40 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
dred eggs are produced. The female is 
not allowed in the vicinity of the float- 
ing nest when laying is completed, and 
the male is untiring in the care of the 
eggs, constantly moving their position 
and recoating them with mucus. 
“On the third day the eggs hatched ; 
the young fishes remained beneath the 
bubbles for some time, but occasionally 
showed a tendency to sink. They were 
immediately taken in charge by the 
watchful father and replaced. In a day 
or two numbers disposed to leave 
the shelter of the nest increased to such 
an extent that the male could not pos- 
sibly secure them all, though he fre- 
quently had seven or eight in his mouth 
at once. He would search for them 
most diligently at the bottom of the 
aquarium, and securing some carry 
them back to the cradle. Many were, 
however, eaten by the female.” 
Dr. Edward F. Bigelow and daugh- 
ter, Miss Pearl Agnes Bigelow, spent 
the month of July in Kineowatha Camp 
for girls at Wilton, Maine. They took 
with them eleven girls — Mary Kane, 
Sound Beach, Zora Cheever, Green- 
wich, and nine from New York and 
New Jersey. Several of the girls are 
from Miss Spence’s School, New York 
City, where Dr. Bigelow has been a 
teacher for many years. Dr. Bigelow 
also took three boys to Camp Kineo, 
Harrison, Maine. He will go to Camp 
Mystic, Mystic, Connecticut, for the 
greater part of August, taking with him 
from New York City one girl who has 
been with him in camps in Maine and 
New Hampshire. 
Capturing a Sturgeon. 
BY F. H. SIDNEY, WAKEFIELD, MASS. 
During the June drought that caused 
low water in the streams of this section 
a huge sturgeon became grounded in 
one of the pools of the Merrimac River 
at Lawrence, Massachusetts. Thou- 
sands of people gathered on the foot- 
bridge and watched the monster fish 
trying to free itself until finally the 
police had to clear the bridge of people 
for fear of a collapse of the structure. 
One man began shooting at the stur- 
geon with a rifle but the fish and game 
warden put a stop to this as prohibited 
by a state law. Several unsuccessful 
attempts were made to capture the fish. 
Three barrels of unslacked lime were 
poured into the pool but even that had 
no subduing effect on the fish. Finally 
several men with spears and gaffs 
effected the capture. 
The sturgeon was nine feet long and 
weighed three hundred pounds. The 
captors placed it on exhibition, charg- 
ing twenty-eight cents a head to view 
the monster, and realized several hun- 
dred dollars from the venture. 
Robins Liked The House. 
Carpenters building a house in Rome, 
N. Y., found that a robin had flown 
through an open window and built a 
nest over the inside of a window casing. 
The nest was destroyed, but the next 
day a start was made on a new one. 
Eight times this was done, the bird 
immediately starting a new nest as soon 
as the other was destroyed. The owner 
of the house, hearing of the bird’s 
heroic efforts to build a home, and be- 
ing in a position to know that only 
through heroic effort is a home possible 
these days, ordered that the room con- 
taining the nest be left undisturbed 
until after the nesting season. — N. Y. 
World. 
English Sparrows and Corn Pollen. 
BY MISS HARRIET E. WILSON, PORT 
MATILDA, PENNSYLVANIA. 
The English sparrow has serious 
faults, among them those of roosting 
around the house and on porches, and 
of eating pea blossoms, besides keeping 
other birds away. 
But they have at least one redeem- 
able habit, that of fertilizing the corn. 
Two summers ago I observed a flock 
on the blossoms of my sweet corn 
actively dusting themselves. The pol- 
len floated about like dust and, lighting 
on the silk, produced an excellent yield 
of good corn. Last summer I noticed 
a similar occurrence, only the flock was 
smaller. 
Some years ago the bumblebees had 
to be ruthlessly destroyed and the 
clover seed proved a failure in many 
localities. The bumblebees fertilized 
the clover by carrying pollen from one 
blossom to another. 
Various persons have been reporting 
in “Science” observations of rainbows 
by moonl ight. Th ese seem to be very 
uncommon, and are usually described 
as almost white. 
