1881.] Zovlogy. 141 
bristling tails collapsed, and they left the spot, each in a different 
direction, at the command of the peace maker. He once “ brought 
up” a motherless kitten. At first, he was highly indignant at 
the presence of the little one, but finally took charge of it most 
kindly and tenderly, allowing it to suck his rudimentary teats. 
He afterwards weaned it, and then hunted for it, precisely as a 
“mother kitty” would have done! rty” seems always 
sensible of the fact, if any of the family are ill or feeling blue 
or discouraged ; in such cases he springs into one’s lap and purrs 
his loudest, ooking his sympathy most unmistakably, as much 
as to say, “Don’t feel badly—don’t be discouraged!” On one 
occasion a lady of the family while suffering from a severe attack 
of toothache, burst into tears. “Shorty,” who was regarding her 
intently, sprung upon her lap, and placing a paw on each side of 
her neck, looked into her face, giving utterance to frequent and 
piteous mews. That his friend was suffering grievously, he knew 
as well as anybody, and he manifested his sympathy and regret 
in quite as decided a manner. Many anecdotes of the old fellow 
are treasured up in the legends of the family, but the above are 
probably as characteristic as any. He is now in “the sere and 
yellow leaf,” being afflicted with “ rheumatics”’ when the weather 
is heavy, and having lost his under tushes, but we cherish him for 
the good he has done, and for the kindly sympathy he has always 
manifested for his friends —Chas. Aldrich, Webster city, Towa, 1880, 
Curious Hasir oF a Dracon-Fry.—One day this summer 
when I was looking at some tadpoles in a dish of water, I was 
struck in the face by a jet of water. On searching for the cause, 
I found that the larva of a dragon-fly (A=schna) was my assailant. 
When disturbed it sent out a fine stream of water from the 
branchial apparatus in the caudal end of its body to the distance 
of two or three feet, and not content with one volley, it would 
wheel and discharge, like a small gun, at all points of the com- 
pass. I put it in a tumbler of water, and it lowered the front of 
the body, and shot the water-far over the edge of the glass. I 
cannot say it ever took deliberate aim, but I know I got sprinkled 
many times when I inadvertently touched the glass. 
Prof. Packard, in writing of the larval dragon-fly, says, “ By a 
syringe like apparatus lodged in the end of the body, it discharges 
a stream of water for a distance of two or three inches behind it, 
thus propelling the insect forward. The apparatus combines the 
functions of locomotion and respiration.” (Guide to the Study of 
Insects, p. 6or. / 
If all Eschne have the same habits as the one I caught, we 
must add that the apparatus is also a means of defence— Sarah 
P. Monks. 
MIGRATIONS OF THE Sanp-Hitt Crane.—I had to-day a fine 
Opportunity to watch the migrations of the sand-hill crane, and 
observe their method of managing their flight under adverse cir- 
