Birds & Nature Magazine 



What is " Book Larnin?" 



may become the rule rather than the ex- 

 ception. 



The term nature study is being much 

 abused at present, but I hope I may be 

 rightly understood when I say that the key 

 to the solution of this problem is original 

 research. The mind seeks for truth as the 

 body for food. Search is a primordial ele- 

 ment in all life, in all education. Cut this 

 out and you have parasitism and degenera- 

 tion of the higher functions. Everything 

 that lives, from the amoeba seking for food 

 to the artist or the scientist in search of 

 beauty and truth, spends the best effort of 

 life in just this thing — search. Witness the 

 way the infant learns during the first years 

 of life, the incessant activity and infinite 

 delight and wonderful rapidity with which 

 it reaches out into the unknown of Nature 

 around it. Let us study hov/ we may con- 

 tinue this splendid process of growth 

 through all the years of school life. To 

 do this we shall need nature at every turn, 

 and the result will be a living, active, creat- 

 ing mind instead of a helpless parasite. — 

 "IS^ature Study and Life." 



Grasshopper Roast 



AMONG the choice delicacies with 

 which the California Digger In- 

 dians regale themselves during the 

 summer season is the grasshopper roast. 

 Having been an eye-witness to the prepara- 

 tion and discussion of one of their feasts 

 of grasshoppers, we can describe it truth- 

 fully. There are districts of California, as 

 well as portions of the plains between the 

 Sierra Nevada and the Rock}^ Mountains, 

 that literally swarm with grasshoppers, and 

 in such astonishing numbers that a man 

 cannot put his foot to the ground, while 

 walking there, without crushing great num- 

 bers. 



To the Indian they are a great delicacy, 

 and are caught and cooked in the following 

 manner: A piece of ground is sought 

 where they most abound, in the center of 

 which an excavation is made, large and deep 

 enough to prevent the insect from hopping 

 out when once in. The entire party of 

 Diggers, old and young, male and female, 

 then surround as much of the adjoining 

 grounds as they can, and each, with a 

 green bough in hand, whipping and thrash- 

 ing on every side, gradually approach the 

 center, driving the insects before them in 

 countless multitudes, till at last all, or 

 nearly all, are secured in the pit. 



In the meantim-C smaller excavations are 

 made, answering the purpose of ovens, in 

 which fires are kindled and kept up till 

 the surrounding earth, for a short distance, 

 becomes sufficiently heated, together with 

 a flat stone, large enough to cover the oven. 

 The grasshoppers are now taken in coarse 

 bags and, after being thoroughly soaked in 

 salt water for a few moments, are emptied 

 into the oven and closed in. Ten or fifteen 

 minutes suflice to roast them, when they 

 are taken out and eaten without further 

 preparation, and with much apparent relish, 

 or, as is sometimes the case, reduced to 

 powder and made into soup. And having 

 from curiosity tasted, not of the soup, but 

 of the roast, really, if one could divest 

 himself of the idea of eating an insect as 

 we do an oyster or shrimp, without other 

 preparation than simple roasting, they 

 would not be considered very bad eating, 

 even b3^ more refined epicures than the 

 Digger Indians. 



