loS NATURE'S CALENDAR 



May 22 • logs, where its lair is well lined with 



feathers, and sometimes, it is said, with 

 the fur of the female ; though it might 

 be worth while to examine carefully 

 whether this fur is not that from hares 

 and other victims of its rapacity. From 

 four to six young constitute an ordinary 

 litter, and the young follow the mother 

 until fall. 



As for the fishers, now rare even in the 

 Adirondacks, "their nest is made in the 

 hollow of some standing tree, generally 

 thirty or forty feet from the ground, and 

 from, two to four young are commonly 

 brought forth about the ist of May." — 

 {Merriani.) 



In the insect world May is a period of 

 renewed activity. Many species that 

 hibernate as adults seem not to get thor- 

 ouglily awakened from their long winter 

 sleep until the warm days which so often 

 come early in this delightful month. The 

 hornets, wasps, and bumble-bees go a- 

 hunting for house-sites, and the queens, 

 which alone have passed the winter cour- 

 ageously, begin to build, relying on them- 

 selves alone, and destined to have no as- 

 sistance until they can rear workers from 

 the eggs they themselv^es must lay and 

 care for. The ants also resume the man- 

 ifold activities of the formicary, while 

 various ichneumon-flies are abroad look- 

 ing for any early worms to serve as hosts 

 for their unborn progeny. In the garden 

 the currant worms have hatched, and the 



