EXPLORING THE GARDEN 



By Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, R. A. O. U., Etc. 



(PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR) 



ANY years ago, when Louis Agas- 

 siz was a member of the facuUy of 

 Harvard University and lectured to 

 his students on Natural History, 

 he once stated that a competent 

 naturalist miglit spend an entire 

 year on any average square mile in 

 the valley of the Amazon, industriously collecting and 

 describing what he found there ; and that in that space of 

 time he would hardly have more than commenced to 

 exhaust what the area contained in the way of living 

 forms and ])lants. From what I know of modern 

 methods in biology, I would most emphatically very 

 much reduce the extent of the area; multiply the time at 

 least by five or more, and allow ten hours a day for the 

 work, with Sundays thrown in. Now, in any semi-culti- 

 vated half-acre garden in this country especially should 

 it contain a small pond and a little brook an all-round 

 naturalist might undertake to figure and fully describe 

 its animal and plant life, and several years would be re-, 

 quired to handle the task with any thoroughness what- 

 ever; indeed, a long lifetime might be needed to com- 

 plete the undertaking, and many, many big volumes de- 

 manded to publish the report. 



MYRTLE OR YELLOW-RUMP WARBLER 



Kig. 1 This well-known bird is among the very first to arrive 

 in the North at the time of the vernal migration. In posing the 

 little fellow, one of the secondary wing-feathers was displaced 

 as shown ; otherwise it is a new and unusual capture of the 

 living bird. 



Between water and earth plants, some fifty or sixty 

 species could easily occur in such a place, not to mention 

 several different kinds of trees and shrubs ; among the 

 fungi there would likely be various toadstools and their 

 allies. There would be a long list of water and earth in- 

 sects and larvae. Add to these the millipeds and their 

 relatives, near and remote ; worms of several species ; 

 perhaps fish in the pond, also frogs, newts, turtles, and 



WILD STK.AWBERRY IN BLOSSOM 



Fig. 2 In its normal habitat this favorite little plant blossoms 

 early in the spring. In some meadows hundreds of them are 

 found, and it also flourishes along roadsides and in waste places. 



SO on ; toads, tree frogs, salamanders ; with possibly one 

 or two species of snakes. By observing the visiting birds, 

 quite a long list would result in the space of a lifetime 

 not to mention such mammals as moles, field mice, mink, 

 or maybe a weasel, and, perhaps, a stray skunk. 



Think of working out the life histories, the anatomy, 

 the physiology, and the rest, of all these different plants 

 and animals ! Surely one would have to be industrious 

 to achieve the undertaking in a lifetime. I have applied 

 myself continuously to such work for considerably more 



