PREFACE 



IN a popular exposition of the facts gleaned from nature, 

 such as the present work is intended to convey, it may be more 

 agreeable to present the subject sometifties from the artistic 

 or aesthetic point of view. This method does not sacrifice 

 truth, which is the religion of science, but mitigates it, bring- 

 ing about a wider reading circle and thereby serving a greater 

 usefulness. This work consists essentially of suggestive essays 

 drawn from observations afield, and treating of various insects, 

 birds, and plants. In this account there is brought together 

 a series of life histories of many of the animal forms. I have 

 given more consideration here to the insects than to other 

 groups of animals. I think this is justifiable when it is 

 remembered how many more representatives of these animals 

 populate the earth, as compared with othe*r families of animals. 

 The habits of some of the commoner species of Orthoptera, 

 or grasshoppers and locusts, have been treated at length in 

 the text. This feature, given in the last section of the book, 

 along with the many photographic illustrations and drawings 

 accenting their ecological relations, it is hoped, will interest 

 the general reader in this group. 



As above intimated, the relation of animals and plants to 

 their natural surroundings has been kept constantly in mind 

 throughout its preparation. I have treated the subject of 

 protective resemblance and mimicry, as well as the various 

 protective devices inherent in insects, iil a series of chapters 

 because of the unusual interest centred in this theme. 



Many photographs are given, gathered with great care, 

 of the actual live insects found in nature illustrative of pro- 

 tective resemblance and mimicry, and I have treated many 

 of the examples given by Darwin in his "Origin of Species," 

 but from the standpoint of my own views. It will be remem- 

 bered that we have in the temperate region but a mere 

 straggling of animal and plant forms compared to that found 



