comstock] FEBRUARY NATURE-STUDY 75 



south to be a desirable winter resort. The junco nest s in northern 

 New York, Canada to Alaska. Their nests are built of grass, 

 moss, and rootlets, and lined with fine gran or hairs and arc built 

 on or near the ground. The eggs arc bluish white and spotted 

 or blotched with reddish brown. The observations should cover 

 the following: (i) Where is the bird seen? (2) Compare its 

 size with that of the sparrow. (3) Its most striking colors. 

 (4) Its flash colors. (5) The colors on breast, under parts, back, 

 wings, etc. (6) The shape and color of bill. (7) Its actions. 

 (8) Its flight. (9) Its call notes. (10) Its food.. 



The Pleiades and the Hyades. — After having studied Orion it is 

 easy to find and become familiar with these two constellations. 

 The accompanying map gives their position and relation to Orion. 

 The Hyades form a V-shaped constellation, all the stars of which 

 are small and faint except the one marking the end of the left arm 

 of the V. This is Aldebaran, a red star and a very large one. 

 It is a sun that gives off about forty-five times as much light as 

 does our sun. Aldebaran in the minds of the ancients, was the 

 eye of the infuriated bull which Orion is getting ready to strike. 



The Pleiades seem to have interested people of all times. They 

 seem to us to be six stars set in a halo of faint light, "just a little 

 misty bunch of stars." Yet astronomers believe they form a 

 great star system just being evolved. It is known that there are 

 more than three-thousand stars in this constellation instead of 

 only six, and they are so far away that the light reaching us from 

 them must have started before Columbus discovered America. 

 See lessons pp. 897-98. 



Snow Crystals — These exquisite structures should be studied 

 whenever it is possible to do so. It is one of the beautiful miracles 

 of this world that, water vapor freezing in the air always develops 

 six rays although these may be ornamented in many different 

 ways. Mr. W. A. Bentley has with his microscope discovered at 

 least fifteen hundred different types of these six-rayed snow stars. 

 The crystals may be studied out of doors with a lens on a day 

 when fine, dry flakes are falling; they should be caught on dark 

 flannel. See last paragraph p. 851 and Obs. 12, p. 856. 



