42 AUTUMN NOTES IN IOWA 



he passes the cave spring under the arching bluff 

 is told a pretty legend of Indian chief and milk- 

 maiden. In some poetic sense, the idealistic Icar- 

 ians found a center for their domain of three thou- 

 sand acres in the community spring, still visible 

 beneath the tall cottonwoods at the crossing of 

 lane and highway/ 



Mason City, September 3, 1907. 

 Walking up the main street here today, one 

 noted dozens of great ^^waterbugs'' dead on the 

 sidewalks. These are perhaps the largest hemip- 

 tera commonly seen in town quarters in the state. 

 They are considerably bigger than the ordinary 

 cicadas — and those famous insects are rather 

 more frequently heard than seen by most of us. 

 The june-bug by its noisy methods and very con- 

 siderable hitting power produces an exaggerated 

 impression of its size, and of course it is not really 

 a ^'bug'' but a beetle. There seemed to be little 

 bird song here today, except for a few feeble 

 strains from a warbling vireo. Of this species 

 our own favorite memory is of certain summer 

 morning hours, when we listened to its fluent song 

 in a fine old orchard, on the edge of an Iowa town, 

 and watched its charming movements to and from 

 the dainty pendent nest. 



7 A spring reported as unfailing in dry weather, on January 

 1, 1913. 



