104 NATURE'S CALENDAR 



jl^g^y j3 ing, but you will find much else to say, 

 and the more you add as to the attend- 

 ing circumstances of weather, vegetation, 

 insect life, and other accompaniments of 

 bird life, the more light will you throw 

 upon the reasons for the ornithological 

 facts you have learned. 



Few windows open so pleasantly into 

 the temple of nature as that through 

 which we look when we study the grace 

 and beauty of birds. We should fall short 

 of the highest advantage, howev^er, if we 

 learned merely to recognize the birds 

 apart, and failed to get some idea of the 

 larger world of which they are but one 

 delightful feature. 



Along the sea-shore crabs and shrimps 

 of all sorts now begin to come inshore 

 and spread over the tide-flats, to feed 

 upon fish-spawn, bits of carrion, etc., and 

 towards the end of the month they begin 

 to shed their shells. Among these the 

 most striking sight is the arrival of the 

 king crabs, or horsefoots, at the time of 

 the extra high tides accompanying the 

 filling of the moon, intent upon voiding 

 their spawn at the limit of high water. 



A pair comes together, the male riding 

 upon the shield of the female, to which 

 he clings. "The female excavates a de- 

 pression in the sand, drops her spawn 

 into it, upon which the male emits the 

 fecundating fluid, and the nest is at once 

 deserted, the parents returning seaward 

 with the retreating tide." Spawning 



