SOME HUES OF NATURE. 43 



Sunshine loving, they often poise in mid-air on 

 whirling wing and seemingly dawdle away ex- 

 istence. Their banded colors of black and yel- 

 low, and tapering abdomen, so suggestive of 

 yellow jackets, no doubt do them excellent serv- 

 ice as a form of protective mimicry. When 

 tired of poising they alight on some projecting 

 twig or other object, there resting with out- 

 spread wing and often moving the abdomen up 

 and down in a peculiar teetering fashion. 



The rich dark green of the foliage of the 

 maple and the oak the bright purplish red of 

 the ironweed cymes how they contrast how 

 they attract! Even the broad- winged katydid 

 calls by day on this wooded slope mingling its 

 note with those of the harvest fly and the wood 

 peewee. 



Cannas, calladiums and corn what a broad 

 expanse of green the leaves of each unfold to 

 the summer's sun. That sun is now setting be- 

 hind a sea of green a dense green field of corn. 

 Due to frequent and seasonable rains, it is of 

 that dark, intense green, so characteristic of 

 luxuriant growth. The fervid heat of the past 



