146 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[July 1, 1865. 



soil. This furnislies food and support to vege- 

 table forms, whiGli in their turn feed the animal 

 world. Then we, as we draw the knife through the 

 juicy sirloin, separate atoms, wliich perhaps once 

 clad the bones of monsters now reiDOsing on the 

 shelves of our museums, but which tenanted our 

 island long before it teas an island or naked British 

 savages existed. 

 The philosophic Hamlet might thus muse : — 



Imperial Cfesar, dead, and turn'd to clay, 

 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away ; 

 O, that that earth, which kept the world ia awe, 

 Should patch a wall to expel the wioter's flaw ! 



But we are prepared to go far beyond him in our 

 musings ; and whereas he only contemplated the 

 animal returning to the mineral world, we recognize 

 it rising from the mineral through the vegetable, 

 culminating in the animal, and sinking into the 

 earth again, and thus completing one link of a con- 

 tinuous chain, one round of the " circle of life." 



But, how of the future ? If our bodies on their 

 dissolution are destined to contribute to the suste- 

 nance of unborn generations, shall we not strive that 

 our intellectual powers shall have an influence in 

 that future ? Sliall we not endeavour to contribute 

 something to the store of human knowledge, to 

 devise some diminution of h.umau pain, to contrive 

 some additional source of human pleasure ? Shall 

 we not, in addition to our legacy of bones and dust, 

 which a dead horse could bequeath as well, and 

 which extinct reptiles have bequeathed to us, leave 

 behind us also some memorials of a higher " circle 

 of life"? 



WHAT "IvATY-DID." 



{Flatypliyllum concavum.) 



rilO the wanderer in the wild solitudes of a pii- 

 -^ meval forest, the voice of each animal, the 

 note of every bird, the chirp and buzz of 

 insects, the whispering wind, or the rolling flood, 

 has some deep mysterious meaning. The sounds 

 produced, whether denoting love, anger, or fear, 

 generally bear a fancied resemblance to names that 

 are familiar to him. Thus one of the goatsuckers 

 {Caprmulgus vociferus) has been named the " ViMiip 

 poor- Will ; " another {Cap. carolinensis) , " Chuck- 

 Wills-widow ;" a third, "Y/hip-Tom-Kelly." The 

 Carolina quail, " Bob-white ; " the rice-bunting, 

 " Bobby-link ; " an Australian kingfisher, " the 

 Laughing Jackass ; " a marmot, " the Rock 

 Wliistler ; " and so on ad wfinitum. In this way 

 one of the most conspicuous grasshoppers iPlaty- 

 plnjllum concavum) found in North-west America 

 lias obtained the name of " Katy-did." 



In the quiet evening, as the sun steals off behind 

 the hills, and the busy hum of the insect world 

 gradually dies away, and birds, one by one, warble . 



their vesper hymns and settle down to sleep ; then it 

 is the plaintive ceaseless song of the Katy-did rings 

 out from every tree and flower. Its persistent com- 

 plaint, that "Katy did it— she did, she did," often 

 recalls pleasant recollections, giving rise to many 

 curious conjectures as to the origin and meaning of 

 its singular cry. 



Every act of animated nature, to the thoughtful 

 mind, points out some unseen path, from the crea- 

 ture up to the hand that made it. Who can watch the 

 toiling ant, the busy bee, or the little squirrel piling 

 in its winter hoard, without growing wiser, learning 

 contentment, and that golden lesson one should 

 treasure through life's pilgrimage — that sure success 

 generally follows untiring industry. Again, the 

 metamorphosis of the crawling caterpillar into the 

 bright and gaily-tinted butterfly, has in all ages been 

 a source of hope and comfort, typifying a higher, 

 a purer life. Each animated atom of creation bears 

 the stamp of some great moral or intellectual signi- 

 ficance, appealing alike to the poet's enthusiasm, 

 tlie naturalist's all-absorbiug love of nature, the 

 philosopher's insatiable desire to penetrate hidden 

 mysteries, and to man's universal conviction, "that 

 naught was made in vain." 



Now, what Katy-did has again and again roused 

 up such thoughts as these. A poet, I believe an 

 American, supposes himself to have asked this little 

 tell-tale the cause of its continual assertion Katy- 

 did, and in answer obtained some hints as to clan- 

 destine meetings between a Miss Katy, more fair 

 than prudent, and her lover. He says : 



But never fear me, gentle one, nor waste a thought or tear. 

 Lest I should whisper what I heard in any mortal ear ; 

 I only sport among the boughs, and, like a spirit hid, 

 I think on all I saw and heard, and laugh out— Katy-did. 



I'm seen among the leaves here, when evening zephyrs sigh, 

 And those that listen to my voice I love to mystify ; 

 I never tell them what I know, although I'm often bid. 

 But laugh at curiosity, and chirrup— Katy-did. 



This beautiful little insect belongs to the order 

 Orthoptera, in English straight-winged ; about an 

 inch and a half in length ; its wiiigs, when fully ex- 

 tended, about three inches from tip to tip, of a pale 

 green colour, and in texture like beautiful gauze. 

 The wing-coverts are of a darker green than the 

 wings, and so curiously veined as to exactly re- 

 semble a leaf. It is next to impossible, when the 

 insect is at rest, to make them out to be anything 

 but leaves. In the males, at the base of the wing- 

 cover, is a hard glassy membrane tightly stretched, 

 and in shape somewhat like a doll's eye. There are 

 two of these plates, which, rubbed together by the 

 movement of the wing-converts, produce the sound 

 peculiar to these insects. 



So chirps the grasshopper one good-idght carol more ; 



He is an evening reveller, whu makes 



His life an infancy, and sings his fill. 



It is only the males that possess these curious 



