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How dissimilar the lazy wasp to the industrious ant, 

 the one enjoying but the pleasures of the present, the 

 other thoughtful for the future. 



What maternal care in the spider, who carrying its 

 egg-bag on its back, prefers rather to perish than to 

 lose it. 



What instinct in the Ichneumon fly, who deposits her 

 eggs in the back of the lifing caterpillar, to be eren- 

 tually hatched to leed upon the crysalis of the butterfly, 

 and in course of time the crysalis to bring forth a 

 winged creature, the usurper, not the ill-fated butterfly. 

 What wonderful properties are possessed by some 

 insects, such as deposit eggs within the tender branches 

 of trees, the injuries caused producing various curious 

 appendages, as the oak-apple and the scarlet ball of the 

 wild rose (or rose gall), or more singular still, to make 

 the willow blossom like the rose. 



How wonderful are the chiseling of the stone mason 

 moths and the carpenter bees, the excavations of the 

 architectural beetle, the net of the spider, the lamp of 

 the glowworm and electric centipede, and the extraordi 

 nary jumping powerof thegrass hopper and theflea. We 

 have caterpillars that are hammock weavers, tent 

 makers, leaf marchers, and posture master, carpenters 

 miners, flask makers, and muff makers, &c. 



How curious the transformation of the tadpole to the 

 toad, the former a ball like looking animal, with a long 

 fanshaped tail, living in water, and gradually increas- 

 ing in size, until after a time the tail falls off, legs 

 appear, and speedily a well shaped toad is formed, but 

 how different its existence now, no longer can this 

 animal live in water, it hastens to the side and becomes 

 an inhabitant of the land. 



Turning to the birds, how marvellous is the migration 

 of various species. Oursummer birds, the swallow, the 

 cuckoo, or the corncreak, leaving when the winter's cold 



