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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1906 



The Weed-Fields 



By B. S. Bowdish 



LMOST every country district has its weed- 

 tracts, pests of the agriculturist, but joy of 

 the lover of the artistic and beautiful in 

 nature, and incidentally the home of in- 

 numerable forms of animal and vegetable 

 life. In spring and early summer these tracts 

 are the haunts of many birds, as well as of numberless species 

 of insects. Here the vesper, field and grasshopper sparrows 

 and the meadow-lark secrete their nests and rear their young. 

 As the season advances the weed-growth becomes dense and 



deserts or gardens rich in nature-lore and pleasure, according 

 to the character of the visitor. If he knows how to see and 

 appreciate, here is an inexhaustible mine of mysteries await- 

 ing his solution, instructive facts on every hand, ready to 

 contribute to his store of knowledge. 



Perhaps the early autumn is the most interesting season to 

 visit the weed-fields, and a camera is a most valuable com- 

 panion. Long after the first frosts have touched the foliage 

 with blushes, the "morning-cloak" and milkweed-butterflies 

 skim the fields and court the goldenrod and aster. Here and 



Some Make a Cocoon 

 of Silk 



Spangled with Dew, the Cart-wheel Web 

 of the Spider Gleams 



Unfolding Fronds of 

 Fern 



rank. On the uplands the goldenrod, purple aster and iron- 

 weed deck the fields of early fall in glory, taking the place of 

 the white and Michaelmas-daisies and dandelions. In damp 

 places the beautiful cardinal flower blazes forth royally. Even 

 in winter there is beauty in the scene, shrouded in its great 

 white mantle of snow, beneath which the covey of bobwhite 

 burrow out a warm, snug bedchamber for their own use. 



At this time the vicinity of the 

 human habitation may take on 

 something of an aspect of desola- 

 tion, but out in the weed-field one 

 can not so regard it. The flock of 

 redpolls sweeping down to feed on 

 the seeds of the tall weeds rearing 

 their heads above the snow, lend 

 color to the scene, while what 

 could be more charming than the 

 graceful evolutions of a flock of 

 snow-buntings? No wonder they 

 have been called "snowflakes," so 

 like are they to the eddying whirls 

 of wind-driven snow ! Then who 

 can wander through the snow- 

 covered weed-fields without admir- 

 ing the dainty patterns that the 

 tiny feet of the mice have traced? 

 The weed-fields, like all the rest of The Solemn Toad Whose 



the world, are either barren on the Alert for 



there the larva? that are to bring forth next year's butterflies 

 and moths are feeding ravenously, storing up the vitality that 

 is to carry them through the pupa period of mummy-like in- 

 activity. 



Herein, alone, is a subject full of interest, even to the 

 dabbler in nature-study. There are as many species of larva? 

 as there are perfect insects, and there are three distinct forms 



in which they pass the pupa stage 

 of their existence. There are those 

 that make a cocoon of silk which 

 they spin after the manner of the 

 silkworm. This is usually placed 

 among the twigs of the tree or 

 shrub on which the larva or cater- 

 pillar has fed. It is composed, 

 often, of two or three thicknesses 

 of the silky material, and is tough 

 and strong. Sometimes the out- 

 side is reinforced with two or 

 three leaves. In this cradle the 

 larva undergoes the change to the 

 pupa, and in time (in this form, 

 usually the next summer), the 

 second transformation to the per- 

 fect insect. These caterpillars are 

 smooth, nearly or quite devoid of 

 Big Blinking Eyes are Ever hairs or bristles. They are all 



the Unwary Insect briskly ready for mischief. 



