HASTY OBSERVATION 265 



than wheat is transformed into chess. The so-called 

 hair-snake is a parasitical worm which lives in the 

 bodies of various insects, and which at maturity 

 takes to the water to lay its eggs. 



What boy, while trout-fishing in July and August, 

 and using grasshoppers for bait, has not been vexed 

 to find the body of the insect, when snapped at by 

 the trout, yielding a long, white, brittle thread, 

 which clogged his hook, and spoiled the attractive- 

 ness of the bait? This thread is the hair-worm. 

 How the germ first gets into the body of the grass- 

 hopper I do not know. After the creature leaves 

 the insect, it becomes darker in color, and harder 

 and firmer in texture, and more closely resembles a 

 large hair. 



See what pains the trapper will take to outwit the 

 fox; see what art the angler will practice to deceive 

 the wary trout. One must pursue the truth with the 

 like patience and diligence. 



The farmers all think, or used to think, that the 

 hen-hawk was their enemy, but one spring the Agri- 

 cultural Department procured three hundred hen- 

 hawks, and examined the craw of each of them, and 

 made the valuable discovery that this hawk subsisted 

 almost entirely upon meadow mice, thus proving it 

 to be one of the farmer's best friends. The crow, 

 also, when our observations upon his food habits are 

 complete, is found to be a friend, and not an enemy. 

 The smaller hawks do prey upon birds and chickens, 

 though the pretty little sparrow hawk lives largely 

 upon insects. 



