222 



INSECT LIFE. 



earlier chapters will not need, in most cases, detailed 

 directions for the study of these subjects ; in a few 

 cases special directions are given. 



Balloons from the thistles 



Tell summer's disasters. 



The butterflies yellow, 



As caught in an eddy 



Of air's silent ocean. 



Sink, waver, and steady 



O'er goat's-beard and asters. 



Like souls of dead flowers. 



With aimless emotion 



Still lingering unready 



To leave their old bowers. — Lowell. 



SPIDERS. 



Any one that loves the study of insect life is sure 

 to be interested in the habits of spiders, although 



these creatures are not true 

 insects ; and there is no bet- 

 ter place for observing them 

 than by roadsides. There 

 are very many kinds of spiders, repre- 

 senting many different families, but only 

 a few of the more prominent ones can 

 be mentioned here. 



THE FUNNEL-WEB WEAVERS. 



Even the most careful observers 

 seldom realize what an immense num- 

 ber of spider-webs are spun upon the 

 Fig. iqi.— Folded grass by roadsides. But occasionally 

 leaf of grass thcsc webs are made visible in the ear- 



witn eg:g-sac 



of spider. ly morning by the dew which has con- 



