July 1, 1-865.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSII*. 



147 



sound-producing appendages, and they only can tell 

 what Katy-did, poor Katy herself being obliged to 

 remain silent and listen to the music of her lord. 

 The female can be readily distinguished from the 

 male, — having a long sword-like ovipositor at 

 the extremity of the abdomen. This she uses for 

 boring holes in the ground, in which to deposit 

 her eggs; which are laid about September, and 

 hatched in the ensuing spring. I have often 

 watched their proceedings; and most interesting and 

 amusing it is, and easily managed, by putting a pair 

 of these little leaf-like gems, male and female, into 

 a glass globe with a layer of turf at the bottom, 

 which must be kept damp, and a piece of net, tied 

 over the top to prevent escape. 



About twilight, the female begins to lay her eggs, 

 first boring a hole in the ground with her long ovi- 

 positor, then using it as a tube for dropping the eggs 

 through into the hole. The male during the whole 

 time carols away, and keeps asserting, " Katy-did it 

 — she did, she did." By keeping this earth through 

 the winter, in the following spring you will obtain 

 the insect larva quite perfect in everything, but 

 that of being destitute of wings. 



The favourite home of the Katy-did is amongst 

 the leaves of the "Tacha-mahaca" {Populushalsami- 

 ferci). But the "Grasshopper-bird" being a fall- 

 blooded American, true to its proclivities, is given 

 to spread, and, like a true squatter, everywhere 

 claims its right of pre-emption. The word Tach 

 means grasshopper amongst the Indians of the West 

 and South-west, and a favourite food of the savages 

 is the mahaca cake, made from the bodies of these 

 insects, stripped of their wings, sun-dried, or baked 

 on heated stones, and then ground into flour. Hence 

 the tree on which the Katy-did is found to be most 

 abundant has been named by the Indians TacJia- 

 maJiaea. 



There are numerous species of the genus ; as the 

 narrow-leaved Katy-did {Phaneroptera angiistifolia) , 

 the oblong leaf-winged Katy-did {Phylloptera oblon- 

 gifoUa), the sword-bearer {Ce/iocephalus ensiger). 

 The tropics also supply innumerable instances, where 

 the resemblance to leaves and twigs is so truthful 

 that one ceases to feel surprised at the fabulous ac- 

 counts that have been published of leaves metamor- 

 phosed into insects, and insects into leaves and 

 sticks. In an American work of comparatively 

 modern date we read, " On this continent an ani- 

 mated insect often changes itself into a lifeless plant 

 by putting its feet into the ground and allowing them 

 to take root, when they steadily become the stems 

 of a foliated plant." 



The " Vegetable insect," from Australia, headed 

 several articles in our own papers some few years 

 ago, which turned out to be only a parasitic plant, 

 gi-owing from the body of a caterpillar of a hawk- 

 moth. In the silkworm a minute fungus {Botnjtls 



bassiana) completely fills the interior of the worm, 

 then bursting through the skin, covers the entire 

 body with a white eflorescence. As a proof how 

 simple matters of science may become magnified into 

 marvellous stories by the uneducated, I will briefly 

 relate a fact that came under my immediate notice. 



About three years ago, when residing at Esqui- 

 malt, Vancouver's Island (then natui-alist to the 

 British North American Boundary Commission), a 

 message reached me that a merchant at Yictoria had 

 just received a most wonderful monster, brought to 

 him by an Indian fisherman. The messenger informed 

 me that he had seen the beast ; that it was " half 

 bird, half shell-fish ; " possessed a perfectly-formed 

 beak, head, and neck, but enclosed in shell as hard 

 as limestone, and " breathed just for all the world 

 like a Christian." Off I started post-haste. Dreams 

 of immortalizing myself by a grand and wonderful 

 discovery — perhaps doing "Baruum," or giving to 

 the world a new and unknown link in the chain of 

 species. Imagine my disgust at being shown only a 

 huge rock-barnacle, vigorously opening and shutting 

 its valvular mouth, impatiently awaiting the an- 

 xiously-expected tide. 



The owner, a " keen down-easter," literally 

 laughed at my explanation, deeming it a ruse to 

 obtain the wonderful bird-fish at my own price. Of 

 course it died, and I then had it for nothing, and 

 its shell now figures in the British Museum as a 

 monster Ballanus. The old story of the Barnacle 

 geese over again. 



Read what quaint old Du Bartas says : — 



So slow Bootes underneath him sees, 

 In th' icy islands, goslings hatch'd of trees, 

 Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water, 

 Are turn'd, 'tis known, to Ivfiag fowls soon after. 

 So rotten planks of broken ships do change 

 To Bai'nacles. Oh, tranformation strange ! 

 'Twas first a green tree ; then a broken hull ; 

 Lately a mushroom ; now a flying gull. 



In the vegetable world, like strange transforma- 

 tions, believed by the woodsman to be the work of 

 enchantment, constantly take place. To cite one 

 instance, where a mahogany-tree changes into a 

 gamboge-tree, a process the mahogany-chopper be- 

 lieves to be due to an evil spirit haunting the woods. 



The pods of the Chsia alba et rosea (one of the 

 trees producing the yellow pigment known as gam- 

 boge), when fully matured, burst, and the seeds, 

 enveloped in a thick adhesive material, descend to 

 the ground like so many spiders or caterpillars, sus- 

 pended by a fine thread-like filament. As the seeds 

 sv/ing, blown about by the wind, it often happens 

 that some of them are driven against, and stick fast 

 to a mahogany-tree, take root in the bark, and in 

 the course of a few years change its entire character. 

 The trunk of the mahogany -tree dies, its branches 

 drop off, and in its place stands its usurper, the 

 gamboge-tree. J. K. Lokd, E.Z.S. 



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