190 IRambles witb mature Students 



ground from a great height ; in either case it offers 

 an interesting instance of provision for a bird's 

 special need. 



When we reflect that there are more than ten 

 thousand species of birds, inhabiting every variety 

 of situation and fitted to every climate, we may 

 form some idea of the need of adaptation in their 

 structure. 



In these slight remarks on birds' feet, I only 

 attempt to draw my readers' attention to a very 

 wide subject, which they may like to study further 

 from time to time as opportunity may occur. 



FLIES KILLED BY FUNGUS 



A very miserable fate is now overtaking some of 

 our common house-flies. If they happen to come 

 in contact with a very minute fungus known as 

 Empusa musct, one of the spores throws out a tube 

 and penetrates the body of the fly, where it will 

 grow and multiply its cells until 

 it has gradually eaten out the 

 interior of the insect. 



I found a specimen of one 

 of these victims on the window- 

 pane to-day. The fly's body 

 was swollen and fixed to the 



FLY KILLED BY FUNGUS. . ,. , . , . 



glass ; the wretched insect was 



dead, the fungus was showing on the outside of its 

 body, and all around it the white spores lay like 

 a misty halo upon the glass. 



The fungus has the power of throwing its spores 

 some little distance off, and if one of them falls 



