36 HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



amine their claws closely. Small flies sometimes cannot 

 get away from milkweed flowers. Try to find out what holds 

 them. 



21. Review of Life in and near the Water. 



If on your rambles to ponds, lakes, and meadows you did 

 not walk with dosed eyes, you must have been struck by the 

 abundance of life, which seemed to be everywhere. 



Poplars and Willows had taken possession of the always 

 moist soil. A thick matting of grasses covered the low 

 meadows ; only here and there some flowers had managed 

 to hold their own against the countless hosts of grasses. 

 Cat-tails and many other rushes and reeds formed a perfect 

 thicket in the shallow water. Bobolinks and blackbirds 

 made meadow and rushes lively with their song. 



The bottom of the lake was in some places entirely cov- 

 ered with small weeds, that never rise to the surface. 

 Where the water is a little deeper, beautiful lilies floated 

 their grand leaves and flowers in the sun. 



And what a host of swimming, creeping, crawling, wrig- 

 gling animals we find in this water. On the surface, under 

 the leaves, among the weeds, and on the bottom they hunt 

 and play. 



On the very minute animals and plants the different 

 kinds of larvae, tadpoles, and small fish live, while they 

 themselves hide under the leaves and in the weeds when 

 pursued by their enemies, the large fishes and the birds. 



All the plants mentioned above need a great deal of moist- 

 ure. Very many animals are attracted to the water, because 

 they also need it to live in and because the plants offer them 

 food and shelter. If a lake or pond dries up permanently, 

 all these plants die ; the animals also die, if they cannot 

 walk or fly to find another home. 



The larvae of mosquitoes and flies are eaten by fish. Flies 



