390 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[October, 
IBBYS & ©HIEILS 9 (D©jL¥MM 0 
October. 
Last month we told you that we had come to the 
months with names from their numbers; as that was 
the seventh month, so this was the eighth month of the 
old Roman year, which we told you began with March. 
Octo is the Latin for eight. There is nothing of special 
historical interest connected with the month, but it is 
one in which boys and girls make history very fast. 
We said last summer that June was the young¬ 
ster's month; -we were a little hasty in saying this. 
It should by all means have been October. Now 
come the perfect days, now the gorgeous colors, now 
that wonderful stillness in the woods, when you can 
hear a nut drop. Nuts and nutting! We said that you 
youngsters made history this month, and when you 
boys and girls get older, you will look back on some 
Saturday this October, as one of the happiest in the his¬ 
tory of your lives. It is not a history that will be down 
in books, and no one else will read what is written in 
your memory. But these October days, their sights, 
sounds, and even odors, the words, smiles, and little 
kindnesses, these when you are older will, when you 
least expect them, all come back with a strange freshness. 
No. 446. Puzzle Picture.— -You see the sea 
—you can’t miss that; but you are to see a Miss. She 
may be going to sea; she may be waiting along the 
shore. She’s quite young, but of a most uncertain age, 
as you will find her over nine and under eleven. 
- m l ■ - 
Answers to Correspondents. 
BY TUB DOCTOR. 
A Little Lame Girl. —Her name is Bell, and she 
lives in a log house near Lake Memphramagog. Do you 
know where that is ? some perhaps will say it is in Can¬ 
ada, and others that it is in Vermont, and both will be in 
part right, for the lake is about half in each. Little Bell 
is only 10 years old, and she writes a very pleasant letter 
to The Doctor. The dear little child says she has always 
been lame, but she does not let that prevent her from 
using her eyes, and she says “ I look around and see all I 
can.”—She sent me an insect she found on the door-step, 
but it was so broken in pieces by the mail, that I can not 
make out what it is. She writes: “ I have a splendid 
dog, and his name is Rover. I have three cats, and the 
prettiest one has two kittens; the old cat is black and 
white, and so are the kittens.”—Enjoy your pets my little 
one, and every one in our great family of boys and girls 
will join with me in wishing you much happiness. 
A Kentucky Boy Uses IIis Eyes.— Here is a very 
clever letter from Charles Martin, who lives in Kentucky. 
Charlie is only 11 years old, and I let him tell his story 
in his own words. He says: “ I have concluded to write 
and tell you what I have seen. I have a very kind Pa, 
who built an aquarium for the pleasure of us children, 
and while my little brother and myself were playing 
around it the other day, we found a cricket which we 
threw into the water. We soon saw two horse-hair 
worms, which appeared to come from the cricket, and 
when we had told our Pa of them he told us where to 
look in the Agriculturist for your letter on the subject. 
We had often heard of horse-hair snakes, and that 
horse-hairs turned to snakes, and had seen the worms, 
but we never knew how they came until we saw 
those, and read your letter. They were quite a curi¬ 
osity for brother and me ; we saw the worms laying the 
eggs of which you speak; they came out of the worm 
looking like a white thread several inches long, we put 
this thread-looking thing under the microscope, and 
could not sec anything in it that looked like eggs, until 
we burst open the shell or skin, by squeezing it between 
two glasses, then we saw hundreds of roundish looking 
things, that we supposed were the eggs, and this thready 
looking thing appeared to have been stuffed with the 
eggs like a sausage skin. 
Birds as Pets. —Charlie S., in Venango County, Pa., 
wishes me to tell him how to catch humming birds and 
crows to tame as pets. There are some birds which 
seem to enjoy life in confinement, and not only become 
tame, but so attached to those who have the care of them 
that they will not go away when allowed their liberty. 
Then there are other birds which will not live in a 
cage, but mope and pine away when deprived of liberty, 
and others which, while they will live, never become 
contented, but always appear like prisoners on the look¬ 
out for a chance to escape. However it may be with 
other birds, I do not think it right to shut up those of 
either of these two kinds. Indeed I am not sure that it 
is best to shut up any of our native birds at all. Those 
who keep cage birds say that they are much better off, 
as they are not shot at by overgrown boys or hunted by 
hawks, owls, and other enemies. I will not talk about 
the right and w T rong of the matter now, hut only say that 
from a selfish view of the matter the birds should be free, 
as they can then serve us much better than when caged. 
There are but few birds which do not at some time in 
their lives feed upon insects, and every farm in the 
country needs many times more birds than it now has, 
to kill the injurious insects—so for our own good we 
should neither kill nor shut up the birds. But to answer 
Charlie’s question we must say something about the 
habits of 
Humming-Birds.— Though so beautiful and so small, 
the humming-bird, (for but one is common in the north¬ 
ern states), is one of the most quarrelsome of all birds, 
and as full of fight as a game fowl. As with passionate 
boys, the humming-bird's disposition often gets it into 
trouble. Did you ever see one of its nests ? It is a cun¬ 
ning affair, usually on the upper side of the limb of an 
apple tree ; it is only about an inch and a half across, 
lined with soft down, and so covered on the outside with 
lichens, (some call them mosses), that you might hunt 
for a long time without finding it, as it appears much 
like an old knot upon the tree. Whenever a person 
comes near the nest, the birds immediately show fight 
and attack him. It seems rather foolish of the little 
things, after taking so much pains to hide the nest, to 
get into a passion and let the secret out. The nests are 
rarely found in any other way, and when thus discovered 
the young birds when about ready to fly have been taken. 
I never knew the old birds to be taken in but one way ; 
I have known several of them to be caught which had 
flown into a room or greenhouse where there were 
flowers in bloom, and by quickly shutting the windows 
the little birds were captured. I never knew one to live 
long after being taken, but have read accounts of those 
which have been kept several months, but they are 
warm weather birds, and die on the approach of winter 
in spite of all care. As so many have failed in trying to 
keep them, I do not think my young friend need feel 
very sorry that they are so difficult to catch. It is much 
pleasanter to see them about the flowers, with their 
beautiful plumage glittering in the sun, than to shut up 
the impatient little things. Most persons think that 
they visit the flowers for the honey, and they probably 
do eat some of it, but their chief food is insects, which 
are attracted to the flowers by the sweet liquid many of 
them contain. As these birds fear cold weather, you 
will probably wonder how they pass the winter. They 
go south. In*September, when the young birds get 
strong, they all, parents and young, start on their long 
journey towards a warmer part of the country. Isn’t it 
wonderful that these tiny things will go on and on for 
hundreds of miles! There is some reason for thinking 
that either the old or the young ones come back to the 
same place the next season, as a nest has been known to 
be occupied three seasons, one after another. But I 
have given so much space to humming-birds I have little 
room left for 
The Crow, which can only be tamed by being taken 
from the nest before it can fly ; then it must be brought 
up by hand until quite able to feed itself, and this is 
more of a job than most people care for. Young Jim 
Crow is a great eater, and wants his food very often, at 
least every hour or two, or he will begin to cry for it. 
Something is said on another page about the taming of 
crows by young Indians: they will do well enough as 
pets for them, but if you have any regard for the com¬ 
fort of your family or that of your neighbors, you had 
better pet something else. I had one once, and did not 
know before how much trouble such a solemn-looking 
individual could make. 
“Penny” and Nails.— “ n. S. M.,” wonders why 
nails are called four-penny, six-penny, etc., to describe 
their sizes. It is said to be from the old English way of 
reckoning the sizes, the “ penny” being used instead of 
pound. Four-penny nails were such as weighed 4 lbs. to 
the 1,000; ten-penny were 10 lbs. to the 1,000, and so on. 
What do You Call Your Father? 
“The old man won’t let me go.”—“ Pshaw-! my 
gov’ner 'll let me go.”—“ Well, I havent said anything 
to my pop about it. ”—Such talk among boys is very 
common. When boys get to be of a certain age—from 
12 to 1G—they seem to think it manly, in speaking of 
their fathers to other boys, to use some slang word. 
We hear “Old Man,” “Dad,” “Old Squaretoes,” 
“ Pop,” “ Governor,” or “ Gov.,” instead of father, one 
of the best, and which should be—next to mother—the 
dearest of names. This nicknaming is not by any 
means confined to rude and rough boys, but unfortu¬ 
nately prevails among those who have been well brought 
up, properly educated, and have pleasant homes. = It 
would be sad indeed, if these names were used to 
express disrespect, or contempt, but they are heard, and 
more’s the pity, from the lips of those boys who really 
love their fathers, and would at once resent it if any¬ 
thing disrespectful were said of them. Not one of the 
boys who is in the habit of speaking of his father by a 
slang name, would go to him and say “ Old man, won’t 
you please ” do this or that, or say “ Good-night, pop.” 
It is a very safe rule never to speak of your father—or in 
fact any one else—by any name you would not use in 
speaking to him. The good old Saxon name, father, is 
not only a pleasing word, but it is appropriate at all 
ages, whether from the tiny child or the full grown man. 
Boys, don't use slang at all, but especially not when you 
mean Father. 
Tlie IIy«lra, ami How it Lives. 
BY MRS. MARY TREAT. 
The Hydra is an animal low in the scale of being, as 
compared with some of the other minute animals. By 
this is meant, that it has but very few parts, and these 
are very simple. We may say that the Hydra is all 
stomach and arms, for though we speak of it as having a 
body, this is nothing more than a bag or sac, which is 
both stomach and body ; this is usually fastened by one 
end to some object, and at the other end is a hole which 
is the mouth; around this are several arms, or tentacles, 
of the same material as the body, with little wart-like 
projections scattered along their whole length. We will 
see the use of these little wart-like bodies further along. 
The animal can withdraw or extend these arms at 
pleasure, and the creature has the power of distending 
its stomach to an astonishing size, for so small an animal. 
The kind of Hydra here figured is common in fresh 
water ponds, among growing plants, and even in ditches 
by the roadsides, but it is so small that we cannot easily 
see it with the naked eye ; so the best way to capture it, 
is to take a wide-mouthed bottle and fill it with water 
and some of the plants from the pond or ditch. We now 
take the vial home, and set it aside where it will not be 
HYDRA —MAGNIFIED. 
a, a, arms or tentacles ; b, b, buds; c, mouth. 
disturbed for a few hours. After giving time for the 
strange animals to make themselves at home, we take 
the vial and hold it up to the light, and if we have caught 
any Hydras, by looking carefully, we may see them cling¬ 
ing to the side of the vial, or hanging head downward 
from some little spray of plant. To see the little animal 
properly, it must be magnified ; a hand-glass will help, 
but the best view is had by the aid of the microscope. 
The engraving shows the Hydra largely magnified. 
It is a slow, sluggish fellow, too lazy to pursue its prey, 
and so it fixes the extremity of its body in a suction-like 
