38 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



^minutes, and the crew disappear before our awe- 

 (Stricken eyes, engulphed in "the furious foaming 

 •billows. This day. however, no such heartrending 

 ^sights were there ; the horizon was scanned, but 

 •not a sail was visible. The wind was as strong, 

 •the waves as high, and they dashed against the 

 -rocks as furiously. As I looked seaward, I saw a 

 -flock of birds approach. They flew just above 

 •the surface of the water, and when nearly opposite 

 •to where I stood, they dropped, one after another, 

 -with a sudden splash, into the seething foam in 

 -the trough of the sea. Could it be possible that 

 ~ birds could live where the mightiest vessel would 

 'be dashed to pieces in a few minutes ! Li%-e, aye, 

 •and get their living too, apparently. I watched 

 them some time, and was intensely interested in 

 ,their motions, though I had often watched them 

 before ; yet so perilous appears to be their position, 

 that I can never divest myself of the idea that this 

 -wave, or the next, or that big one now gathering 

 -itself together, will overwhelm them. In the 

 •roughest sea, in the terrible fun' of the wildest 

 $ storm, they are at home; and. indeed, they seldom 

 , appear on our coast but at such times. The birds 

 -are the common Scoter, (Oidemi anigra Liim), 

 .called, hereabouts, the Black Duck. They sit, as 

 I have described, close to the shore, where the 

 -waves roll most furiously, and where the howling 

 i of the wind, and the dashing of the billows, is the 

 . only sound. As one of these masses of foam rolls 

 shoreward, the Scoter may be seen rising up on 

 ! the surfaee as the wave approaches it. Just as 

 ,-ihe broken water is about to roll over it, the bird 

 dives; dives right through the wave, and appears 

 . in about the same place after the wave has passed 

 , -on. Sometimes a wave will dash on without 

 Tolling over, spray blowing off its crest, and look- 

 *sjPg more dangerous than the broken surf ; but 

 | for one like this the bird has no fear, and you can 

 ..see it sitting on the swelling water, rising up the 

 :side of the wave, visible for a moment at the very 

 I -crest, over which it almost seems to fall, and then 

 ■ sailing away down the hollow between this wave 

 and the next, to dive through or float on as may 

 be needed. I have seen a flock of these birds sit 

 -fchus in the heart of a storm, for days together, 

 quite as much at home there as is the Lark in the 

 meadow, in the calm beauty of the summer day. 

 'The Scoter is an excellent diver, and obtains much 

 •of its food under water; but in such a storm as 

 •sthat described it is doubtless able to find enough 



upon the surface. I have made the above not* 

 of this bird in & violent storm, not because I had 

 anything new to say, or anything to record that 

 had not been observed before, .but to call the 

 attention of my readers to common occurrences, 

 that only want to be thought about, to show how 

 interesting they are. There are many equally 

 interesting habits to record, not only of every 

 bird, but of every living being. Try to observe, 

 try to write your observations. It will take the 

 the combined attention of all our naturalists a 

 long time before we need go far for something new. 



ORDERS OF INSECTS. 



There was a time when crabs, and lobsters, and 

 one hardly knows what, were all included in the 

 same class as butterflies and beetles. In a hu 

 morous poem by Dr. Wolcott he depicts no less | 

 person than Sir Joseph Banks, in a state of su- 

 preme delight at a discovery he believed he had 

 made, — that fleas were young lobsters. Sir Joseph 

 is supposed to be able to find no other way of de- 

 ciding such a question than by boiling a quantity 

 of fleas, with the idea, that if they changed to the 

 beautiful red of the boiled lobster, he would have 

 proved his case. The obstinate fleas however 

 would not turn red, and the poem concludes by 

 Sir Joseph expressing his disgust in language more 

 forcible than eloquent. Even a humorous poet 

 would not now-a-days, venture to display so great 

 an ignorance of natural science, but there are s] 

 many doubtful points, and though we do not p 

 pose to attempt in these pages to settle any dubi 

 question, or even to interfere much with them, 

 hope to help our readers to avoid many pop- 

 errors. For instance the cockroach, which 

 generally called a " Black Beetle " is neither b 

 nor a beetle. We will try to show you how 

 principal divisions of the class Insecta are dis; 

 guished from one another, so that when you 

 an insect you shall be able to say whether it 

 Bee or a Fly, a Bug or a Beetle, a Moth or 

 Caddis Fly. 



Insects belong to that great division of 

 Animal Kingdom, Invertebrata, animals withoi 

 back-bones. They belong to the sub-kingdom! 

 Anradosa or ringed animals, creatures whose bodie 

 are composed of a series of rings, moveable one 



