Natural Science News. 



VOL. I 



ALBION, N. Y., APRIL 20, 3895. 



No. 12 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and items of interest to the 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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Moths and Toads. 



The article on Butterflies in 

 Natural Science News of Feb. 

 23d was very interesting, and I 

 hope it may induce many, who 

 have not already done so, to begin 

 the study of these beautiful insects. 



I would like to suggest to a few 

 who are students, like myself, that 

 the most interesting way to begin 

 is to raise specimens from the 

 larvae, which can easily be done 

 with a great many species. Of 

 course in order to do this with suc- 

 cess:, one must study their habits, 

 and find proper food for each, for 

 it is true of worms, as well as peo- 

 ple, that -"what is food for one, is 

 poison for another." 



Many persons are accustomed to 

 call all Lepidopterous insects 

 "Butterflies" and have no idea of 

 "Moths" except the common 

 clothes moth, and sometimes even 

 mistake the larva of that insect 

 for the moth, and if they are called 

 to admire the delicate green of the 

 Attacus luna or the brilliant yellow 

 and purple of Dryocampa imperialis 

 will exclaim, "What a pretty but- 

 terfly." 



Nearly every one has a horror of 

 "worms," and a high school stu- 

 dent once asked in tones of great 

 disgust if I "had ever seen one of 

 those horrible green deadly poison 

 worms with a thousand legs, that 

 were sometimes on tomato plants," 

 and could hardly believe that one 

 of the most beautiful Moths in my 

 collection came from just such a 

 worm, which I had captured and 



fed from a tiny larva, and kept 

 through the various stages. 



Among the many pleasant ways 

 of studying this branch of Natural 

 History, I wonder how many read- 

 ers of Natural Science News have 

 tried collecting Moths and other 

 night flyers, by "sugaring trees?" 

 My experience has been very amus- 

 ing, and besides learning some- 

 thing of Lepidoptera, I also found 

 an opportunity to watch the curi- 

 ous ways of some Batrachians. 



One warm night in August after 

 coating an apple tree with plenty 

 of sugar and rum, I left it an hour 

 or two for the usual guests to as- 

 semble, then crept softly out with 

 a dark lantern, and when near the 

 tree threw a bright light upon 

 Moths and other insects, and al- 

 so upon a group of astonished 

 toads who had hopped close to the 

 foot of the tree and stood with 

 widely opened e)'es ready to see 

 and seize every unwary insect 

 which had come within reach. 



After that I used to sit down 

 near the tree every evening, and 

 listen to their approach as they 

 came hopping over the grass from 

 every direction. I often counted 

 ten at one time, and there were 

 seldom less than half a dozen. 

 They came as freely and punctual- 

 ly as the invited guests. 



R. Sim, 

 Jefferson, Ohio. 



Indian Funeral Trees. 



A remarkable specimen of the 

 red cedar was recently unearthed 

 by the opening of the Metzgar In- 

 dian Mound, on Deer Creek, near 

 Yellow Bud, in Ohio. A large bed 

 of ashes, a quarter of an inch in 

 thickness, covered a space of about 

 ten feet by six. Near the edge of 

 this ash bed a large log was found. 

 It was about five and a quarter 

 feet in circumference, and as sound 

 as if buried but a few years ago. 

 The side branches had been cut 

 away from the log, and one of the 

 scars was so perfect that the marks 

 of the stone axes used in the work 

 are plainly discernable. There 

 are no cedar trees now growing 

 nearer than ten miles from that 

 immediate neighborhood, and none 

 were there growing when the early 

 settlers came, so that the trees 

 must have disappeared from there 

 long ago in the past, or the im- 

 probable alternative accepted that 



the log was brought from a long 

 distance. Evidence was furnished 

 that the log was originally about 

 eighteen feet long. Right beneath 

 the log was a skeleton of a human 

 being. A small pen had been 

 made of small cedar saplings, ar- 

 ranged in the form of a tepee 

 around the large log. The skele- 

 ton was about two feet below the 

 original surface of the ground, and 

 the earth forming the mound over 

 the skeleton had a depth of about 

 thirty-four feet from the summit. 

 The earth to form the mound had 

 evidently been brought in baskets 

 by manual labor, as the "dumps" 

 in some cases, formed by different 

 tinted materials, could be distinct- 

 ly seen. The circumstances favor- 

 able to the preservation of the ce- 

 dar log had evidently aided in pre- 

 serving the skeleton, and it is pos- 

 sible the size of the log had some 

 relation to a distinguished person- 

 age, The body had been laid 

 straight under the log, with legs 

 extended and arms at the sides. 

 Around each wrist were two brace- 

 lets, made of native copper, and 

 several hundred shell beads were 

 around the neck and on the chest. 

 It is believed that the dry ashes 

 with which the body had been cov- 

 ered, in addition to the great depth 

 from the surface, had aided in 

 preserving the log as well as the 

 human remains. Even traces of 

 hair were found around the skull, 

 as well as dried and shriveled por- 

 tions of the brain were found, while 

 rude cloth and matting, as well as 

 buckskin, put over the corpse be- 

 fore the ashes, were in a fair state 

 of preservation. As the use of the 

 cedar log would seem to have been 

 a matter of choice, it opens a new 

 field for speculation as to the pos- 

 sibility of the tree having had some 

 special significance in the funeral 

 ceremonies of the Mound Builders. 

 A section of the log has been sec- 

 ured for the museum of the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences, of Phila- 

 delphia — the exploration, indeed, 

 having been made under the au- 

 spices of that body — Scientific Amer- 

 ican. 



Water-plants in Deep Water. — 

 A Delaware correspondent asks 

 whether water-plants would grow 

 on the sloping sides of a cistern at 

 the depth of 25 or 30 feet. Some 

 Potamogetons and the Vallisneria 

 would no doubt grow well at that 

 depth, and probably others — Mec^ 

 Jams' Monthly for March. 



