Vol. XXII. No. 3.] 



POPULAE SOIElSrCE NEWS. 



35 



[Original In Popular Science Jfews.] 

 NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 



BY DR. S. F. LANDREY. 



English-Sparrow Ingenuity. — At the city of 

 Lafayette two summers ago, some boys, in flying a 

 kite, dropped it accidentally over a telegraph wire, 

 whence the string hung down several feet in mid- 

 air. A female sparrow coveted the string to weave 

 into her nest. She pecked at it, on the wing, sev- 

 eral times unsuccessfully, and at last succeeded 

 in getting one foot and leg entangled. It proved 

 to be a painful and precarious situation. In vain 

 she fluttered and tried to escape. Her calls were 

 soon answered by nearly a hundred sparrows, which 

 sat in rows chirping, occasionally flying down to 

 the imprisoned bird near enough to understand 

 the situation. At length, as if by preconcerted 

 agreement, they started in a circle round the fet- 

 tered bird; each bird with the certainty of a well- 

 aimed arrow nipped the string with its bill. Fi- 

 nally the string parted suddenly; the prisoner nearly 

 touched the ground before she recovered herself 

 from the fall. She flew to an adjoining building, 

 where her mates and herself soon loosened the ob- 

 noxious string, and she flew with it to her nest. 

 Several hundred men and boys stood admiring wit- 

 nesses of the untrained performances of the.se so- 

 called mischievous birds. Suggestions of instinct, 

 reason, perseverance, etc., fell from admiring lips; 

 but the question, " Was it reason? " remained un- 

 answered by those who allow to men only this high 

 prerogative. As he is only concerned with fads, 

 it is not the writer's province to answer that ques- 

 tion. Sufiicient to know that " not a sparrow falls 

 to the ground without His care." 



a pane or plate of glass. Every molecular fibre, 

 spot, and variation will be magnified in a wonder- 

 ful manner. The alternate lights and shades pro- 

 duce a magnificent picture for study. 



Tyndall first demonstrated that darkness is 

 produced at the uniting line of two lights. Two 

 electrical lights distantly situated with respect to 

 each other will produce midway — or, if one be 

 stronger than the other, at the appropriate distance 

 from each — a dark space. 



So intensely brilliant is the light, that smoke, 

 vapor, and ordinarily invisible bodies, cast deep, 

 dark shadows to great distances, — greater even 

 than it would be safe to say to one who had never 

 seen them. Against the sides of barns, liouses, 

 and other buildings, — intervening trees, their 

 branches and foliage, are not dimly, but neatly and 

 plainly, shadowed. The usual flickering, increasing 

 and decreasing, of this class of lights, is mainly due 

 to lack of power or to imperfectly compositioned 

 carbons. 



[Original in Popular Science Ifews.] 

 BOTANY AS A RECREATION. 



by FREDERICK LEROY SARGENT. 



ni. 



Cunning of the Fox. —On the Lower Wa- 

 bash a company of hunters from Tippecanoe 

 County encamped for the night among the cavern- 

 ous limestone hills occasionally found in those 

 regions. The hounds soon traced up the retreat 

 of an old gray fox and her family in one of those 

 narrow crevices that probably led into a more open 

 cavern farther in. The whining of the young foxes 

 was very distinct, and led to louder hayings of the 

 hounds. The mother, however, was "not at 

 home." But it was not long till her barking was 

 heard beyond the camp, on a small hill in another 

 direction. The dogs soon took the hint, and gave 

 her a magnificent chase around the hill. Doubling 

 on her track she deluded the dogs, returned to her 

 cubs, and either carried or induced them to follow 

 her into the deeper recesses of the cavern, beyond 

 the dangers of digging and chasing. I have often 

 thought that little piece of strategy a masterly piece 

 of generalship. What could be more natural than 

 to desire to draw away from her young ones the 

 threatening dogs and men ? Seeming to know that 

 her own barking would have the desired effect of 

 diverting their attention to larger game in an open 

 field, she ventured to draw their attack upon her- 

 self, and succeeded in saving the lives both of her- 

 self and her young ones. 



Electrical Lights. — The Jenny electrical 

 light is in use in Logansport, Ind. Some peculiar 

 facts are noticeable resulting from their use. They 

 attract during the warmer weather all manner of 

 nocturnal beetles, moths, and other insects. These 

 are destroyed by thousands, for they find their way 

 inside the open globes, and the intense heat de- 

 stroys them. Some new and unusual insects are 

 thus caught that one might look for in vain without 

 this kind of a light. 



Where a light hangs opposite a window, the most 

 beautiful frescoings on an opposing wall may be 

 discerned by letting the light shine, in full, through, | 



Do Worms fall during Showers? — After 

 some rainfalls, angle-worms are occasionally found 

 in crocks or other vessels placed under trees or roofs 

 of buildings, where certain birds, as robins, have 

 a short time previously deposited them, or left 

 them suddenly, by an attack from jay-birds, or 

 being scared away by boys throwing at them, or 

 shooting at them with their "flippers." If under 

 a tree, or even in a clear space, the worms would 

 be dropped at once into the vessels; and as they 

 are smooth inside, on account of the glazing, 

 the prisoners would have to remain. If left suffi- 

 ciently long, they sometimes die and dry up in 

 these locations; but if dropped on a roof, and the 

 roof is old and mossy, they find lodgement under 

 spots of old moss or under the ends of spongy 

 shingles, where they remain till the rain induces 

 them to crawl out and be washed down over the 

 drip, or sometimes through pipes into closely ce- 

 mented cisterns. Children, playing, often put such 

 objects in out-of-the-way places, to see if they will 

 swim, or to tempt some bird to procure his dinner. 

 I never knew but one or two extensive rainfalls 

 that were prolific in fishes, worms, etc. When 

 about eight years old, there happened, near Day- 

 ton, O., what the "oldest inhabitants" called 

 a "cloud-burst," which in after-years I discov- 

 ered to be a water-spout formed over Stillwater 

 River, at the milldam. The water — fishes, cray- 

 fishes, and every thing therein contained — was 

 bodily lifted out of the river, carried something 

 over a fourth of a mile, above a piece of inter- 

 vening timber, and suddenly collapsed, deposit- 

 ing its catch, and all the water, on the turnpike. 

 Great trenches were washed out, eight to ten feet 

 in depth ; and on the outer edge of the break was 

 a large collection of catfish, bass, and other water 

 inhabitants. I gathered up some of these myself, 

 some of nearly a pound weight, and took them 

 home. 



In after-years I witnessed one of these "cloud- 

 bursts " in broad daylight, when the fishes were 

 there again, and all the mystery of it was cleared 

 away. The deceiving little " whirlwinds " often 

 seen on hot summer days convey a very good 

 idea of the lifting power of the air when contend- 

 ing currents form one of those "lifting spirals," 

 and carry up into mid-air dust, leaves, fodder, — 

 in fact, any thing almost that "falls in" when 

 the order comes "to go." 



The London Globe says: "It is. comforting to 

 find that the boiling-point of ' allylenedichlordi- 

 bromide' is 190°, while that of 'methylohlordi- 

 brompropylcarbinylchloride ' is something between 

 140° and 145°." 



In the study of sea-weeds one can make a very 

 good beginning, even to the recognition of species, 

 without any aid from the microscope. Every one 

 who has been at the sea-shore must have some idea 

 of the beauty of these plants, but only those who 

 have collected them and studied them have ob- 

 tained any adequate conception of their exquisite 

 delicacy. The best introduction that a beginner 

 can have is afforded by Hervey's Sea Mosses, a 

 delightful little book, adapted to the needs of those 

 who know nothing whatever of botany, giving full 

 directions for practical study, and illustrated by 

 accurate colored plates. For more advanced work 

 on this group the student will need Farlow's 

 Marine Algce of New England and Adjacent Coast; 

 microscopical details are illustrated by plates. 



The fresh-water algffi are almost always micro- 

 scopic, and in their study one feels as if he were 

 peering into a new world. He sees an endless vari- 

 ety of form, some beautiful in their simplicity, 

 others amazing in the intricacy of their ornamen- 

 tation. It is a series of surprises. Mostly invisi- 

 ble to the naked eye, there may be collected in a 

 spoonful of water enough of these tiny plants to 

 furnish material for days, or even weeks, of de- 

 lightful study. In many cases their study is not 

 difficult, even for the novice. Stokes's Microscopy 

 for Beginners forms an excellent introduction, and 

 at the same time serves as a useful guide in the 

 recognition of the minute animals often associated 

 with these lower plants, and not infrequently liable 

 to be mistaken for them. A thoroHgh study of 

 these plants will require the use of Wolle's Desmids 

 of the United States, and Fresh- Water Algce (exclu- 

 sive of the desmids) by the same author. 



The group of diatoms is not treated in the works 

 above mentioned, except in an elementary way by 

 Stokes. The diatoms present peculiar difficulties, 

 and there is no general work in English to which 

 the student may be referred. Kain's photographic 

 reproduction of the plates of Schmidt's Atlas der 

 Diatomaceenkunde will be found very valuable for 

 those who wish to study the species of these exquis- 

 ite creatures. 



The fungi are as numerous as they are diflScult 

 to study; and although in certain groups familiar- 

 ity with one species may be obtained without a 

 great deal of trouble, in the majority of cases the 

 student can hardly hope to gain more than a gen- 

 eral knowledge, unless he is prepared to devote con- 

 siderable time to the subject, and is able to use 

 a number of books, not only in English, but in 

 French, German, and Latin. However valuable 

 and interesting this may be, we are loath to stretch 

 our idea of ' ' recreation " so as to include such work. 

 We lack good general books on American fungi 

 (at least in English), and about all we have are 

 synopses of a few of the smaller groups scattered 

 through State reports and botanical journals. A 

 List of Works on North-American Fungi has recently 

 been issued by Professors Farlow and Trelease, and 

 to this we may refer those who desire information. 

 The lichens are also, we must confess, a difficult 

 group; but we are fortunate in having valuable aids 

 provided for the American student. Willey's In- 

 troduction to the Stttdy of Lichens offers all needed 

 preliminary information regarding technical terms 

 and methods of collecting and examining, while 

 Tuckerman's Synopsis of North-American Lichens, 

 although not yet completed, includes the great ma- 

 jority of forms that a beginner would be apt to 

 collect. 



While it is, of course, not to be expected that 

 any one will attempt to gain proficiency in all of 



