430 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the hearts of our cities. The study of their habits in 

 nature is brimful of interest, and there is a large Ameri- 

 can literature upon the subject which may be examined 

 with great advantage. In order to appreciate their 

 forms, characters and coloration, one should capture 

 specimens of the various species, and this is readily ac- 

 complished with a wide-mouthed bottle and a piece of 

 stiff cardboard two or three inches square or enough 

 to cover the niouth of the bottle, with some to spare. 

 If the bottle is brought very gradually and silently to 

 one side of the insect, with the mouth towards the 

 specimen, the cardboard being handled in the same way 

 in the left hand, it is generally an easy matter to secure 

 your specimen from the flower by skilfully closing the 

 two together. Be sure the 'bottle is clean and of very 

 clear glass, for then you can examine your captive 

 through it to the best advantage. 



In Figure 7 we have a wasp and its nest sent me by a 

 friend in Florida; it is one of the reddish kind that 

 builds the form of nest shown ; while in Figure 10 I 

 have given a fine cut of the common White-faced Hornet 

 of the East the one that builds the big paper nest with 

 tiers of paper cells inside. As we are all aware, the 

 sting of these insects is very severe, especially that of 

 the hornet shown in Figure 10. If the victim be :i 

 man, and a sufficient number of these insects sting him 

 during an attack by them, he may die from the amount 

 of poison injected, which has happened although in rare 

 instances. 



In New England, many years ago, I came across one 

 of these paper nests of the White-faced Hornets in an 

 extensive pasture field, and it was situated in an angle 

 of the surrounding stone-fence. Evidently it had been 

 attacked as it was considerably battered through stones 

 having been thrown at it. Believing the owners to have 

 been completely used up, I also incautiously threw a stone 

 at it, and this caused the inmates, of which there were 

 many, to issue for a fresh attack. One wasp promptly 

 stung me between the eyes, and the lids of both soon 

 swelled so that I was, to all intents and purposes, blind. 

 Fortunately, I knew the country well ; and so, by feeling 

 my way along by the fences, home was reached in the 

 course of an hour or more; but it was several days 

 before my physiognomy resumed its normal appearance, 

 and the family ceased asking me whether the hornet 

 had been a male or a female; or whether it made any 

 curves when it came my way ; or "did it fly backwards n 

 order to sting me in the way it did," together with 

 similar sympathetic inquiries. 



Few insects have such interes<ing habits as the bees, 

 hornets and their immediate allies ; and what has been 

 written about them furnishes reading that even a layman 

 will take to and enjoy. 



The old clock has just announced 5 A. M. Hear 

 those "peepers" down in the marshy end of your little 

 jxiiul? and the rich notes of the first brown thrasher 

 of the year, as he pours them forth from the topmost 

 twig of the lone birch tree close to your window? Ah, 



spring is indeed here again ; ajid now is the time for a 

 morning stroll in your garden, in that you may hear and 

 see things as you breathe the glorious air of this most 

 lovely season of the year laden as it is with the fra- 

 grance of flowers that carry such a volume of happy 

 thoughts to your mind. 



nPHE teacher had been reading to the class about the 

 -' great forests of America. 



"And now, boys," she announced, "which one of you 

 can tell me of the pine that has the longest and sharpest 

 needles ?" 



Up went a hand in the front row. 



"Well, Tonmiy?" 



"The porcupine." Tit-Bits. 



Photograph by A. Sargint 



THE KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE 



Claimed to be the largest and handsomest one of its kind, this 

 tree has been nominated for a place in the Hall of Fame for 

 Trees by Cora June Sheppard, of Shiloh, New Jersey. It stands 

 75 feet high and was planted in 1804 directly in front of the 

 historical Verplanck mansion at Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, occu- 

 pied for some time by Baron Steuben during the Revolution and 

 the scene of the first meeting of the Society of the Cincinnati. 

 The property on which the tree was planted came into the Ver- 

 planck family from the Indians, in the reign of James II., King 

 of England in 1863, and it has remained in the family ever since. 



