M)2 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the more open water of the swamp. That swamp, by 

 the way, was a wonderful place in those days in which 

 to study many of the forms that live in such places; it 

 teemed with snipe the one we call English snipe in 

 season ; with the various fresh-water rails ; swamp spar- 

 rows, wildfowl, bittern, blue heron, and many other birds. 



One of the best places for dragon-flies is about such 

 ponds and marshes, and we have many interesting species 

 of them in our country. Dr. L. O. Howard, who has 

 written some wonderfully interesting chapters on these 

 remarkable insects, says in his "Insect Book" that 

 "Although dragon-flies are frequently very abundant in 

 swampy regions and about ponds, there are times when 

 they swarm in enormous numbers. Koffen, a German 

 entomologist, this was long before the World War, has 

 publi shed a 

 c h r omological 

 account of the 

 records of 

 dragon-fly mi- 

 grations from 

 1494 to 1868. 

 Such migrating 

 swarms seem to 

 have been more 

 frequently no- 

 ticed in Europe 

 than in this 

 c oun try, but 

 several have 

 been noticed in 

 the United 

 States. For ex- 

 ample, Mr. A. 

 H. Mundt, of 

 Fairbury, Illi- 

 nois, says that 

 'between the 

 hours of 5 and 

 7 P. M., Au- 

 gust 13, 1881, 

 the air for 

 miles around 



seemed literally alive with these dragon-flies (JEchua 

 her os) from a foot above the ground to as far as the 

 eye could reach, all flying in the same direction, a south- 

 westerly course, and the few that would occasionally 

 cross the track of the majority could all the more easily 

 be noticed from the very irregular and swift course they 

 generally pursued ; but even these few stray ones would 

 soon fall in with the rest again. Very few were seen 

 alighting, and all carefully avoided any movable obstacles.' 



"This migration was probably caused by the very dry 

 season which had resulted in the drying up of ponds and 

 swamps, and it is probable that other similar recorded 

 migrations have arisen from the same cause." 



The anatomy of a dragon-fly is truly remarkable, as 

 is the life-history of the young, which are strictly aquatic 

 animals, called nymphs. We have yet a great deal to 



A PAIR OF HANDSOME WOOD DUCKS 



A few years ago, this species of wood duck came very near being exterminated, so great was the demand 

 for a few special feathers from its sides for trout-fliesl The cut is from a photograph of a water-color 

 by the author. 



learn about these curious insects in all their various 

 stages of growth, and today we know but very little 

 about how they begin to breathe air after they leave the 

 water. Some dragon-flies are very beautiful insects, and 

 our professional and amateur entomologists have, in 

 various parts of the country, made some wonderfully 

 fine collections of them, quite the rivals of collections of 

 moths and butterflies. 



Pond and swamp insects constitute a very large sub- 

 ject in itself, and an exceedingly interesting, not to say 

 important one. To follow this successfully, one should 

 master the use of a modern compound microscope, and 

 have the entire outfit for capturing the specimens. Many 

 of the minute forms have histories of which we know 

 but little, and there are not a few species yet to be dis- 

 covered even in 

 ponds and 

 swamps of the 

 thickly settled 

 parts of the 

 eastern States. 

 In a brief arti- 

 cle like the 

 present one, it 

 is out of the 

 question to en- 

 ter upon this 

 very extensive 

 field of re- 

 search. 



In previous 

 numbers of 

 American 

 Forestry the 

 writer has al- 

 ready publish- 

 ed accounts of 

 several species 

 of our fresh- 

 water turtles, 

 and among 

 these an ac- 

 count of our 

 common snapping turtle; so we may pass that fellow 

 by on the present occasion. A good picture of one, 

 however, is introduced, as he cuts such a prominent 

 figure in a chapter on those animals found in pond* 

 and swamps. 



Where they are not likely to be too much disturbed and 

 persecuted, one of the most abundant mammals found in 

 the swamps and some ponds of the eastern parts of the 

 United States is the well-known muskrat. This big, 

 aquatic rodent is well known to the writer, who has shot, 

 trapped, and skinned many a dozen of them. This 

 rodent is also called the musquash, and there are, in the 

 United States, several species and subspecies of them, 

 some being eastern forms, others western, while not 

 long ago a very distinctive one was found in the Dismal 

 Swamp of Virginia a "swamp," by the way, that in 



