27 



NATURAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



arated by inverting another frame 

 over the first: for they always as- 

 cend. 



After several weeks, they sud- 

 denly change their instincts; and 

 from living together in some sort 

 of fellowship, which really does 

 not seem to be incompatible with 

 their peculiar style of eating each 

 other up, they attempt to isolate 

 themselves, and to make each for 

 itself its own web, which is now 

 geometrical, like that of the full- 

 grown spiders; and as they now 

 need more room, and will jealously 

 resent any trespassing upon their 

 particular territory, it is time to re- 

 move them to the frames, which 

 will be described in the following 

 section. 



It may be impossible to say how 

 large a percentage may by this 

 plan be reared from one cocoon; 

 but the fact that two or three out 

 of every hundred have been saved 

 at a first trial, under very favorable 

 conditions, show what may be ex- 

 pected of a plan like the above 

 systematically conducted upon a 

 large scale. 



As to the food of the young, 

 there are some substances which 

 breed the smaller kinds of flies, and 

 which could be kept in a place 

 communicating with the outer air 

 in another room; but covered with 

 fine wire netting. This would ex- 

 clude the larger species, but would 

 admit the little ones to deposit 

 their eggs upon the meat, etc., and 

 the flies produced therefrom could 

 enter the apartment. 



The growing spider like the 

 worm, casts its skin several times 

 before reaching its full size, and in 

 both the operation is attended by 

 some danger. 



It is no doubt, a disadvantage, 

 that the spider, in moulting, is 

 obliged to draw eight such very 

 long legs from their old skins: but 

 although the legs may be occasion- 

 ly pulled off in the process, yet 

 they generally separate at the sec- 

 ond joint from the body, and there- 

 by no blood is lost; and, moreover, 

 although each pair of legs has its 

 its appoined office, they act vicari- 

 ously. To offset the liability to 

 injury in consequence of their more 

 complicated structure, the spiders 

 are not known to be subject to dis- 

 eases, such as have so terribly de- 

 stroyed the worms of late years; 

 but we cannot be sure that some 

 maladies will not follow their do- 

 mestication. — B. G. Wilder, M.D., 

 in an old Galaxy. 



Games Among Crows. 



I had read in various magazines 

 of the times at which our common 

 Crow held high carnival and throw- 

 ing off dull care engaged in 'games 

 not unlike those played by our- 

 selves at school, and I had hoped 

 but hardly dared expect to have 

 the rare fortune to behold a game 

 of this kind as played by our friend 

 Coivns. 



The day was one of those mild 

 September days, when nature 

 seemed to be at her best, when the 

 earth was resplendent with the 

 beauties of the fading year and in 

 the language of the poet: 



"Aud Nature's voice says iu mystic 

 words, 



The green fields wait for thee.' " 



In company with my brother I 

 had repaired to the woods and in 

 studying the birds was particularly 

 attracted by the loud cawing of a 

 small flock of Crows which had as- 

 sembled in the top of a blasted 

 hickory snag about twenty-five 

 yards distant. 



The locality was in the vicinity 

 of a clearing, to the north of which 

 was an open tract and beyond this 

 a dense wood. In the clearing 

 stood the hickory snag already re- 

 ferred to. With many loud guf- 

 faws the flock assembled in the top 

 of the snag and then all was silent. 

 A Crow broke from the flock and 

 winged his way toward the wood. 



Upon reaching this he gave a 

 loud call. This was evidently a 

 signal to the pursuing party for 

 they immediately broke for the 

 wood just entered by the leader, 

 but at the edge of the wood they 

 changed their tactics, one follow- 

 ing the leader into the brush, an- 

 other making a circle about the 

 wood and the remaining four 

 perched upon a tree close at hand. 

 The one who had made the cir- 

 cuit of the outskirts of the wood 

 having completed his mission re- 

 turned to the tree in which the 

 guard-party was stationed. 



Another sailed out from the tree 

 and upon his return was relieved 

 by another. During this time 

 nothing was seen of the leader and 

 but for a few hoarse croaks utter- 

 ed at intervals, one might have 

 supposed that he might have quit- 

 ted the wood. This croaking 

 seemed to chagrin the birds at not 

 being able to find their companion, 

 while he was in easy hearing for 

 they "gave him the horse-laugh" 

 as if to imply that they would 

 catch him yet. 



Suddenly there was a loud caw- 

 ing from the innermost depths of 

 the wood which was answered from 

 the tree, a "howling commotion," 

 and he appeared from the edge of 

 the brush where he was pursued 

 by the six members of the "out" 

 party. They gyrated in front of 

 him and performed all manner of 

 ruses to impede his progress. In 

 the whirring of wings and the 

 ever-moving mass of Crows I 

 could not determine whether or 

 not they patted him three licks on 

 the back as we were in the habit 

 of doing at school, but he ceased 

 his efforts to escape and succumb- 

 ed to the inevitable. 



They sailed away to a new quar- 

 ter and we saw no more of them, 

 but all day long we heard their far 

 away calls, their guffaws of laughter 

 and left us to muse upon what we 

 had seen. 



I leave the reader to judge for 

 himself which of his school-boy 

 games the game most resembles. 

 To my notion it more nearly cor- 

 responded with the 'game known 

 to the boys of my neighborhood as 

 "Run, Sheep, Run." 



If anyone desires to study the 

 Crows in their haunts let him seek 

 the solitude of the woods and de- 

 vote a day to their exclusive stud}' 

 and he will be amply repaid. 



C. L. Smith. 

 Oblong, Ills. 



A New Parasite. 



During the past season I have 

 studied, somewhat, our common- 

 est "digger wasp" here (DeWitt, 

 Neb. ) identified as Bembex nubili- 

 pennis. This species digs burrows 

 about i 8 inches in length in the 

 dry compact earth of roadways, 

 paths and bare places in suitable 

 localities, which they provide with 

 flies upon which the egg is laid. 



A seemingly new fact in regard 

 to this species or any of the genus 

 Bembicum, is that this species is 

 parasitized by a Tachina. Of a large 

 number of burrows which were 

 dug into, all were found to contain 

 in the cavities in which was the 

 larva of the wasp, the larvae of a 

 Tachi/ia. There were from four to 

 twelve in each cavity. They were 

 feeding on the provisions made by 

 the wasp for her own larva. In 

 one instance no larva of the wasp 

 or empty pupa case was found, but 

 the cavity contained eight of the 

 Dipterous larvae and an abundant 

 supply of food. Pupa? were also 

 found in same place as the larvae. 



