l8o NATURE .STUDY. 



often do in February and March. The black body of the 

 bee gathers the sun's heat, and then melts the white snow 

 faster than the sun. itself can do. 



Another very interesting thing to do on a walk in Feb- 

 ruary is to look for such birches as still hold their count- 

 less seeds tied up in slender packets, which often hang so 

 densely upon the twigs as nearly to cover them. 



Some of the birches let the wind blow their seeds away 

 early in the winter, but many still remain, and I know a 

 little boy and girl who think it great fun to keep a sharp 

 look-out for them. When one is seen, they go scrambling 

 through the snow to give the tree a hearty shake, laugh- 

 ing and shouting to see the tiny seeds float away in clouds 

 or fall in showers around them. 



These packets of birch seeds are very interesting in 

 themselves. Scarcely an inch long and no larger than a 

 slate pencil, they hold thousands of seeds, so flat and thin 

 and light that, when loosened and set free, they float in 

 the air like tiny birds. But they cannot float away when 

 they please, for they are held tightly together by a little 

 thread or scale or point at the upper end. As soon as this 

 is broken or loosened, however, sometimes by the wind 

 swaying the branches, sometimes by the children shaking 

 them, sometimes, perhaps, by the birds pecking at them, 

 the entire packet becomes undone and away go the seeds, 

 to be scattered far and wide, many of them to grow into 

 little birches along the roadside, in the pastures, and at 

 the edges of the woods. It is one of nature's many ways 

 of sowing seeds. 



Gather a few of the packets carefully and carry them 

 home in a box. If they are damp, dry them gently ; then 

 try to pick out one of the seeds, and see how they all fall 

 into a powdery mass in your hand. Then examine some 

 of them with a lens or under a microscope. It is a capital 

 nature study lesson, but the most fun of all is romping 

 through the snow to Shake the trees. 



