rarely hatched simultaneously, but often break 
the shell with an interval of a day or more be¬ 
tween the first and last chick, it is nearly impos¬ 
sible to assign the exact time requisite for their 
formation in the egg. While sitting the Robin 
frequently utters a peculiarly shrill whistle, 
which seems to be her call note for her absent 
mate. It is heard often, and is sometimes 
repeated at intervals for ten or fifteen minutes. 
When her truant companion arrives she flies off 
immediately, but I have never seen him supply 
her place on the nest excepting just previous to 
hatching, though he often remains close beside 
it during her absence. The male Robin feeds 
the mother bird, bat apparently with less fre¬ 
quency than is customary with smaller birds. 
Incubation doe3 not seem to bo so wearisome as 
might be supposed; for though the sitting bird 
is very quiet when her nest is approached, she 
relieves her todinni in a variety of ways when 
unconscious of observation. She is then often 
seen standing in her nest, or sitting on the side, 
pecking and arranging the straws, examining 
and apparently moving tho eggs, and even when 
on her nest sho is almost constantly in motion. 
Just before the young make their appearance 
the parents seem very restless and excited, fre¬ 
quently flying from and returning to the nest. 
When they have broken tho shell, both 
of the Barn Swallow or the modest trill of the 
Hair Bird. Meanwhile their mates are indus¬ 
triously laboring in the construction of nests, 
an arrangement not without its parallel atuoug 
other bipeds. At sunrise not only the Robins 
but other songsters are nearly silent for a brief 
space, when tifey are probably engaged in the 
more prosaic business of feeding. Singing is 
afterwards resumed, but with some degree of 
moderation. Toward night the Robin sings his 
vesper hymn with subdued fervor, harmonizing 
with the soothing influences of the hour, aud 
often continues tuneful till dusk. 
The Robin sometimes exercises his musical 
powers the first season, while yet quite young. 
I once heard a Robin singing with a feeble and 
tremulous voice. He sang about half through 
the strain, and then faltered and recommenced, 
going though his lesson repeatedly.' I looked 
for* the little songster, and saw him a few rods 
distant sitting on a rose-bush two or three feet 
from the ground. After a time he disappeared, 
and feeling apprehensive that danger menaced 
rel. It is claimed that its range is several time! 
as great as that of any other rifle; that its aiir 
m< >re perfect; that its protection of the prim 
and powder from the weather is more com 
P let ®i ^at by placing the priming In front of the 
powder it effects a more perfect lcrnition < w 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
HOUSEHOLD BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND 
SHOOTING A SHARK. 
bat Iay at auchor 111 the beautiful 
J, d the waters slept around her, smooth as 
wZ lU idiT d aDd SUVtTy The filers 
let r T VmS Uere and therc on tte ship’s 
deck, for there was nothing to be done. The 
o d boa swain, a favorite with all, was among 
them telling stones, or, as they call it, "Spin- 
briLtm T rn8 -” Awon * thls crew a 
bright ],trie boy, a son of the old boatswain, the 
idol of his father, aud the pet of all the sailors. 
BY ELIZA. A. HAND 
Ub power it) doubled or trebled. On the other 
hand it Is objected to this gnn that the needle la 
very likely to get furred and useless by the heat 
ot the explosion; that the recoil, or “kick,” of 
the gun is so great as to be a serious objection 
to its use; that the storage 0 f t .he cartridges is 
made unsafe by the tact that the prituing is be¬ 
tween the powder aud ball, and i^jxitos by per- 
cussiou, aud that the escape of gtV9 frotll the 
breech during the explosion is a serious evil. 
The Prussian infantry usually carry a amal i 
sword, which, when firing the needle gun, ttiey 
stick in the ground, so that its hUt sustains the 
barrel and gives them a more perfect aim. Amer¬ 
ican military critics have generally preferred 
other viflea to the needle gnn. Whether their 
judgement is better than that of the Prussians 
is still an open question, at least with the Prus¬ 
sians. 
NUMBER IV.—THE ROBIN. 
The Robin, Turdm Migratorius , one of the 
most familiar of our household birds, aud one 
of the largest of our New England songsters, 
soon follows the Bine Bird. He arrives nearly 
at the same time with the Black-Birds. He 
often announces Ui3 presence, while the snows 
still linger on the ground, by a shrill chirp, or 
clear, brave song from the topmost bough of 
some #ld oak or other lofty lookout. His mode 
of flight Is peculiar, being straight, arrowy, and 
with bnt little movement of the wings—entirely 
unlike the undulating motion of the smaller 
birds. It i3 asserted that his mate does not 
accompany him, but follows, after an interval. 
This may be true not of the Robin only, bnt of 
many other species; still, I have noticed that 
birds for a short time after their arrival are 
rather timid, and may be heard in the vicinity of 
outhouses and neighboring woods and pastures, 
before they resume their old habits of familiarity 
about dwellings, and the female is particularly 
shy and silent. 
Onr Robin must not be confounded with that 
feathered hero of nursery tales, the English 
Robin Redbreast He Is far from being identical 
with that famous little bird, as he does not 
him I went to the spot. Nothing was to be 
seen, bnt I heard a rustling as if something had 
been startled by my approach. On raising the 
rauk grass growing between the root of the bush 
and tho fence I was surprised to see a large 6triped 
snake crawling leisurely along, and a young 
Robin running to and fro almost, on his back. 
With some difficulty I separated the strange 
companions, the snake deliberately disappearing 
by a hole in the ground, aud the bird flying to 
an adjacent tree. 
ANOTHEP. TRIUMPH OF SCIENCE. 
Recent experiments in England have given 
to the world another triumph of science in the 
control and management of the dangerous 
B _i ex¬ 
plosive, gnn-powdor, more wonderful in Us re¬ 
sults than the use and domestication, as it were, 
of lightning, as applied to the magnetic tele¬ 
even 
belong to the same family, and Is one-third 
larger, although there is some similarity in the 
color of their plumage. The best friends of the 
Robin are constrained to admit his moral delin¬ 
quencies, — his occasional violations of the 
eighth commandment in circumstances of pe¬ 
culiar temptation; yet ho is justly a popular 
favorite. His presence and his notes are agreea¬ 
bly associated with the most charming rural 
scenery, and even his name awakens manifold de¬ 
lightful memories for the levers of country life. 
His plumage, though not brilliant, Is pleasing, 
consisting chiefly of brown, with slight varia¬ 
tions of shade, and reddish orange — his back 
being of the former color, deepening into brown¬ 
ish black on the head, and his breast of the 
latter hue, becoming very pale towards the vent. 
The sombrousness of his brown coat, is relieved 
a little by a white spot on the chin, a yellowish 
white circle around the eje, and some white on 
the outer tail feathers. The plumage of the 
eyes is very similar, and discrimination is diffi¬ 
cult when they are seen separately, but when 
together the male may usually be distinguished 
by his larger size, his deeper tints, and his sleek, 
aldermanic person. 
Robins are great gourmands, devouring largo 
numbers of earth worms, which constitute their 
principal sustenance. These they obtain not 
after the manner of many other birds, bv 
graph. The announcement that gunpowder has 
been so put under control that in one minute a 
barrel of it thrown on burning materials will 
smother the fire, and hi tho next InBtant it. can 
be so re-arranged that it will propel a cannon 
ball with undiminished force, will possibly draw 
largely upon the credulity of our readers, but it Is 
stated to be tho fact. The gunpowder is ren¬ 
dered innocuous, It Is claimed, by admixture with 
glass crushed to an impalpable powder, which 
can again be rapidly separated from the gun¬ 
powder by sifting. Several experiments had 
been tried with it, such as inserting red hot 
irons into the prepared powder and throwing it 
diet. The Robins feed their young on an aver¬ 
age once in ten minutes. This is far less fre¬ 
quently than many other species, but they give 
them a greater amount of food at a time. As 
birds commence feeding at dawn, aud feed till 
dusk, the labor of providing a family of Robins 
with earth-worms must be considerable, espe¬ 
cially In mid-summer, when the earth is parched 
by heat and drouth. 
The growth of the young Is wonderfully rapid; 
iu ten or eleven days after hatching their eye 3 
are open, they are clothed with feathers, and 
may be seen pluming themselves and fluttering 
about iu the nest with much vivacity. They are 
now clamorous in the reception of their food, 
though less so than the nestlings of some other 
6pecles. While the young are in the neat It is 
kept free from all impurities, until a few days 
before their flight. I have seen a Robin take a 
dead chick from her nest and carry it several 
rods before dropping It. The yonug Robins can 
readily be distinguished from the adult by their 
plumage, especially by the color of tho breast, 
which is thickly mottled with dark brown, light 
orange and white. They generally leave the 
nest iu the early part of the day, taking flight at 
brief intervals as they gain courage tor the feat. 
Like the young of the Blue Bird, they are ordi¬ 
narily conducted by the parents to some sylvan 
retreat. 
The labor of sustaining the first brood must 
be performed chiefly by the mule Robiu, as the 
mother-bird almost immediately commences 
preparations for the new lurnily which 
THE CHICARRA, OR ANIMAL PLANT, 
One of the most curious entomological objects 
scattering some of the contents; but on enter¬ 
ing the tower no further damage was found, and 
the gunpowder treated with glass was cooliug 
down. A pile of firewood was then laid on tho 
loose, modern floor near tho gunpowder, and 
as the barrels confining the powder burned, the 
contents, tailing on the Are, smothered it, burn- 
lug toward the edges, however, like a bad port- 
lire. Two barrels of the mixture were then 
placed on a pile of blazing fagots, and as they 
burned and burst, the gunpowder falling on the 
fire, rather deadened the flames, while in the 
tower tho tire had by this time gradually died 
out, leaving a groat part of the gunpowder un¬ 
consumed. The advantages of this process are 
manifest. 
which has attracted the attention of naturalists 
traveling in Mexico is the curious insects of 
which the Indians, in tho neighborhood of 3an- 
tiago and Cantla, call chioirra, aud which is 
sometimes called the animal plant. It is so 
called from a peculiar excrescence starting from 
the head of the Insect, the nature of which has 
given rise to much discussion. Some maintain 
that it is purely an animal product, supplied 
from the Insect itself; others that it Is a true 
plant, or vegetable substance, starting from the 
brain of the Insect. The hypotheses are both 
wrong. The insect i9 a kind of grasshopper 
(oieada plebeta) In Its larva state, and tho excres¬ 
cence which it bears, resembling a miniature 
branch of coral, la a vegetable parasite, a kind 
of fungus or mushroom called by the botanists, 
Hill aud Watson, qihosHa et torrubia soboUfera. 
This Is certainly a curious and interesting kind 
ot parasite, but by no means singular in the his¬ 
tory of the eryptogamia. Nearly all the mush¬ 
rooms are parasites—that is to say, such as are 
developed on other organized bodies. Borne 
attack or start from plants, others from animals. 
Numerous examples might be quoted in illustra¬ 
tion of this point. It is probable that, after 
being hatched from the egg, the larva of the 
grasshopper quits its cradle In the earth and 
seeks escape to the surface; the parasite in 
question, in the condition of a germ, becomes 
attached to its head and takes root there, as any 
ordinary vegetable in the soli. After trans¬ 
formation, this excrescence falls off, and the 
fully developed insect appears as in the third 
figure in our engraving. 
soon 
claims her care. At one time, when a Robin suc¬ 
cessfully reared three broods, she began to re¬ 
pair her nest on the day succeeding that which 
the first left, and was sitting a second time in 
about a week afterwards. On this occasion the 
first brood left the nest the twenty-eighth of 
May. the second on the first of July, and the 
third on the seventh of August. Though It i 3 
doubtless true that most birds exercise their 
gift3 of song but little after dischareing their pa¬ 
rental duties, it will be seen by the date given 
above that the Robin does not terminate his 
labors In this respect till some time alter he has 
ceased to be musical, as he rarely sings later 
than the end of July—only an occasional strain 
being heard during the remainder of summer, 
and through the autumn. I have known a brood 
take flight as late as the fourteenth of August, 
and, I think, have seen a Robin gathering mate¬ 
rials for a nest late in this month. In such 
J Here is another boy who has a shark coming 
toward him in the temptation to forget the fifth 
commandment, and not to honor his father and 
his mother. 
Every sin is a shark, or worse than a shark; 
and my good, brave boy, swimming in a sea of 
pleasure with its silver spray and rainbow bub¬ 
bles, look out for tho Bharks that Inrk underneath 
to devour. Tou cannot be too careful, too grate¬ 
ful for warning. 
Oh, that between every child and spiritual 
danger there might come a power loud as the 
cannon’s roar, quick as the speed of a ball, and 
6ure as the eye of a loving father! When we 
loot at the dangers of onr dear children, we feel 
that they must fall Into the jaws of the mon¬ 
sters swimming around them; we tremble and 
see not how they can be saved; but when we see 
what instrumentalities and agencies God has at 
his command, we feci tho hope that he will send 
a power in between them and the danger and 
save them, not only out of the jaws of the lion, 
but no less out of the jaws of the silent, but 
terrible sharks around them. 
cases 
possibly their previous attempts in the earlier 
part of the season had proved, abortive, for 
probably not more than one-third of the young 
safely leave the nest. They have many en¬ 
emies, and amoDg them those plumed Bedou¬ 
ins, the crows, are some of the most destruct¬ 
ive. And it is no wonder, when we consider the 
immense number of these rapacious birds, that 
they are obliged to resort to disreputable means 
to obtalu a livelihood. I have in the spring, in 
the course of an hour and a quarter, seen over 
live hundred of them pass from south to north 
in a line ol less than an eighth of a mile in 
breadth. 
From the time of his arrival, which is about 
the last week in March, or first week in April 
the Robin is a pretty constant singer, but it is 
during the mouths of May and June, (perhaps a 
part of April and July mi^ht be included,) that 
he sings with the most enthusiasm. He is early 
at his matins, the earliest of the feathered choir 
save one or two woodland species. I have heard 
him while the moon was still shining, his melo- 
dious notes mingling strangely with the hoarse 
hootings of the owl. But it is just at dawn that 
he sings with the most ardor and persistency at 
this time he seems to be the vtsy embodiment 
of music. If there are several Robins near the 
dwelling their sweet clamor Is almost deafening 
Instead of courteously wytmg, like many of the 
warblers, until they *hear OT answering strain 
‘ihey appear to be animated by a kind of furor] 
each one striving to outsing his neighbor] 
till it becomes a musical riot, with scarcely a 
pause in which one may hear the soft twittering 
PRUSSIAN NEEDLE GUN. 
This gun is a breech-loading rifle. The load 
is contained in a single cartridge, consisting of 
a ball resembling the Minnie ball, the priming, 
and a charge of powder, so arranged that when 
the cartridge is Inserted in its proper place in 
the gun, there Is left behind tt an air chamber, 
through which when the trigger idrawn the 
needle darts through the powder into the prim¬ 
ing. By this arrangement the ignition of the 
powder takes place from in front instead of 
from behind, and iu the air chamber, instead of 
in a solid cartridge as in every other gun. Tho 
chemical composition of the priming, which, in 
connection with the air chamber, causes a more 
complete combustion of all the powder em¬ 
ployed than is obtained by any other gun, is the 
secret which is supposed to be known only to 
the Prussian Government. The effect of lgni- 
What is Salebatus? — Wood is burnt to 
ashes. These are lLxivated, aud lye is the result. 
Lye is evaporated by boiling, black salt is the 
residuum. The salt undergoes purification by 
fire, and the potash of commerce is obtained. 
By another process we change potash into pearl- 
ash, Now put these in sacks and place them 
over a distillery mash-tub, where the fermenta¬ 
tion evolves carbonic acid gas, and the peariash 
absorbs it and is rendered solid, the produce 
being heavier, whiter and drier than the pearl- 
ash. It is now ealerutus, How much •■’Uch salts 
of lye and carbonic acid gas one can bear and 
remain healthy, is a question for a sakratus eat er. 
The euro of an evil tongue must be done at 
the heart. The weight aud wheels are there, 
and the clock strikes accordln 
to their motion. 
A guileful heart makes a guileful tongue and 
lips. It is the workhouse where is the forge of 
deceits and slanders, and the tongue is only the 
outer shop where they are vended, aud the door 
of it. Such ware as Is made within, such, and 
no other, can come out, 
Look Up.—“O father! 0 mother! the moon 
is drowned; she is, indeed; we have seen her 
lying trembling In the lake,” cried the owlets, 
bustling back to the tower, where their parents 
sat among the ivy. “Children,” said the old 
birds,you looked down, and saw the image in 
the lake ; if you had looked up, you would have 
seen the moon herself in the sky.” 
The canker-worm, as he spins his web, works 
by the same laws a3 we. Opep another chamber 
in his brain, and he will be not less like us, but 
more. By-and-by he will be a Lowell manufac¬ 
turer. — Emerson. 
