3i8 NATURE STUDY REVIEW 



Presently one wren returned and flew to the home spot. Her 

 apparent astonishment was very interesting. She fluttered 

 a moment then dropped to the ground just under the spot and 

 lay there looking up. She then flew to the roof above the spot, 

 singing loudly while looking down over the edge. Again she flew 

 to the spot, fluttered there a few moments and retired to an over- 

 hanging tree to sing and stare. 



Presently she flew away. 



I have never ceased to regret that I then left the garden for 

 a half hovu", for when I returned the old home had been discovered 

 and the process of moving was well under way. 



Now see if the childhood lore was not proven. They did not 

 move the sticks from the old home into the new directly. No, 

 the sticks were torn out and dropped to the ground, and from 

 the ground the proper sticks for the foundation of the nest were 

 once more selected and very rapidly the nest was rebuilt. 



Then the old box was removed and my family looked forward 

 to the joy of watching the rearing of a nestful of baby wrens. 

 But we were sorely disappointed. The Fourth of July was cele- 

 brated with unusual enthusiasm that year. Doubtless the 

 intense patriotism, with its terrifying noises and odors, disturbed 

 the birds. They flew away never to return to the little house. 

 In this they were not wise, for nowhere would they and their 

 children have been more welcome or better protected. 



Dr. Holmes 



Back Yard Observations 



One June morning an excited overgrown eighth grade girl 

 burst into my Nature-Science room exclaiming, "My mother 

 found the queerest animal in our back yard yesterday! It looks 

 something like a brown gray frog but it has prickles all over its 

 back and two horns." 



"Why, Antoinette, your description sounds like that of a 

 homed toad. But how could a desert animal be roaming around 

 Chicago?" 



The next day Antoinette appeared with a quart bottle con- 

 taining a homed toad fully as large as a woman's hand. The 

 poor creature looked very uncomfortable in the slimy grass and 



