NATURE'S CALENDAR 



may go on through June and July, and 

 the eggs hatch in about two and a half 

 months. 



The lobsters, too. are spawning in Long 

 Island Sound and neighboring waters 

 near shore. " There is a great differ- 

 ence," we are told, " in the breeding-sea- 

 son on different parts of the coast. The 

 lobsters from New London and Stoning- 

 ton often lay their eggs as early as the 

 last of April or first of May, while at Hali- 

 fax Mr. Smith found females with recently 

 laid eggs in- September. At Eastport, 

 Maine, the females carry their eggs in 

 midsummer." All the edible crabs now 

 become common in market. 



Meanwhile, in mountain woods far 

 from the tide-fiats, the winter bands of 

 deer have broken up. The does, in some 

 secure thicket, are beginning to nurse 

 their spotted fawns, while their lords, 

 with aching brows, are hiding in quiet 

 dells, feeling the first throbbing growth 

 of the new antlers, to the completion of 

 which the summer will be devoted, and 

 fighting the forest flies. 



Early in this month, in the Alleghanies, 

 and towards the end of it, in Maine and 

 Canada, the gnats that have survived the 

 winter lay their eggs upon rocks just 

 above the water of swift streams. These 

 hatch in a few hours, when the larva 

 crawls down into the water and attaches 

 itself to some submerged plant, like a 

 cress, or to some sunken leaf, and feeds 



