100 



natukal science news. 



is the Yellow Warbler — saw three 

 this morning. 



Feb. 24th. The Warblers are 

 closely followed by the Meadow 

 Larks — first note heard today, and 

 later during the day saw several. 

 I listened to their whistle for a 

 long time and as near as I can 

 translate it, it is something like 

 this: Sweet-o-lots — when-u, then 

 changing to — Sweet-chick-chick- 

 chick, and sometimes thus — Chick- 

 a-sweet-a-whe-e-e. The whistle is 

 clear, tolerably sharp with a very 

 slight touch of a liquid ring. 



March 12th. I see the Crows 

 have begun to build, saw one car- 

 rying a twig this morning. It is 

 the first bird to commence nesting 

 this season that I have seen. All 

 the birds seem slow in mating this 

 season. 



April 2d. A great many Red- 

 naped Woodpeckers have taken 

 possession of the trees in our yard. 



April 18th. Blackbirds, Thrush^ 

 es, Robins and Sparrows are build- 

 ing — saw several of them working 

 today. The weather has made 

 late nesting and discontent among 

 the birds. 



Morris Rice, 

 St. Louis, Mo. 



Vacation Studies. 



{Continued from last week.) 



These crabs have a delicately 

 figured shell, and are known as 

 "calico backs." One day a fine 

 lot of fiddlers was collected from a 

 strip of blue mud, where they were 

 feeding at low tide. In general, 

 they select situations for their 

 holes that will be covered at high 

 water; but some of them go above 

 that line, and then make very deep 

 holes, probably in order to reach 

 the moister earth. Now, the re- 

 markable circumstance, as it seem- 

 ed to us, was that the fiddlers 

 gathered off blue mud were not 

 "calico-backs;" their covering was 

 of a dark, burnished steel blue. 

 "You will never catch any fish 

 with those blue-backs," said one 

 of the sages of the shore. This 

 did not turn out to be exactly the 

 fact, but the blue-backs proved 

 less attractive than the others, 

 probably because less showy on 

 the fish-hook. 



Now here was a plain instance 

 of protective coloring. The mot- 

 tled calico-back was least distin- 

 guishable from the sand: the blue- 

 back was least visible on the mud. 

 To a bird hovering overhead, look- 

 ing for crabs, these might be just 

 the most deceptive conditions. 



But assuming this theory, a new 

 difficulty presented itself. Many 

 of the male crabs had the elbow of 

 the great arm ornamented with a 

 very bright red color. This re- 

 mained a puzzle until one day 

 when we undertook to catch fid- 

 dlers in the grass that grows on 

 some of the flats. After seizing 

 grass instead of a crab two or three 

 times in succession, the mystery 

 was solved for us very simply. 

 We found that the lower joints of 

 the grass were frequently of a 

 bright red, exactly corresponding 

 to that of the fiddler's elbow. 



We could go a little further, per- 

 haps, and assert with some con- 

 fidence that the brightest, gayest, 

 most speckled of the calico-backs 

 were those which were dug out of 

 the dryer sand that they most re- 

 semble; that the crabs in inter- 

 mediate stations between blue mud 

 and sand were of a dull, indefinite 

 hue; and that the fiddlers with red 

 elbows were more frequent in the 

 marsh grass than elsewhere. But 

 we have said enough to indicate 

 what kind of things can be noticed 

 without laborious effort, in a brief 

 holiday. There are plenty of such 

 opportunities. If one has not a 

 taste for natural history, he may 

 do service by observing the clouds, 

 the winds, and the barometer; by 

 counting and mapping the August 

 meteors; or by looking after glacial 

 scratches, transported boulders, 

 and moraines. For all this no 

 special scientific training is requir- 

 ed, and even though the disc over- 

 ies made prove to be very old and 

 well known, they will not be use- 

 less if they lead to the habit of see- 

 ing with one's own eyes, rather 

 than through books. — Science News. 



equal duration. In winter the 

 squirrel works almost continuously 

 from twenty minutes to two hours 

 in the morning, and sometimes a 

 little in the evening also, but dur- 

 ing the balance of the time it re- 

 mains at rest. 



The food has a marked influence 

 upon the daily activity. As a gen- 

 eral thing, the richer this is in pro- 

 tein, the greater is the activity. 

 Fatty substances have a contrary 

 effect. They reduce the activity 

 of mice from six to eight hours to 

 a few minutes of work a day. In 

 order to ascertain the influence of 

 alcohol there was given to four 

 rats fed upon dry grain some of 

 this liquid at proofs varyiug from 

 5 to 60 per cent, instead of water. 

 This treatment, kept up for fifty 

 days, showed no uniform effect of 

 the alcohol. 



All the animals experimented 

 i with did more work when the bar- 

 ometric pressure was high. — Sci- 

 entific American. 



Activity of Animals. 



In a recent number of Science 

 Mr. Stewart gives the results of 

 some interesting experiments upon 

 the activity of animals that were 

 made upon rats, mice, and squir- 

 rels inclosed in circular cages so 

 arranged that every motion of the 

 occupant caused the cage to re- 

 volve. An automatic apparatus 

 permitted of registering the mo- 

 tions of the cage and of conse- 

 quently ascertaining the periods of 

 rest and activity of the animals. 

 Rats and mice divide their time 

 into twelve hours of rest and twelve 

 of intermittent work during the 

 night. During the period of work, 

 the intervals of activity rarely ex- 

 ceed one hour; and are separated 

 by intervals of rest of a nearly 



A Natural Barometer. 



The most curious of the many 

 natural barometers consists of 

 a glass jar half full of water and a 

 leech. The leech is put into the 

 water, and a piece of muslin is tied 

 over the top to prevent the leech 

 from getting out. I have kept 

 them for a whole summer and 

 sometimes late in the fall at which 

 time they invariably died 

 off I found them an infallible 

 weather barometer. When fine 

 weather was to be the order of the 

 day the leech would remain at the 

 bottom of the water, coiled up in. 

 a spiral shape, and perfectly mo- 

 tionless. If rain was to be ex- 

 pected it would creep to the top of 

 the jar, and remain there until 

 there was a likelihood of more set- 

 tled weather. Just before a storm 

 it would squirm about and contort 

 itself violently. For some days 

 before a thunder shower it kept 

 out of the water almost all the 

 time and occasionally moved its 

 body in a convulsive fashion. It 

 has been said to foretell frosty 

 weather, behaving in the same 

 manner as for fine, and for snow in 

 the same manner as for rain. 

 But I have never seen it verified 

 as mine all died before the first 

 appearance of winter. This inter- 

 esting barometer can be had by all 

 as the leeches may be found in 

 every stagnant pool or pond. For 

 the top of jar I used a perforated 

 zinc which was screwed on to a 

 fruit jar, which will make it look 

 neater and fit for any private mus- 

 eum. W. J. WlNTEMBERG, 



Washington, Ont. 



