The Nature Library 



the open sunny woods in March or early April he may know 

 spring has really come and that the first hepatica will soon open 

 its blue eye. 



Mr. Howard's Insect Book ought to start many of its readers 

 to observing flies and bees and prying into their life-histories, 

 many of which are as yet not fully known. Not a farm-boy but 

 knows of the big fat grubs in cows' backs in the spring. It was 

 always a mystery to me how they got there. Now it is known 

 that the creature has traveled all the way from the cow's 

 stomach, where the egg of its parent — the bot-fly — was hatched, 

 making its way slowly "through the connective tissues of the 

 cow, between the skin and the flesh, penetrating gradually along 

 the neck, and ultimately reaching a point beneath the skin on the 

 back of the animal." 



We have only to look into nature a little more closely and 

 intently, to whet our powers of observation by the use of such 

 books as this Nature Library contains, to add vastly to our 

 pleasure in and our knowledge of the world that lies about us. 



XV 



