to see 

 and play with the pretty shells and colored glass they have found. 



But the ptarmigans he can hardly believe real, their winter dress is 

 so snow-white, while in their summer plumage they are so brown and 

 mottled, like a pheasant. Still, the curds tell him they are the same, 

 and though he wonders much, yet he must believe. 



Then he passes on to "How Creatures Hide," the Children's Room 

 name and a very happy one for protective mimicry. Here the leaf 

 insects, that are so like the leaves about them as to make the observer 

 almost "give it up" before he discovers that some of the leaves open 

 and form wings, while beneath others there lie curious creatures so 

 near in shape and color to their hiding place that only the sharpest 

 e\ es will find them. Nests there are. too. that might well be a part of 

 the limb that, holds them; and beneath, in a box of sand and pebbles, 

 are some terns* eggs and young. And the young terns are so like the 

 eggs, and the eggs so like the pebbles, -hit even after he sees them he 

 must take a second and a third look to make sure. 



And now there is a case of •"Pretty Shells" and "Strange Insects." 

 The wonderful coloring of the sea has found, its way into the shells, 

 while the hues of the air have tinted the wings of butterflies more rare 

 than any the child has ever chased or captured. The child looks long- 

 ingly at this collection. There are some things hero he would like to 

 have. But the centipede, and the tarantula with the poor little bird 

 it has captured and poisoned to death, make him shudder. He is close 

 enough to these, and he is glad they arc 1 dead. He wonders why they 

 must ever live at all. 



Corals and sponges have their separate case, and the specimens range 

 from the great brain coral and Neptune's cup to the delicate and beau- 

 tiful Venus's flower basket, a superb white sponge from the Philippine 

 Islands. 



And now the child has reached the last case in the room. It con- 

 tains "Minerals and Fossils." and here are some things that make him 

 wonder indeed. On a block lies a piece of flexible sandstone that 

 bends by its own weight. Near by is a true model of the largest lump 

 of gold ever found in the world, and of the largest diamond ever cut. 

 His rye. dwell long on these things. He wonders about their value, 

 and if the people who found them were very poor, and how happy 

 they must have been with that great lump of gold and with that splen- 

 did diamond. Someday he will go out into the wild mountains and 

 find gold and diamonds too. He wonders just where he ought to look 



