Popular Science Monthly 



201 



iary floats on the wing tips, and promises 

 to defy the ocean successfully. 



The difficulty of making any large air- 

 plane relatively strong enough, although 

 partly overcome because the unobstructed 

 sea is an ideal starting and landing sur- 

 face, still lingers in a certain relative de- 

 ficiency in carrying capacity. On the 

 other hand, there is a most welcome im- 

 provement in equipment and comfort 

 which permits, among other things, a 

 liberal utilization of electric lights. 



Heavy loads, however, cannot be carried 

 without materially cutting down the radius 

 of action — loads such as heavy guns and 

 ammunition. With motors of 400 aggre- 

 gate horsepower, a span of 92 feet 

 and a total weight of 7,000- 

 8,000 pounds, this machine 

 is expected to make from 

 55 to 85 miles an hour. 

 So low a minimum speed 

 is not objectionable on 

 water. With only two 

 men aboard, fuel for five 

 hours might be carried. 



All rudders and con- 

 trols are worked by elcc 

 tricity, and controlled most 

 of the time, gyroscopically. 



Teaching Children Natural History 

 with Animal Pictures Made of Sand 



THE approved method of teaching 

 very young children is to disguise the 

 instruction under the cloak of amusement. 

 An interesting development in the carrying 

 out of this idea is found in the sand pic- 

 tures of Walter A. Ward, of New York city. 

 Cardboards covered with colored pictures 

 of animals are given to the children to- 

 gether with bottles containing the vari- 

 ously colored sand. The children paint 

 the body of the animals with glue, and 

 then carefully cover the colored portions 

 of the animal bodies with the appropriate 

 colors of sand. 



In this interesting way, while the chil- 

 dren seem to be merely amusing themselves 

 they are gaining very definite instruction 

 as to the names, coloring and physical 

 characteristics of the different animals. 

 Stories in connection with their habits and 

 the countries where they may be found 

 naturally accompany the pictures and en- 

 large the scope of the work. The rudi- 

 ments of drawing and painting, as well as 

 of Natural History, are indirectly taught 

 in this way. 



Above: The larvae 

 of the Automeris 

 Io, the moth shown 

 at the left. Its 

 brilliant stripes and 

 branching spines 

 are its protection 



Sometimes an Object Is Beautiful 

 Because It Is So Ugly 



EVERYBODY is familiar with the ex- 

 treme ugliness of the bulldog's face 

 that makes the animal positively attractive ; 

 and everyone who has studied the moths 

 is familiar with the marvelous hideousness 

 — or beauty — of the larva of the Automeris 

 io. The Io is found from Canada to Florida 

 and westward and southward to Texas 

 and Mexico. In the larval stage it feeds 

 on the leaves of almost any tree or shrub. 

 For ages the enthusiastic lepidopterist 

 has regarded it as a beautiful creature. 

 The dainty green body with lateral stripes 

 of pink and creamy white covered with 

 clusters of branching spines forms an object 

 to be admired — and respected too. It 

 should be handled with care or painful 

 consequences may result. Yet it is a 

 curious fact that in spite of all the pains 

 that Nature has taken to protect this 

 beautiful creature from birds and other 

 large enemies, she has left it open to at- 

 tack from the tiny ichneumon wasp which 

 drives its sting between the spines and 

 there places a parasital egg. In this way 

 multitudes of the larvaf are destroyed. 



