FOREST AND • STREAM. 



1S5 



* This grub proceeds to excavate for himself a home in the soft 

 bank of the river below the surface of the water, aud there Be. 

 mains for two long years, feeding upon the decaying matters 

 of the mould. During this aquatic residence the little creature 

 finds it necessary to breathe, of course, and in order that he 

 may do so comfortably, notwithstanding his habits of seclu- 

 sion , and his constant immersion in fluid, he pushes out from 

 his shoulders and back a series of delicate little leaf -like plates. 

 A hrauc.h of one of those air tubes of his body enters into each 

 of those plates and spreads out into its substance. The plates 

 are in fact gills— that is, respiratory organs, fitted for breath- 

 ing beneath the water. The little fellow may be seen to wave 

 them backward and forward with incessant motion as he 

 churns up the fluid to get out of it the vital air which it con- 

 tains. 



When the grub of the May-fly has completed his two years 

 of probation he comes out from his subterranean and sub- 

 as den and rises to the surface of the stream. By means 

 of his flapping, and his somewhat enlarged gills, he half 

 leaps and half flies to the nearest rush or sedge he can perceive, 

 and clings fast to it by his logs. He then, b.y a clever twist of 

 his little body, splits open his old fishy skin a.nd slowly draws 

 himself out, head, body and legs, and, last of all, from some 

 of those leafy gills he pulls a delicate crumpled up membrane, 

 which soon dries and expands and becomes lace netted and 

 brown fretted. 



The membrane which was shut up in the gills of the aquatic 

 creature was really the rudiment of its now perfect wings. 

 The wings of the insect are then a sort of external lungs, ar- 

 ticulated with the body by means of a moveable point, and 

 made to subserve the purposes of flight. Each wing is formed 

 of a flattened bladder, extended from the general skin of the 

 body. The sides of this bladder are pressed closely together, 

 and would be in absolute contact but for a series of brandling 

 , rigid tubes that are spread out in the intervening cavity. 

 •These tubes are air vessels; their interiors are lined with 

 with elastic, spirally rolled threads that serve to keep the chan- 

 nels constantly open, and through these open chanuels the 

 vital atmosphere rushes with every movement of the mem- 

 braneous organ. The wings of the May-fly flapping in the 

 air is a respiratory organ of as much importance to the 

 well being of the creature, in its way, as the gill plate of its 

 grub prototype is when vibrating under the water. But the 

 wing of the insect is not the only respiratory organ, its 

 entiu body is one vast respiratory system, of which the 

 wings are offsets. The spirally lined air vessels run every- 

 where, and branch out in every direction. The insect in 

 fact ciiculates air instead of blood. As the prick of the 

 finest needle draws blood from the flesh of the back boned 

 creature it draws air from the flesh of the insect. Who 

 will wonder then that the insect is so light? Its arterial 

 system is filled with the ethereal atmosphere as the more 

 stolid creature is with heavy blood. 



If the reader has ever closely watched a large fly or bee, he 

 will have noticed that it has more of the respiratory movements 

 that are so familiar to him in the bodies of quadrupeds and 

 birds. There is none of that heaving of the chest and out and 

 in movement of the sides, which constitute the visible phe- 

 nomena of breathing. In the insects economy the air enters 

 by the usua. nlet of the mouth. It all goes in by means of 

 small air mouths placed along the sides of the body, nnd ex- 

 clusively appropriated to its reception. Squeezing the throat 

 will not choke an insect. In order to do this effectually the 

 sections of the body where the air mouths are must be smeared 

 with oil. In the vertebrated animals the blood is driven 

 through branching tubes to receptacles of air placed within 

 the chest ; the air channels terminate in blood extremities, and 

 .the blood vessels cover these as a net work. The mechanical 

 act of respiration merely serves to change the air contained 

 within the air vessels. 



[ In the insects this entire process is reversed ; the air is car- 

 ried by branching tubes to receptacles of blood scattered 

 throughout the body ; the blood channels terminate in blood 

 •extremities, and a capillary net work of air vessels is spread 

 over these. Now, in the vertebrated creature the chest is 

 merely the grand air-receptacle, into which the blood is sent 

 to be aueated ; while in the insect the chest contains but its 

 own proportional share of the great air system. 



In the latter case, therefore, there is a great deal of avail- 

 able space which would have been, under other circumstances, 

 tilled with the respiratory apparatus, but is now left free to be 

 otherwise employed. The thoracic cavity of the insect serves 

 as a storage for the-bulky and powerful muscles that are re- 

 quired to give energy to the legs and wings. The portion of 

 the body that is almost exclusively respiratory in other ani- 

 mals, becomes almost as exclusively motor in insects. It 

 liulds in its interior the chief portions of the cords, by which 

 the moving lovers and membranes are worked, and its outer 

 surface is adorned by those levers and membranes themselves. 

 Both the legs and wings of the insect are attached to the thor- 

 acic segments of its body. 



The extraordinary powers of flight which insects possoss are 

 due to the conjoined influences of the two conditions that have 

 been named— the lightness of their air-filled bodies, and the 

 strength of their chest-packed muscles. Whero light air is 

 circulated instead of heavy blood, great vascularity serves only 

 to make existence more ethereal. Plethora probably takes 

 the insect nearer to the skies instead of dragging it toward the 

 dust. 



The hawk-moth, with its burly body, may often be seen 

 hovering gracefully on quivering wings over some favorite 



flower, sis if it were hung there on cords, whilo it rifles it of 

 its store of accumulated sweets by means of its long unfolded 

 tongue. The common house-fly makes six hundred strokes 

 every second in its ordinary flight, and gets through five or 

 six feet of space by means of them ; but when alarmed it can 

 increase the velocity of its wing strokes some five or six fold 

 and move through thirty-five feet in the second. 



Kirby believed that if the house-fly was made equal to the 

 horse in s ; ze, and had its muscular power increased in the 

 same proportion, it would be able to traverse the globe with 

 the rapidity of lightning. 



The dragon-fly often remains on the wing in pursuit of its 

 prey for hours at a stretch, and yet will sometimes baffle the 

 swallow by its speed, although that bird is calculated to be 

 able to move at the rate of a mile a minute. But the dexterity 

 of this insect is even more surprising than its swiftness, for 

 it is able to do what, no bird can do ; it is able to stop instantly 

 in the midst of its most rapid course, and change the direction 

 of its flight, going sideways or backward without altering the 

 position of the body. 



As a general rule insect wings that are intended for employ- 

 ment in flight are transparent membranes, and the course of 

 air tubes marked out upon them as opaque nervures. These 

 air tubes, it will be remembered, are lined by spires of dense 

 cartilage, and hence it is that they become nervures so well 

 adapted to act like tent-lines in keeping the expanded mem- 

 branes stretched. In the dragon-flies the nervures are minutely 

 netted for the sake of mereased strength ; in the bees the ner- 

 vures are simply parallel. 



Most insects have two pairs of these transparent membrane- 

 ous wings ; but in such as burrow, one pair is converted into 

 a dense leather-like case, under which the other pair are fold- 

 ed away. In the flies only one pair of wings can be found at 

 all, the other pair being changed into two little club shaped 

 bodies, called balances. 



Butterflies and moths arc the only insects that fly by means 

 of opaque wings ; but in their case the opacity is apparent 

 rather than real, for it is caused by the presence of a very 

 beautiful layer of colored scales, spread evenly over the 

 outer surface of the membranes. When these scales are 

 brushed off, membraneous wings of the ordinary transparent 

 character are disclosed. 



The scales are attached to the membrane by little stems, 

 like the quill-ends of feathers, and they are arranged in over- 

 lapping rows. The variegated colors and pattern of the insects 

 are entire due to them. If the wings of a butterfly be press- 

 ed upon a surface of card-board covered with a solution of 

 gum-arabic to the extent of their own outlines, and be left 

 there until the gum is dry, the outer layer of scales may be 

 rubbed off with a handkerchief, and the double membranes 

 and intervening nsrvures may be picked away piecemeal 

 with a needle's point, and there will remain upon the card a 

 most beautiful representation of the other surface of the wings, 

 its scales being all preserved by the gum in their natural posi- 

 tion. 



If the outline of the wings be carefully penciled first, and 

 the gum water be then delicately and evenly brushed on just 

 as far as the outlines, a perfect and durable facsimile in all 

 the original variety of color and marking is procured which 

 needs only to have the body sketched in to make it a very 

 pretty and accurate delineation of the insect. Keokuk. 



Random Notes. — Our correspondent R, of Ferrisburgh, 

 Vf., sends us the following notes, which contain a gieat deal 

 that is interesting. They are, the author tells us, scattered 

 through parts of two years. We could wish that the observer's 

 note-book had been more constantly in use. To have a last- 

 ing value such observations should be connected, and as far as 

 possible extended ; 



May 30, 1876.— A party of us fishing for bass in Lewis 

 Creek saw in a pool in that stream a curious spawn. The eggs 

 inclosed in a long, transparent, glutinous covering, about the 

 size of an ordinary clay pipe stem,' the whole looking like a 

 string of small dark-colored beads in a glass tube. There 

 were many yards of it lying iu the still, shallow water. What 

 was it ? [Evidently the spawn of some Batracliian frog or 

 load. —Ed. ] Black bass on their beds. 



June 4th.— Bullponts preparing to spawn, but biting a little 

 yet, Rather hue lor them, I think. 



June7lh. — Saw seventeen wood ducks, one flock of seven. 

 They are undoubtedly breeding here. 



June 39th.— With Dr. M. O. Edmunds, found a young 

 black bass 1 1 inches long; The little fellow was chasing min- 

 nows as large as hirnsalf. 

 July 8th.— Blackbirds flocking. 



Aug. 1st.— Heard upland plover (Bartrain's Tattler) flying 

 southward in the evening. 

 Aug. 8th. — Hear orioles again'. 

 Aug. 11th. — Bobolinks about again. 



Aug. g7th.— Saw a muskrat house, apparently finished. 

 According to believers in Musquash foreknowledge this indi- 

 cates early cold weather. 



Sept. 2d.— Saw two upland plover in meadows near Little 

 Otter. 



Sept. 5th.— Saw eight or ten upland plover in same meadow, 

 very wild and killed only one. 

 ,Sept- 0th.— ( in the same ground saw only two plover. 

 Sept, 21st.— Heard a ruffed grouse drumming, which I 

 think is quire unusual so early. Shot one running on the 

 ground, which flew vigorously about ten rods, and then fell 

 stone dead. In its crop were bits of what looked like toad 

 stool.. In the crop of another shot same day was a quantity of 

 clover leaves, apple leaves, beech nuts, wild grapes, small 

 seeds and buds, b'or several evenings past, till 9 o'clock or 

 later, I have heard the notes of some apparently small birds 

 migrating southward. Last night aud to-night a great many 

 were passing. The note is a single "wheep!" quite distinct 

 but not loud, aud not very frequently uttered. What are 

 they? 



Sept. 23d.— Ash ripened (no frost yet) to its first grape- 

 bloom color. A good many trees beginning to change : soft 

 maple, hickory, sumac and white ash. 



Sept. 27th.— Many hickories quite golden. Ash has mora 

 gold with its purple. Sugar maple but little changed. Black 

 and white oaks still hold their dark green. This day I found 

 on a high rocky ridge a little colony "of gray or scrub pine, the 

 first aud only I ever saw. 



Oct. 8th.— Most of the oaks still wear their dark green, but 

 some have changed a good deal. The elms are yellowing, the 

 beeches green and gold ; some basswoods, butter nuts' and 

 ashes are nalUd. 



Oct. 11th.— Saw a flock of blue snowbirds in a pine thicket 

 near Lewis Creek. 



Oct. 15th.— Flushed two Wilson's snipe on bank of East 

 Slang. A very cold, windy day ; wind west. 



Oct . 17th. —Found a few snipe in same place. A sharp west 

 wind, with bright sunshine. Killed three snipe and one yel- 

 low leg. 



Oct. 20th.— Killed two snipe in East Slang, and three yellow 

 legs there. Also killed several birds which some one says are 

 marbled godwit. A warm sunny day. Joe Birkett reports 

 having seeu a great many snipe this day on Little Otter Creek 

 marshes, just below the lower falls. The next day, Oct. 21st, 

 we beat the same grounds and flushed but three birds, and 

 those very wild. A cloudy day, with south wind. 



Nov. 17th.— Saw a flock of snow buntings, and a hare with 

 his white waiter jacket, on. 



No*r. 22d.— In a ruffed grouse's crop found birch tags and 

 round-leafed pyroln leaves. 



Dec. 14th.— Found in crop of ruffed grouse birch tags, and 

 in the gizzard a mass of woody stuff, which we^decided was 

 composed of the twigs of these tags. 

 Feb. 21, 18-77.— A crow seen. 

 Feb. 24th. — Crows about every day. 

 March 4th. — A flock of more than twenty-five crows seen 

 flying north. Have seen very few snow buntings this winter, 

 none at all for at least two months past. 

 March 22d. — A robin reported this morning. 

 March 26th.— Heard bluebird this morning, and robin at 

 noon. 



March 27th.— Heard and saw several robins this morning, 

 and heard sparrows. 



March 31st. — Phebe-birds came. Frogs seen about creek. 



April 2d.— Saw meadow lark. Found a liverwort blossom 

 (Hepeteca). Lake Champlain seems to be broken up. From 

 3d to 8th or 9th, pickerel on the marshes. 



April 9th.— Saw a swallow at creek, and heard a ruffed 

 grouse drum. 



April 10th.— Saw swallows about buildings. 



April 13th.— Say a butterfly, a striped snake, blood-root 

 flowers, and heard frogs ■" peep" (the Hylas), 



April 17th.— A purple linnet singing on one of the locust 

 trees. 



April 24th.— Flushed two snipe near Little Otter. From 

 appearances they had tarried there during the day. Heard 

 bittern Dooming. Found two fox holes cleaned out. 



May 3d.— Looked in same place for snipe, but found none, 

 nor any signs of them. Saw wind-flowers, violets and wild 

 strawberries in bloom. 



May 5th.— I saw bam swallows for the first time, but Mrs. 

 Pi. is sure she saw them a week ago. 



May 6th. — A few dandelions in bloom. 



May 8th. — Heard the long drawn " whee-ip-whee-u " of a 

 Bartram's tattler. 



May 14th.— Baltimore orioles came, R. R. M., and I caught ' 

 four black bass in Lewis Creek. Saw king-fish. 'Some bass 

 on their spawning beds. 



May 15th.— Bobolinks came. 



May 19th.— Heard first great-crusted fly -catcher and night 

 hawk. 



May 22d. — Cuckoo came. 



May 23d.— Our first brood of robins leave their nest. 



May 29th.— Saw a ruffed grouse and her just-hatched brood. 



July 24th.— A still, moonlight night. We heard upland 

 plover moving southward— apparently a good many birds. A 

 few male bobolinks still wearing the motley. Many youno- 

 birds flocking, and quite strong on the wing. 



Aug. 3d.— Beat the meadows and pastures for upland plover 

 but found none. 



Aug. 7th.— No bobolinks to be seen now. 



A Cute Spaeeow.— The following story, for which the 

 Hartford Times is responsible, will probably prove a rich 

 morsel for those who argue that, besides being useless and an 

 impostor, the sparrow is totally depraved : 



A curious story, illustrative of the intelligence and reason- 

 ing power— and perhaps of the characteristic rascality also— 

 of the little twittering mis-called " English sparrow," now so 

 common in all our principal towns and cities, is related by a 

 friend, who had it from the witness himself who saw the oc- 

 currence. The gentleman, who resides in New York, had 

 erected, last spring, in his back yard, a large box for sparrows' 

 nests. It was divided into three rows, each containing four 

 compartments. These were all speedily taken possession of 

 by a dozen pairs of sparrows, and the "business of making- 

 nests proceeded amidst the customary chippering din of these 

 fussy and pugnacious feathered colonists. Sitting idly at the 

 window, one Sunday, watching the birds, the gentleman saw 

 one cock-sparrow come flying to his place with a fine, soft 

 white feather in his bill. The box was so placed that he 

 could see into the apartments, and he saw this bird fix the 

 feather into an incomplete nest, and then fly away. No sooner 

 was he out of sight than a female sparrow from the adjoining 

 compartment, who had evidently seen that proceeding, hopped 

 into her neighbor's house and pulled out and carried off the 

 coveted feather. Becoming interested, the observer watched 

 the performance, expecting to see' the little thief carry her 

 stolen prize to her own nest.; but no, she knew a trick worth 

 two of that, and here is where she displayed an undeniable 

 reasoning process, and acted on a clear perception of cause 

 and effect, making a prudent use of her knowledge of the 

 character and disposition of her plundered neighbor. She 

 flew off with the feather to a neighboring tree, where she se- 

 curely fastened it in an inconspicuous place upon and between 

 two twigs, and there left it, Pretty soon the bird she had 

 defrauded came back with a straw to add to his nest. Dis- 

 covering his loss, he came out with an angry chirruping that 

 boded no good to the despoiler of his hearth aud home, if he 

 could only find the rogue. His first demonstration was to visit 

 his next-door neighbor without any search-warrant. In that 

 abode of peace, and innocence he found no trace of the stolen 

 feather ; and as for the actually guilty party, she was hoppii> 

 innocently about, and loudly d(5fnanding--as far as bird-tones 

 could be understood by the man at the window— what was 



