regarding the Old Squaw, which is the 

 first duck to arrive in these high north- 

 ern latitudes in the spring. He says: 

 "'During all the spring season until the 

 young begin to hatch, the males have a 

 rich musical note, imperfectly repre- 

 sented by the syllables a-leedle-a, a- 

 leedle-a, frequently repeated in deep 

 reed-like tones. Amid the general hoarse 

 chorus of water-fowl at this season, the 

 notes of the Old Squaw are so harmoni- 

 ous that the fur traders of the Upper 

 Yukon have christened it the 'Organ 



Duck,' a well-merited name. I have fre- 

 quently stopped and listened with deep 

 pleasure to these harmonious tones, 

 while traversing the broad marshes in 

 the dim twilight, at midnight, and while 

 passing a lonely month on the dreary 

 banks of the Yukon delta I lay in my 

 blankets many hours at night and lis- 

 tened to these rythmical sounds, which 

 with a few exceptions were the only ones 

 to break the silence. These notes are 

 somewhat less common during the day." 



CATERPILLARS WHICH FEED ON DILL AND 

 PARSNIP PLANTS 



Out in the vegetable garden there are 

 rows of carrots and parsnips, and beds of 

 dill, parsley, and caraway ; in summer 

 these plants which are of one family 

 have the same kind of "worms" feeding 

 upon their leaves. But the ''worms" are 

 not dressed alike at all times ; each little 

 one has a dark skin with a light patch 

 on its back, while the big fellows, some 

 at least two and a half inches in length, 

 have stripes of green and black running 

 around their bodies and on the black 

 stripes there are bright orange spots. 

 You see every caterpillar as it grows 

 bursts through its tightly fitting skin and 

 comes forth in a new one, and after a 

 time the new one with these caterpillars 

 who belong to the Black-swallow Tail 

 family, will show the green, black and 

 orange colors. 



The Black-swallow Tail larva and the 

 larvae of all Swallow tails in fact, have 

 each a V-shaped organ of defense con- 

 cealed at the back of the head. This is 

 shot out when the "worm" is annoyed or 

 angered, and at the same time a very 

 unpleasant odor is emitted. Do not be 

 frightened, however, at the antics of 

 these worms, for they are harmless indi- 

 viduals who can neither bite nor sting 

 you. 



I have noticed that the "worms" grow 

 restless and somewhat quarrelsome when 

 they become full sized. They are then 

 ready to lay aside their caterpillar clothes 

 and may dimly realize that a great 



change is in store for them. To prepare 

 for this change, a caterpillar spins a 

 silken carpet on the side or beneath some 

 friendly support and fastens into it, the 

 claspers on its last pair of legs. It then 

 makes a fine rope of silk and attaches 

 this to the support in such a manner that 

 a loop is formed about its person. In 

 this the insect rests until its skin splits 

 and wrinkles, off, leaving a queer irreg- 

 ular closed box containing the living 

 pupa. The box is called a chrysalis and 

 may be green, blotched with yellow, or 

 a wood brown in color, and it holds a 

 future Black-swallow Tail butterfly 

 When it opens and the inmate comes out 

 into the sunlight and shakes down its 

 black velvety wings, we see that they are 

 crossed by lemon yellow spots and lines, 

 while if the butterfly be "My Lady" she 

 will have in addition a fine showing of 

 blue on her upper surface. 



The Black-swallow Tails are a double 

 brooded family, and the summer butter- 

 flies emerge from the pupa or dormant 

 state in from nine to ten days after the 

 chrysalides are formed; they mate and 

 the females lay their tiny eggs on such 

 plants in our gardens as the dill and the 

 parsnip. These eggs hatch into wee cat- 

 erpillars who as they grow, devour a lot 

 of green stuff. The insects pass the cold 

 weather within their odd little casket 

 chrysalides, but when spring calls, they 

 are out and doing. 



Ellen Robertson Miller. 



41 



