holes through the wood. When ob- 

 taining your specimen from the thorn 

 tree you may be fortunate enough to 

 see the shrike getting his breakfast 

 from the thorns where he had placed 

 it some time before. The locust with 

 its fragrant racemes of white blos- 

 soms in the spring and long seed pods 

 in the fall will call for attention, and 

 you may perhaps receive, as I did, a 

 locust seed from the tree planted by 

 George Washington at his Mount 

 Vernon home many years ago. The 

 shumachs and white birches are ver}^ 

 artistic and sought out by all artists, 

 for who does not want to put a white 



birch into a landscape! Every one 

 knows the black birch by its taste. 

 The laurel has a pretty, fine grain. The 

 witch hazel is another favorite for its 

 medicinal qualities as well as its popu- 

 larity for being the last blossom of the 

 autumn. And many others will be 

 added from the shrubs and vines until 

 your collection, just from your own 

 town, will number nearly, if not quite, 

 one hundred. You will thus, too, have 

 become interested in all nature and 

 will be able more fully to appreciate 

 all the beautiful things God has given 

 us to use and enjoy. 



BIRD WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD. 



FOSSIBLY the rarest of all feath- 

 ered creatures is the "takahe" 

 bird of New Zealand. Science 

 names it Notornis Ma?itclli. The 

 first one ever seen by white men was 

 caught in 1849. A second came to 

 white hands in 1851. Like the first it 

 was tracked over snow, and caught 

 with dogs, fighting stoutly, and utter- 

 ing piercing screams of rage until over- 

 mastered. Both became the property 

 of the British museum. After that it 

 was not seen again until 1879. That 

 year's specimen went to the Dresden 

 museum at the cost of $500. The 

 fourth, which was captured last fall in 

 the fiords of Lake Te Anau, in New 

 Zealand, has been offered to the gov- 

 ernment there for the tidy sum of 

 Si. 250. 



Thus it appears that the bird is pre- 

 cious; worth very much more than its 

 weight in gold. The value, of course, 

 comes of rarity. The wise men were 



beginning to set it down as extinct. 

 Scarcity aside, it must be worth look- 

 ing at — a gorgeous creature about the 

 size of a big goose, with breast, head, 

 and neck of the richest dark-blue, 

 growing dullish as it reaches the under 

 parts. Back, wings, and tail-feathers 

 are olive-green, and the plumage 

 throughout has a metallic lustre. The 

 tail is very short, and has underneath 

 it a thick patch of soft, pure white 

 feathers. 



Having wings, the takahe flies not. 

 The wings are not rudimentary, but the 

 bird makes no attempt to use them. 

 The legs are longish and very stout, 

 the feet not webbed, and furnished 

 with sharp, powerful claws. The odd- 

 est feat-ure of all is the bill, an equi- 

 lateral triangle of hard pink horn. 

 Along the edge, where it joins the 

 head, there is a strip of soft tissue much 

 like the rudimentary comb of a barn- 

 yard fowl. 



"Around the glistening wonder bent 

 The blue wall of the firmament; 

 No clouds above, no earth below, 

 A universe of sky and snow." 



— VV J littler. 



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