Notes by Members of the Chicago Nature Study Club 



Dragon-flies and Monarch Butterflies. 



'Twice the writer has had the privilege of seeing a migration 

 of the large dragon-fly come from Michigan, across the lake, 

 to the Illinois shore. Mingled with the myriad dragon-flies 

 there has been each time, a fair sprinkling of the monarch butter- 

 fly. At first one wondered why the gentle butterfly should ven- 

 ture forth upon so long and dangerous a journey with so great 

 a crowd of the fierce dragon-flies. 



The question was answered in a forest of northern Minne- 

 sota. Walking down a road in the forest, the writer noted a 

 violent movement upon a tree trunk. Closer observation re- 

 vealed a giant dragon-fly literally devouring the heart out of a 

 monarch butterfly whom it held firmly pinned, wings pitifully 

 fluttering, against the tree trunk. No lion, devouring its still 

 living prey, could have given a more ferocious impression. 



But it was one of natures tragedies. She creates no creature 

 without providing food for it. May we not conclude that the 

 migrating dragon-fly host is to some extent provided with food 

 on its long flight by the attendant butterflies? 



Dr. Holmes. 



Wise, and Yet Unwise. 



In a second reader, used in our schools long years ago, there was 

 a short story about a wren. One sentence in that lesson has 

 never left my memory, "The wren is a tiny bird but it is a wise 

 one." Long after I had left the second reader behind, I .had the 

 truth of the quotation proved most delightfully in my garden. 



A small starch box with the correct opening for wrens, had been 

 nailed up on the wall of the house. Two wrens happily built 

 their nest in it filling the air the while with their cheerful songs. 

 Shortly the box began to separate into its elements so I procured 

 a better box and nailed it upon the wall some twenty feet away 

 from the first box among sheltering vines. During the absence 

 of the wrens I detached the first box and placed it upon the new 

 one. 



317 



