TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 131 



our friend, the Hon. Albert Steves, 

 Ave suddenly came across a single 

 wild goose taking a rest between 

 tule jungles. The writer, beino; 

 seated in front part of the boat 

 and ready for action, quickly took 

 aim and badly wounded the goose ; 

 but it managed to fly, and my son 

 Theodore gave it two loads in 



quick succession — when it came 

 down and heavily plunged upon 

 the water after flying quite a dis- 

 tfince toward the lower dam of the 

 lake. It was a beautiful, clear 

 morning — and a magnificent sight 

 iu was as the large gray bird lay 

 spread out before us on the glit- 

 tering lake. 



A Fiend of Libraries— The "Silver Fish" Insect 



Besides the large army of inju- 

 rious domestic Insects, such as 

 roaches, crickets, ants, lice and 

 mites, fleas, flies and the various 

 minute beetles, none are more de- 

 strustive to paper goods than the 

 5P-called silver fish insect, also 

 called "sugar fish," "silver 

 witch" or "silver louse." 



This interesting insect derived 

 its name from its peculiar shape 

 of a small fish, and its shining 



and museums, where it often per- 

 forates- the cover linings and 

 pages of books, or gnaws the la- 

 bels of its gummy or starchy lin- 

 ings and bores holes and furrows 

 in the paper. In herbaria and 

 drug stores it also is a great mo- 

 lesting pest, as it perforates the 

 packages and feeds on some of the 

 material contained in stored away 

 vegetable goods. 



In a local drug store a package 



Silver Fish Insect, Enlarged Several Times 



scaly body, which is very slippery 

 and therefore difficult to capture 

 without being mutilated. It be- 

 longs to the lowest range of in- 

 sects, and it is wingless, ^nd its 

 flattened body and the short, biit 

 strong feet, enables the insect to 

 run rapidly ; and on account of its 

 scaly and slippery bpdy, it easily 

 glides and hides in its favored 

 haunts; ,betweeri the leaves of 

 books and papers of all sorts. It 

 is a great nuisance in libraries 



of herbs, containing the deadly lo- 

 belia, was shown the writer, and 

 the insects had mutilated the la- 

 bel and package paper. On open- 

 ing the' herb package the silver 

 fish insects were found in num- 

 bers, and also such in their larval 

 state. Their larvae represent small 

 slightly curved dark and hairy 

 worms ; but they differ widely 

 from allied insects, for instance: 

 the so-called drug store and to- 

 bacco beetle larvae,, which also do 



