NRLF
B 3 272 ODt,
HORACE GUNTKORF
Scientific Literature
San Wego, California
yLA&{
z?
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
FIELD ZOOLOGY
CRARY
A TEXT-BOOK OF
FIELD ZOOLOGY
INSECTS AND THEIR NEAR
RELATIVES AND BIRDS
BY
L. E. CRARY
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY AND GEOLOGY, KANSAS STATE
NORMAL COLLEGE, EMPORIA.
WITH ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS
PHILADELPHIA
P. BLAKISTON'S SON & CO.
1012 WALNUT STREET
1911
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY P. BLAKISTON'S SON & Co.
Printed by
The Maple Press,
York, Pa.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
This book is intended primarily for students who have
had little previous knowledge of insects, or animals of any
sort. The animals chosen for discussion have been the
more familiar ones which live with us from day to day.
Two modes of approach to the subjects of study are in-
tended : the investigative study of the animals themselves,
as provided for in the directions for field work with the
different groups of animals ; and the class discussions of the
facts observed, in their bearing upon each other and upon
the many problems which living beings are continually
offering for our solution. In the latter phase of study
the teacher must be a large factor. One cannot put into
a text-book all there is in a subject The present form of
the book is the outcome of its progressive use in the
school-room, and thus has, at least, the merit of having
been tried.
The method of presentation of the subject is based
upon two lines of belief : first, that life is one of the most
interesting facts of creation, if not the most interesting;
and, second, that life is a continuous fact, of common
powers but various in its expression, whether one proceeds
from the simple to the complex, from the early to the late,
or from the low to the high. These are facts that are
usually reserved for the student who has already acquired
some body of knowledge of animal life; but younger stu-
dents, beginners, find quite as much delight and profit
M347653
vi AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
in the discovery of their own similarities to forms of life
unlike themselves, and in the fact that life powers are not
theirs by right to the exclusion of other animals, which
may even transcend them in some of these powers.
The writer stands indebted to several authors whose
work has covered a much larger field, notably Comstock,
Folsom, Galloway, and Kellogg, and the many excellent
workers in the Government Biological Survey and the
Bureau of Entomology. Courteous permission was given
to use various illustrations, by Henry Holt & Co., by
Doubleday, Page & Co., of New York, and by James T.
Hathaway, of New Haven, Conn.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PART I.
INSECTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introduction to insects . . . . ... .. .- i
II. Special senses of insects ........ 7
III. Vital processes of insects. ....... 20
IV. Development and metamorphosis .. ..... . 32
V. Insects and their classification ...... 42
VI. General suggestions for field work on
insects. . .... . . . .. , . . . . ., . . 46
VII. Field work on Coleoptera ...:... 59
Coleoptera 67
VIII. Field work on orthoptera ., . . 79
Orthoptera , ...... . ..... ,, . . 87
IX. Field work on hemiptera . 98
Hemiptera . . . ... ..... . . . . 107
X. Field work on lepidoptera . . . . . . . 119
Lepidoptera . . . . . . . . , . . . . 125
XI. Field work on hymenoptera ... . . . 139
Hymenoptera ... ... . ....... 149
XII. Field work on diptera . . . ... . . . 176
Diptera . . . . . , .. . . . . . ... 183
XIIL Odonata . . . . . . . ... . .. . . 207
XIV. Ephemerida 213
XV. Plecoptera .............. 217
XVI. Neuroptera ....... . . . . . . 221
XVII. Siphonaptera ... . .5.. ..;... 226
vii
Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PART II.
ARTHROPODA EXCLUSIVE OF INSECTS AND CRUSTACEANS.
CHAPTER PAGE
XVIII. Near relatives of insects . . . . . . . .'231
XIX. Key to families of spiders . . . . . . . 246
PART III.
BIRDS.
XX. General suggestions for field work on birds 249
XXI. Introduction to birds 252
XXII. Physical features of birds . . . ... . 262
XXIII. Migrations and nesting habits . \- .,. . 274
XXIV. Food of nestling birds . . .... . . . . 287
XXV. Nervous system and special functions . . 296
XXVI. Passeres .... 307
XXVII. Picariae . V'.Y. . . . . . '*. . . .- . 312
XXVIII. Psittaci . .... . . . . . . . -/. 316
XXIX. Raptores , 318
XXX. Columbae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
XXXL Gallinae . . .' , . . '. . . . . . . . . 322
XXXIL Limicolae. . . . . .. '. ". '"'; '. , . . ; .. . . 327
XXXIII. Herodiones. . ...;...!.. \ .', 331
XXXIV. Alectorides . . . ,"/ . ^ . . , , .\ . 334
XXXV. Lamellirostres . . . . .... . . . . 337
XXXVL Steganopodes. . } . . . . . . . ... 343
XXXVII. Longipennes 347
XXXVIII. Pygopodes . .. . ....... . '. : . 350
INDEX . .... . . ": . . . " . , . . . 357
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. Skull of a grasshopper . 4
2. Portion of compound eye of a fly ....... 8
3. Median ocellus of a honey bee . 9
4. Antenna of a carrion beetle . . . . 12
5. Tactile hair 14
6. Nerve endings in tip of labial palpus of a fish moth . 1 6
7. Ear of a grasshopper . . . . . ; . . . . . . . 17
8. Locust from lateral aspect, auditory organ ... 18
9. Auditory hairs of a mosquito ......... 18
10. Antenna of a mosquito . * . . . . ... . . 19
1 1 . Tracheal system of an insect . . ... . . . . . 21
12. Tracheal gill of a Mayfly ......-. 22
13. Digestive system of a beetle .......... 25
14. Stages in development of nervous system of a
dipter water beetle . .' . . .... 29
15. Concentration in nervous system of a dipter . . 30
1 6. Hypermetamorphosis of Epicauta cinerea . . ... . 34
17. Larva of tomato worm .... . ....... 35
18. Pupa of tomato worm .... . ' . ' : . '. .-. . . 36
19. Adult of tomato worm ..,'...-,..... 37
20. Development of squash bug .......... 41
21. Diagram of insect net 1 .... 49
22. Dip net ..................... 50
23. Drying board 55
24. Great water scavenger ..'... 61
25. Egg case of water scavenger . . . . _ . . . . 61
26. Larva of water scavenger 62
27. A flower beetle, Euphoria inda 62
28. Some California ladybird beetles 70
29. The searcher 71
ix
[ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. PAGE
30. Ventral aspect of a carabid beetle 72
31. Various forms of antennae 75
32. Legs and tarsi of beetles . . .' . . . . .... 76
33. Metamorphosis of a beetle, Cyllene pictus .... 77
34. Hypermetamorphosis of Epicauta cinerea .... 78
35. Locust with external parts named 88
36. Short-horned grasshopper 89
37. Long-horned grasshopper 90
38. Cricket-like grasshopper. . . 91
39. Croton bug - 93
40. Oriental cockroach 93
41. Native cockroach 94
42. Praying mantis 95
43. Dapheromera femorata 96
44. Giant waterbug 100
45. Development of a cicada 103
46. Front wing of an hemipter .......... 107
47. Mouth parts of an hemipteron . . . . . . . . . 108
48. Short-winged chinch bug . . . . . . . . , . . 113
49. Soldier bug , . . . . . . . . . . 117
50. Assassin bug . .... . . ...... .... 117
51. Lepidopter wing to show scales . . ..... . 125
52. A, front wing of monarch butterfly to show
venation "...........126
B, hind wing of monarch butterfly to show
venation . . .... . . ... 126
53. Head of a butterfly . . . .... . . . . . . . 127
54. Adult of tomato worm . . . ; 128
55. Sphinx moth at petunia flower 128
56. Wing of moth to show jugum ' . . 129
57. A, wing of moth to show' frenulum ....... 130
B, wing of butterfly to show frenulum substitute. 130
58. Artificial ant nest : .... 143
59. Thalessa linator ............... 151
60. Pigeon horntail . ^ ... 152
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XI
FIG. PAGE
61. Mouth parts of a honeybee . , . ... . . . 153
62. Tongue of a honey bee . . . . ........ . . . 153
63. Head and mouth parts of a honey bee . . . . . 156
64. Honeybee, worker, etc . i& . . . ... . . . 158
65. Portion of brood comb of honey bee, one queen cell 159
66. Modifications of leg of worker honey bee ... . 162
67. Nest of mud dauber . . _. . , . ! . -. . . . . . 163
68. Honey bee showing wax scales 169
69. Cicada killer . ... . .... ..... . . . 169
70. Tarantula killer 170
71. Nest of "paper wasp . . ,- . .- . . 174
72. Blow fly 177
73. Mouth parts of a horse fly 184
74. Antennae of flies ... 185
75. Ocelli and compound eyes of a fly 186
76. Metamorphosis of an oviparous fly, Phormia regina 187
77. Stable fly . 189
78. Mouth parts of house fly . . ; .. . . . ; . . . 189
79. Foot of a house fly * 190
80. A house fly ;.. ^ . . . . ./ . . . . . 190
81. Mouth parts of a female mosquito 194
82. Life history of a mosquito . ... . i -. ... . . 195
83. Female Anopheles with antenna of male .; j . . . 197
84. Antennae of a mosquito (Culex) . . 4 . . . . . 199
85. A flower fly . .' 201
86. A bee fly . . .' . . . . . . ... . ...... 203
87. Stages in development of a dragon fly ..... 210
88. Nymph and adult of a May fly. . . . . . . . . 214
89. Nymph and adult of a stone fly . .. . . '. . . ' . 218
90. Lace-wing depositing eggs .......... 222
91. Larva of a dobson ..."...... 223
92. Adult dobson 224
93. A mantispa .,..-...;.......... 225
94. Egg, pupa, and adult dog flea ........... 228
95. A milliped ..... . .-, . . ....... 232
Xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. PAGE
96. A centiped 233
97. A scorpion 237
98. The archaeopteryx 254
99. Conirostral bill of a canary 262
100. Falcatee bill of a crossbill 262
101. Fissirostral bill of swallow ^ . . . . 263
102. Fissirostral bill of a chimney swift 263
103. Hooked and cered bill of a hawk 263
104. Tenuirostral bill of a nuthatch . . 264
105. Hind limb or leg and foot of a bird 265
1 06 Front limb or wing of a bird *. . . .-270
107. Typical passerine foot 307
108. Loggerhead shrikes 309
109. Syndactyle foot of a picarian bird 312
no. Belted kingfisher 314
in. Zygodactyle foot of a parrot 317
112 Semipalmate foot of a plover 328
113. Lobat-e foot of a coot 336
114. Wood duck . . 341
115. Totipalmate foot of a pelican 344
1 1 6. Pelican 345
117. Palmate foot of a tern 347
PART I.
r " ..-;; INSECTS. I ' y "... ^
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION TO INSECTS.
Biology.
Biology, the word, is made from the two Greek nouns
bios, meaning life, and logos, meaning speech, reason, word,
that is, something given with authority. Hence biology
discusses life in its many phases, its structural means of
maintaining itself, and its power of perpetuating itself
from one generation to another. Biology, then, concerns
itself with both plants and animals, and we have plant
biology and animal biology.
Zoology.
Zoology is built from the two Greek nouns zoon,
meaning an animal, and logos; hence zoology is the discus-
sion of animal life in its many phases of activity and power.
The systematic zoologist divides the many forms of animal
life into branches according to their large similarities and
dissimilarities. He may, for example, establish the two
classes, Protozoa one-celled, non-differentiated animals,
very simple in structure; and Metazoa many-celled
i
2 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
animals, many of them highly differentiated. Under the
second class, he may establish such branches as the
Coelenterata, animals with a continuous body cavity, this
cavity having but a single opening, which serves both as
mouth and as anus; Echinodermata, animals of radiate
structure, no backbone, and the body surface beset with
spines (from e chinos, a hedgehog, and dermos, skin) ;
Mollusca, including such animals as snails and clams;
Arthropoda, animals with organs of locomotion jointed in
successive segments, literally joint-footed (from arthron,
meaning joint or articulation, and poda, meaning organs of
locomotion) ; and Chordata, animals having a nervous
cord, or a backbone, or both. The last-named branch
includes such animals as the sea squirts with only a ner-
vous cord; and the fishes, the frogs, the reptiles, the birds,
and the mammals, with a vertebrate skeleton.
This work confines itself to the study of portions of
two of these branches the Arthropoda; and the Aves, or
birds, under the Chordata. Under the branch Arthropoda
are found insects, scorpions, mites and ticks, millipeds
and centipeds, spiders, and the large class of the crusta-
ceans. The crustaceans will be left for consideration else-
where, and we shall confine our study to the insects with
their near relatives, and birds.
The class Insecta includes only the insects, and it is
itself divided according to the similarities and dissimi-
larities of the many kinds of insects.
The name insect is applied to such animals as have
the body cut into successive segments. These segments
are for the most part grouped so as to form three general
regions, the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The
whole body may be composed of distinct and similar
segments, as in the caterpillar; or may be greatly modified
INTRODUCTION TO INSECTS. 3
to serve some special purpose, as in the honey bee. The
segments composing the head are, in most insects, so
fused as to form a single box-like head-covering of one
sclerite only. In the larva, the separate head sclerites are
usually to be found. The three segments forming the
thorax are, in many insects, so fused as to be separated
with difficulty; but are observable in the generality of
insects, being seen most easily on the under side of the
body. Catch two or three large jumping grasshoppers,
the sort that do not fly so well as they jump. Put one into
the killing-bottle and let it stay there while you examine
the others. Seize one of them by the abdomen carefully
and you will be likely to realize the strength of the
muscles of its strong hind legs. If human beings were
able to kick as vigorously in proportion to their size, woe
to their enemies ! There would be left neither vestige nor
trace. Let the hopper try its jaws on your finger, and
you will sense the efficiency of leverage in the jaw muscles.
Set it on the table and measure the length of its jump.
This indicates good muscle, and stiff skeleton for fasten-
ing the muscles to. All grasshoppers are injurious, so no
harm will be done by putting these into the killing-bottle
after finishing the experiment. Now take out the other
hopper from the killing bottle, and with a sharp knife
sever the thorax from the abdomen ; cut off the head also,
and let fresh water run through the thorax till all the soft
internal parts are washed away. What is left will be
chiefly muscular tissue, the complex muscular system of
the thorax. Accompanying these muscles may be seen
the white fibers of the nervous system, but the muscular
tissue may be plainly seen, part of it consisting of strands
fastened to the top sclerites of the thorax, part fastened
to the sides, and part crossing to reach the first joint of the
4 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
leg on either side, while still another part of the mass will
be found to pass laterally to attach to the ribs of the wings.
Now for the mouth parts : Give your living grass-
hopper a fresh young grass leaf, and watch it through the
reading-glass. On the head will be found several pairs of
jointed organs with which it seizes and handles the leaf.
B
FIG. i. Skull of a grasshopper, Melanoplus differ entialis. a, antenna; c,
clypeus; e, compound eye; /, front; g, gena; /, labrum; Ip, labial palpus; m,
mandible; mp, maxillary palpus; o, ocelli; oc, occiput; pg, post-gena; v, vertex.
(Folsom.)
The mandibles are first used; they seize the leaf; the
maxillae break up the green bits into smaller pieces ; then
is seen the labium or under lip, which seems to have no
further use than to turn the food bits round and round
and keep them from falling out of the mouth. Besides
these, at the side of the mouth opening and well in front,
are two pairs of hair-like appendages which are constantly
INTRODUCTION TO INSECTS. 5
in motion in and out of the food mass; these are the
palpi or feelers; one pair is attached to the labium and
the other pair to the maxillae. It is thought that there are
developed on these palpi of the grasshopper the taste
buds which give the insect its taste impressions, its sense
of relish or disapproval of the food under consideration.
On the front of the head, well toward the eyes, are the
antennas, and these are sense organs for all insects, though
not giving the same sensation in all cases. Touch the
antenna of your' grasshopper very lightly, and it gives a
quick jerk. Threaten without striking, and, if the insect
does not jump away, the same response will be given.
Make a loud noise near the insect's antennae, and the
antennae will wave about as if in response. As to other
insects, some use the antennae as ears, while others use
thefn as noses. The true uses of the grasshopper's
antennae are not known. Here is an opportunity for some-
one with time and patience, to discover a valuable fact.
As to the abdomen, in most adult insects the abdomi-
nal segments are fairly distinct and similar, thus retaining
the form of the primitive type of insect ; for in insects, as
in all animals, the simplest form is the undiflerentiated or
similarly-segmented type or individual.
The insect's body wall is cuticle, but it is rendered
firm and horny by the addition of a substance called
chitin, a substance which serves for the protection of the
soft internal organs, and also for the attachment of the
many muscles necessary in running, flying, fighting, home-
making, and other activities of insect life. There is no
internal skeleton, .but the chitinized cuticle serves the
purpose of an exoskeleton. From this exoskeleton,
especially in the thorax, many processes of the body wall
project inward for- the attachment of the muscles of the
6 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
wings and the legs. The insect's body wall is rendered
flexible by the fact that between any two segments there
is a non-chitinized area; these chitinized areas with the
non-chitinized areas between constitute sclerites, and the
degree of flexibility depends upon the depth of the infold-
ing of the soft, non-hardened cuticle between any two
sclerites.
Looking the grasshopper straight in the face, there
will be seen a sclerite coming down from the upper part of
the face and nearly covering the mandibles, the maxillae,
and the other mouth parts. This is the labrum or upper
lip; it is hardly to be called an appendage of the mouth,
but is rather a fold of the cuticle covering the mouth. The
mandibles usually consist, as in the grasshopper just
studied, of one segment. The labium usually forms one
single piece, but in many of the insects it is modified
into several pieces, as in the flies, the bugs, and the
butterflies. In certain insects, some of the other mouth
parts may be reduced to mere rudiments or may be lost
altogether, not developed because functionless.
At the side of the grasshopper's head may be seen the
large compound eyes. With a hand lens these will be
seen to be composed of a large number of very small flat
faces, instead of forming one smooth, globular surface
like the human eyeball. Just inside the margin of each
compound eye may be found two of the simple eyes, and
lower down in a groove of the grasshopper's face is the
third simple eye. These look like tiny beads. A house-
fly has three of these simple eyes, but they are set in a
much smaller triangle between the two compound eyes
and more nearly on top of the head.
CHAPTER II.
SPECIAL SENSES OF INSECTS.
Sight.
Both simple and compound eyes are found on most
insects; but some have either kind alone, and a few have
no eyes at all. The most primitive living insects to-day
have eyes, and the larvag of the complex insects have
simple eyes. Hence, if the highest individual in any
given class repeats the life history of the individuals below
it, it is only fair to suppose that the possession of eyes is
inherent in all insects; and, where there is a lack of eyes,
it must be attributed to disease or some other environ-
mental conditions bringing about non-development or
disuse, and therefore degeneracy of the part not used.
The compound eye is not an aggregation of simple
eyes; the two sorts of eyes differ in structure, and there is
good evidence that they are not derived from the same
line of body differentiation. The compound eyes of
insects are two in number, and are usually situated on the
upper head areas, a little to one side of the middle line.
They are usually conspicuous; in the dragon fly and the
house fly they are large in proportion to the rest of the
head. The dermestidse, the pests of the insect collector,
count the head of a dragon fly a rich treat and will eat out
the soft internal parts, leaving the corneal facets quite
clear. Many insects, as the butterflies, the dragon flies
and the house flies, have an enormous number of facets,
7
8
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
in some insects numbering as high as thirty thousand.
Behind each facet is an eye element which is supposed to
enter the nerve tract by a separate nerve fiber. . This eye
element includes a cone of crystalline clearness, with the
tapering end enveloped more or less completely by pigment.
Behind each cone are retinal cells, ganglionated nerve
cells, and nerve fibers, all finally
passing into the optic tract, or
the tract of the optic nerve.
Each of these eye elements
is supposed to perceive only that
part of the object which is
directly in front of its surface.
Since the nerve fibers pass
separately from each eye ele-
ment into the optic nerve, it is
nc possible that the sensations are
received separately by the optic
lobes of the brain. Whether
FIG. 2. Portion of compound they are put together by the
eye of fly, Calliphora vomitoria, interpreting hea d ganglion to
radial section, c, cornea; i, ins . .
form an image as in the human
If the
pigment; n, nerve fibers; nc,
nerve cells; r, retinal pigment;
t, trachea. (Folsom, after Hick-
son.)
eye, is very doubtful,
impressions are interpreted
separately, the insect has sight
in no such sense as has the human being; but the visual
impression must be a composite of the image, made up of
as many parts as there are corneal facets on the side of
the head next to the object. Such sight is called mosaic
sight. It' would follow, then, that insects whose eyes pro-
ject much beyond the head contour, which possess the
largest number of facets, and which, in addition, can turn
the head through the greatest possible angle, must have the
SPECIAL SENSES OF INSECTS.
most nearly complete mosaic of the object at which they
look, that is, come nearest to seeing as we ourselves see.
The simple eye appears externally as a convex bead-
like object, and as such is a transparent area of the head
cuticle, thickened so as to protrude from the surface of
the head. This makes a
lens, convex on the outer
side and indicating that,
by means of the simple
eyes, such sight as the
insect has must be near-
sight. Through this lens
the light rays pass to a
layer of specialized skin
cells with pigment pres-
ent . Directly back of the
lens there is also a more
or less developed vitreous
body, its development
varying with the order of
insects. Fibers from the
Cells of the pigment layer FIG. 3. Median ocellus of honey-bee,
Apis mellifera, in sagittal section. h,
hypodermis; /, lens; n, nerve; p, iris pig-
ment; r, retinal cells; v, vitreous body.
passing tO the Cephalic (Folsom, after Redikorzaw.)
ganglion.
The eye is a part of the nervous system, and the
nervous system arises as a differentiation of the surface
cells of the animal of primitive type. For instance, in the
sponge, where the body is like a sack, the body consists
of three layers, two of them in contact with the water in
which the sponge lives. The outer one of these layers,
the ectoderm, discharges the functions of our tactile
merge into the tract of
an optic nerve branch
10 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
corpuscles, not to speak of functions attributed to other
organs of ours, as those organs that give us the sensations
of light and darkness, heat and cold, all of them differ-
entiated parts of our complex nervous system. The cells
of the interior layer of the body, the entoderm, perform
the functions of our highly elaborated alimentary system,
while the skeleton of the sponge is the product of the
working energy of the middle layer of cells, the mesoderm.
This general division of functions holds true for other
animals from the sponge to the complex animals; the
primitive ground sense, not localized, but distributed
over the body surface in the simple animal, becomes the
nervous system of the more complex animal and is there
differentiated into touch, sight, taste, hearing, smell,
temperature, and other sensations believed to be inter-
preted by the reflex or the spinal system. But an organ,
on its first appearance, is little differentiated from the
surrounding tissue, and only gradually reaches higher
levels of perfectness; hence the simple eye is probably an
earlier expression of a light sensitive, chiefly useful in
distinguishing light from darkness; while the compound
eye may be said to represent a later and more complex
organ of sight. The function of the simple eye is not
certainly known. In those animals which see most
definitively, that is, which come nearest to forming a
perfect image, the simple eye has gone through no develop-
ment from its primitive structure, while the compound
eye, in these insects, has the greatest number of facets,
seeming to indicate that the compound eye is the effective
organ of sight.
Again, as to the simple eye : wherever in any animal,
simple or complex, pigment is present in the skin cells,
those cells must be sensitive to light; that they are so
SPECIAL SENSES OF INSECTS. II
may be proved in several ways. For this reason scien-
tists are disposed to regard the simple eye rather as an
organ sensitive to differences in the amount of light falling
upon them. This light sense is a dermal possession of
many of the lower animals ; some of the minute one-celled
animals living in the water respond to changes in the
light intensity. The earthworm, with no eyes at all, is
sensible of the fact that it has come above ground, and
turns downward again. Your own skin, exposed to sun-
light, responds to the action of the light without any
volition of yours, and you say that you freckle or tan.
Bees sometimes know their hive by the color; whether this
sense plays any part in the wonderful "homing instinct"
of these insects is not certain, but they use this sense in
seeking food, as do many other animals, insomuch that
we say bees prefer certain colors of flowers, while flies as a
rule prefer other colors. It seems likely that butterflies'
bright colors are useful as recognition marks to guide
others of their kind. A clue as to the other possible uses
of bright markings on butterflies' wings may be found
in the fact that the wings of old butterflies are frayed and
often have pieces torn from them, as if bird enemies had
aimed for the wing spot instead of for some more vital
part.
Smell.
Smell is a sense highly developed among insects.
Among bees and ants the development of this sense seems
not equalled elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Who
has not at some time seen ants swarm in from some un-
known place toward the sugar jar or the plate of frosted
cake? It could not have been chance, for their path led
through many difficulties. Honey bees have been
12
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
known to find a plate of honey left on the kitchen table.
A human being could hardly have smelled the honey at
close range. In the case of human beings, the olfactory
nerve of one person may carry stimuli for certain odors,
and not be at all responsive for other odors. Again, it is
difficult for a human being to discriminate between
odors somewhat similar, as odors
of different flowers, different teas,
or different foods. Personal clean-
liness generally obliterates for us
any olfactory recognition mark of
our own race ; and yet the approach
of a member of a different race is
an instant olfactory suggestion.
Out of all this must come this
concession : the fact that we do not
perceive an odor does not prove
that the olfactory sense of some
other living being may not respond
to it. . -
The immediate smelling organs
in the case of insects are exceedingly
small papillae or pits, at the bottom
of which a fiber from the olfactory lobe of the brain
ganglion is spread under the thin body tegument. These
organs are often found on the antennae. Carrion beetles
have what seem to be unmistakably olfactory organs on
their antennae and also on their palpi. Flesh flies, which
are so often attracted considerable distances by the odor
of decaying meat, lose this means of finding their food
after their antennae are removed (Hauser). Many
moths use this sense as a means of recognition of the other
sex, and have been proved by experiment to be unable
FIG. 4. Antenna of a
burying beetle, Necrophorus
Americanus, showing sense
pits in end segments.
SPECIAL SENSES OF INSECTS. 13
to find their mates when the antennae have been removed
or coated. On the wings of the big red-brown monarch
butterfly are pockets in which are carried scent scales.
Ants are thought to be able to perceive odors in so far
as to recognize members of their own colony, the path
over which a nest-mate has passed or which they them-
selves have recently traversed, and to know an enemy
by the fact that the new ant smells different from their
nest-mates.
There are plenty of instances which might be cited
to prove that man is really inferior to many of the lower
animals in the small range of discrimination possible in
his olfactory sense. The elephant, the deer, the fox,
the wolf, the dog, all bear evidence to an olfactory sense
wonderful in its development. Our impressions of
delight, aversion; comfort, danger; friend, foe, are more
often the result of mental processes. In most affairs of
life we think why we should feel, rather than instinctively
feel without thinking. Yet, in cases so new that no
previous experience could reason out an explanation, we
may act from instinctive feeling we say that we scent
danger. There is no question that this sense played an
important part in the life of primitive man as it does to-
day in the preservation of lower animals. It is certain
that some insects, at least, if not the majority of them,
find their food by the sense of smell. The food-getting
instinct is probably the lowest though the most valuable
of the instincts, and the sense of smell is surely one of its
valuable servants.
Touch.
The sense of touch is, with human beings, entirely a
superficial sense, a contact sense, capable of stimulation
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
through specialized cells lying just under the epidermis,
more abundantly scattered in some portions of the body
than in others. We do not feel at all just over the elbow-
joint, and much less feebly on the cheek than on the lips.
But there are other means of contact sense. Close your
eyes and let some friend touch one of the hairs on the
back of your hand or arm, and you have the immediate
sensation of having
been touched. A fine
nerve at the base of
this hair communi-
cated to your brain the
stimulus of contact.
In this latter way,
insects are provided
abundantly with the
contact sense. (Fig. 5.)
Catch a house fly, and
you will find a number
of stiffish hairs on the
surface of the body. Lightly touch one of these hairs,
and you may be able to prove to yourself that they are
actually tactile hairs. Most insects have these hairs in
greater or less abundance. There are hairs on some insects
which serve other purposes, such as the stiff hairs on the
hind legs of some of the swimming beetles, or the auditory
hairs, but possibly even these are contact sense organs in
addition to their other use. Where the body wall of an in-
sect is thickly chitinized, unless the chitin armor is pierced
by one of these hairs, the insect seems feebly, if at all,
sensitive to touch. A praying mantis on the desk of the
author was exploring a bunch of golden-rod, and was
confronted by a woolly bear, one of the hairy brown cater-
C.O.
FIG. 5. Diagram showing innervation of
a tactile hair, ch, chitinized cuticle; hyp,
cellular layer of skin; sc, ganglion cell; co t
ganglion of central nervous system. (Kellogg,
after vom Rath.}
SPECIAL SENSES OF INSECTS. 15
pillars with a broad black band around its body. The
mantis put up her front feet in the usual attitude and
the caterpillar promptly took hold of the tarsi. Nothing
happened until the caterpillar bit viciously at the mantis' s
foot, when she jerked her foot away and ran off, going on
five legs and holding up the sixth, much as a dog holds up
an injured member.
In an insect the tiny nerve at the apex of the hair
runs down under the skin to a knot of nervous matter,
and from there a nerve fiber runs to a nerve ganglion for
that particular segment on which the hair is located.
The ganglion is a part of the whole nervous system, as
will be proved by the-fact that the insect may will to run
away as the result of this excitation of one of its tactile
hairs, or it may will to turn about and show fight. Try
this on a caterpillar, removing as far as possible the
chance of its seeing you and thus becoming frightened in
that way.
This is different from the usual conception of the
human nervous system, where all impressions are sup-
posed to be referred to the forward end of the nerve axis
the brain for interpretation. But we are coming to
realize, through more intelligent study, that there are
plenty of stimuli coming in upon our nervous system,
which are interpreted before reaching the cerebrum; in
fact, so far as late investigators can determine, some
stimuli never reach the brain at all, but pass into action
upon being interpreted elsewhere. This, being true,
proves again the similarity of life activities. Our life
is, at foundation, of the same sort as the life of these sim-
pler creatures ; only in us it finds more varied means of
expression.
i6
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
Taste.
The taste organs of insects occur in the roof of the
mouth and on the mouth appendages, especially on the
palpi. (Fig. 6.) As with the human tribe, the substance
to be tasted must be dissolved and the solution must be
brought into contact with the special taste buds. Hence
it is necessary that the insect
shall dissolve its food in the
mouth fluids; the taste organs,
then, are so situated that they
can be brought into the mouth
to explore the food or to subject
the food to trial before it passes
into the mouth. It is not likely,
however, that insects are com-
pelled to depend entirely upon
the method of trial and error in
choosing their food . This would ,
of course, be true if the insects
were confronted with a kind of
food entirely new in the life
history of their kind; but where
an insect has been hatched into
the environment in which its
for many generations, it comes
into life with inherited tendencies toward foods that
have nourished its ancestors, and against foods that its
ancestors have found distasteful or harmful, or strange.
Perhaps, as with the human family, the sense of taste
contributes to the relish or the pleasure incident to the
act of eating, and, therefore, to the secretion of the digest-
ive juices. However that may be, the palpi may be
observed in active motion during the whole time a
FIG. 6. Nerve endings in tip
of labial palpus of a fish moth.
(Kellogg, after vom Rath; greatly
magnified.)
ancestors have lived
SPECIAL SENSES OF INSECTS. IJ
grasshopper is devouring its grass blade or the potato
beetle its wrinkly potato leaf. This may be watched
through a reading glass any day you find a leaf-eating
insect at its meals.
Hearing.
That the fifth of our senses is also possessed by many
insects is easier to believe than to prove. Anyone who
has ever listened to call and response of half a dozen katy-
FIG. 7. Inner aspect of right tympanal sense organ of a grasshopper,
Caloptenus italicus. b, chitinous border; c, closing muscle of spiracle; gn,
ganglion; m, tympanum; n, nerve; 0, opening muscle of spiracle; p,p, processes
resting against tympanum; s, spiracle; tm, tensor muscle of tympanum; v,
vesicle. (Folsom, after Graber.)
dids, or to two or three cicadas gossiping back and forth
on a July afternoon, with their musical "Ah- we ah-we
ah-we ah-we-e-e-e-e-e !" does not lack proof in his own
mind that insects hear and make answer to what is heard.
i8
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
FIG. 8. Locust from lateral aspect (left
wings removed), showing (ao) auditory organ.
(Kellogg.)
This may be called negative proof of the power of hearing ;
but there is also positive proof in the discovery of the pos-
session of auditory
organs by many in-
sects. (Fig. 7.) Our
common grasshop-
pers, katydids,
crickets, and mosqui-
toes have such or-
gans. As with the
other senses of in-
sects, we find the
organ of this sense in several different parts of the bodies
of these simple animals. The higher animals we call
higher because of the centralization of related functions;
and that centralization
has meant the concen-
tration of many formerly
distributed senses into
one ganglion or knot of
our nerve cord the
brain. The low animals,
then, are the ones in
which these senses are
most widely separated
as to locality and least
differentiated as to kind. FIG. 9. Diagram of longitudinal section
This might be Said through ^ rst anc * seconc l antennal segments
r ' -i , of a mosquito, male, showing complex audi-
lurtner:tfie more closely toryorgan compose d of fine chitinous rods,
related in point Of pOSl- nerve fibers, and nerve cells. (Kellogg, after
tion these Sense Organs Child; greatly magnified.)
are to the brain, the higher the insect in the scale of life
development.
SPECIAL SENSES OF INSECTS.
The ear of a locust may be found by first killing one
of them, and then clipping off the front and the hind wing
from one side of the body, when the ear drum may be
seen as a thin, white membrane on the first segment of the
abdomen. Underneath this membrane or drum is a
tiny sack filled with a liquid, and against the inner wall
of this sack rests a fine nerve-ending from which a slender
A O B
FIG. 10. Antennae of mosquito, Culex pipiens. A, male; B, female. (Folsom.)
conducting fiber runs to the ganglion for that abdominal
segment. (Fig. 9.) Mosquitoes hear by means of their
antennae, on which are thickly distributed many fine hairs
whose roots lie in a mass of delicate perceiving matter,
composed of chitin rods, nerve fibers, and ganglionated
nerve cells, and which give to the mosquito the power of
perceiving sounds. (Fig. 10.)
CHAPTER III.
THE VITAL PROCESSES.
Respiration.
In insects, as in all animals, a renewed supply of
oxygen is necessary to supply the energy used up in all
the forms of bodily activity, as well as to analyze the food
into tissue-building products. But insects have no
lungs, nor any suggestion of an oxygenating center
communicating with a blood center where the oxygenation
of the food-laden blood is accomplished. Neither does
the air enter the insect's body through an opening in the
head. Indeed, the respiratory system of an insect is
rather a sack closed at the head end. The respiratory
system of an insect is much more complex than that of
human beings. It consists of a system of air tubes
much resembling the windpipe of a bird, but branching
so many times as to become delicate enough to carry
the air directly to the finest subdivision of any tissue of
the insect's body, going in between the eye elements,
driving their load of air inside the wing sacks, in between
the leg muscles, even down to the delicate tarsal and
antennal segments. It is thought by some histologists
that the ultimately fine tracheal tubes may enter a cell
itself and oxygenate the protoplasm.
On account of the usual rigidity of the head and the
thoracic segments, the respiratory movements can hardly
be noticed in these parts of the body of most insects.
But the abdominal segments move much more freely
20
THE VITAL PROCESSES.
21
upon each other, and here the breathing of the insect
may easily be studied. Catch a grasshopper, and
holding it by the hind legs
with the thumb and fore-
finger notice the alternate
contraction and expansion
of the abdomen. With the
reading glass, look along
the sides of the abdomen,
and minute openings may
be found, usually outlined
with some different color.
These are the openings, or
rather the entrances, of the
respiratory system spira-
cles one on either side of
the body for each segment
of the abdomen. Through
these spiracles the balance
between carbon dioxid and
oxygen must be preserved.
Hence, if you wish to kill
an insect for your collec-
tion box, by means of some
poisonous gas, you cannot
do it by holding its ^ antenna; bj brain; ^ leg . n , nerv e cord;
"nose," but by applying p, palpus; .y, spiracle;^, spiracular or stig-
the gas tO its abdomen matal branch ; '> main tracheal trunk; v,
and its thorax, where the
openings into its respira-
tory system are found. (Fig. n.) Inward from each
spiracle, a tracheal tube leads to a main trunk of the
system, of which there are two, one along each side of the
FIG. ii. Trac heal system of an insect.
ventral branch ; vs,
(Folsom, after Kolbe.)
dsceral branch.
22 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
body. From this main trunk there arise in each segment
three sets of branches: the branch going upward to
supply the muscles of the back and the wings ; the visceral
branch, running interiorly and supplying the organs of
the alimentary tract, the kidneys, and the reproductive
organs; and the ventral branch, which carries air to the
ventral ganglia, the ventral muscles, and the legs. In
some insects these spiracles
are protected from dust and
other foreign substances
much as our noses are, by
fine hairs; in others a tiny
flap of chitin closes the open-
ing; in some others the wing
covers bend down over the
line of spiracles; but in other
insects, as in the order of the
bugs, there seems to be no
protection whatever.
In insects which are very
FIG. 12. Lateral gill from abdomen r . n- .1
. A , u XT swift fliers there are, lust
of a May fly nymph, Hexagema J
variabiiis. Enlarged. (Fohom.) under the chitin body cover-
ing, tracheal pockets, or en-
largements of these air conductors; these are supposed
to be for the storing of a reserve supply of air which may
be drawn upon by the insect during the long, swift flights
which use up so much oxygen.
In aquatic insects, or nymphs of insects which later
become air breathers, the spiracles are not present at
first, and the animal breathes while in the water by
means of tracheal gills, developing the spiracular system
much later. These gills present to the water an extensive
surface with a thin tegument, and under which the tracheae
THE VITAL PROCESSES. 23
branch to form a network of tubes ; through the tegument
covering the tracheae the gaseous interchange of carbon
dioxid for oxygen takes place. The rate of respiration
varies with the activity of the insect, with the temperature,
and with other bodily conditions. The respiratory
movements are mainly reflex, each thoracic and abdomi-
nal ganglion acting as a center for the respiratory move-
ments of that particular segment.
Circulation of the Blood.
In birds and mammals, contact of the blood with
the air that is, the combining of the C, H, and O of the
fats, the amyloids, and the waste tissue with the oxygen
of the air takes place in a localized region of the body,
the lungs, from which the oxygenated blood is sent back
to the blood center the heart to be driven to all parts
of the body. Hence, in these divisions of the animal
kingdom, there is a distinct and closed vascular system
making a complete double circulation. In insects there
is no such vascular system and no definitely prescribed
round of the blood in tubes.
Just underneath the chitinized dorsal wall of the
insect's body, lies a long pulsating organ having several
chambers provided with valves; it is open at both ends
and at the sides between the chambers. This may be
called the heart, and it does not connect with any net-
work of tubes carrying foul and aerated blood, as in the
human animal; but, instead, its pulsations are so per-
formed as to direct the current of blood forward toward
the front end of the body, emptying itself in the head,
while at the same time the blood then in the posterior
end or at the sides is drawn into the long pulsating heart.
No air reaches this heart, except such as may remain in
24 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
the blood which is then drawn in, hence the blood must
be aerated elsewhere. The respiratory system is made
to conform to the needs of this rudimentary vascular
system. The tracheae, penetrating as they do the intra-
muscular spaces of the body, provide the means for
bringing the air into contact with the blood. The blood
bathes all the tissues of the body, fills all spaces not
filled by the organs, and even bathes the cells of those
organs; hence, wherever a trachea empties out its air,
the blood there present is oxygenated. The general blood
movement is, then, forward through the tissues, till it
finally works its way around through the general body
spaces and passes backward, following the body contour
lines, to re-enter the heart again at its rear or sides.
Alimentation.
In man, the alimentary canal, beginning at the
mouth, is modified into mouth, oesophagus, stomach,
small intestine, large intestine, with the familiar three
modifications of the last-named, the unassimilated
residue finding exit at the anus. In different parts of
this long canal are secreted and discharged into the food
there present, the various fluids whose function is the
reduction of the solid foods taken, to liquid form, suitable
for the building of new body cells or the rejuvenation
of over- worked cells. This process of reduction is diges-
tion, and the various fluids may be named: as saliva,
whose active principle is ptyalin; pepsin, trypsin, pan-
creatin, steapsin, etc.
In insects the simplest alimentary canal is that of
the primitive insects, in which it is merely a nearly
straight tube, constricted at either end, and enlarged
in the middle into a main digestive cavity with muscular
THE VITAL PROCESSES.
walls; this latter corresponds to our stomach. It is
separated from the fore and hind portions of the canal by
rudimentary valves,
which are simple ex-
trusions of the wall of
one cavity into the
opening of the next
cavity, and whose
loose edges prevent
the return of mate-
rial. In such insects
the food is soft as to
its substance and not
varied in its nature.
Hence there is no
need of special gland-
ular extensions of the
canal. In insects
whose food is of more
solid nature or more
varied in its charac-
ter, more modifica-
tions of the canal are
necessary for the se-
cretion of fluids
needed in the diges-
- . 1 FIG. 13. Digestive system of a beetle, Carabus.
tion of particular por- a> anal gland . c (of fore gut)> crop . c (of hind
of the food, and gut), colon, merging into rectum; d, evacuating
duct of anal gland; g, gastric caeca; i, ileum; m,
mid intestine; mt, Malpighian tubes; o, cesoph-
for the retention of
the food long enough agus; p, proventriculus; r, reservoir. (Folsom,
to let it become a f ter Kolbe ^
thoroughly permeated with these fluids. In many insects
this is accomplished by the crop and the proventriculus,
26 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
two extensions of the canal between the oesophagus and
the stomach. (Fig. 13.)
In the human being the food is mixed with the saliva
while it is in the mouth ; in the bird, the food is swallowed
dry or whole, and this mixing with the saliva is accom-
plished in the crop. Peptonization is accomplished for
birds and for many insects by a second enlargement,
which has already been spoken of, just below the crop.
In insects, the salivary glands may be restricted to the
head and the saliva be discharged from there into the
mouth; or the glands may extend backward into the
thorax. In connection with the salivary glands, there
may be poison glands in such insects as are predatory
or carnivorous, and also in spiders.
In the honey bee and the honey ant, also, this crop
or . fore-stomach serves as a temporary storage cavity for
the liquid foods which have been eaten by the bee or the
ant, or brought to the nest bee or ant by some foraging
bee or ant. The cavity is separated from the true stomach
by extruding flaps or outfoldings of its walls into the
cavity of the true stomach; and the food swallowed is
thus kept indefinitely or let out either forward or back-
ward by the voluntary effort of the insect. Such insects,
like some birds, feed their young by regurgitation. Such
preparation of the food as part of the alimentation of the
parent is evidence of their high position in the scale of
life, and of their close relationship to the mammals, the
highest of the animal kingdom.
In carnivorous insects this crop is a dilation of the
canal axis; but in the Neuroptera and the butter-
flies, bees, wasps, ants, and the flies, this salivary
extension of the canal is a lateral pocket, and serves
in all of them for the temporary storage of food just
THE VITAL PROCESSES. 27
swallowed until it can be thoroughly mixed with the
digestive fluid.
The stomach of an insect, instead of serving as does
our stomach, as a means of separating the solid foods
into minute portions as well as mixing them with the pep-
sin, is more like an intestine; it has not the capacity for
strong muscular action, such as has the preventriculus or
gizzard. Considerable secretion of digestive fluids takes
place here, as well as the absorption of the prepared food
mass.
The portion of the canal behind the stomach is, in
some insects, modified into regions much like the divisions
of the large intestine of the human animal, and named
like them, colon, ileum, and rectum. In the primitive
insect there are no such divisions apparent ; and in many
others the colon or first division is absent. In human
alimentation the food current, in process of elaboration,
is supplied by the mesenteries with the amoeboid cells,
which play so important a part in the maintenance of the
health of the body by devouring the microbes of various
diseases. In many insects this function seems to be
performed by cells of the lining wall of the stomach, which
become free by constriction and float out free in the food
current.
The excretory function of the kidneys seems to be
discharged by the Malpighian tubes of the insect, which
open into the intestine behind the stomach. In the
human animal there is no aeration of the food current
until, after having been gathered from the capillaries of
the stomach and the intestines, from the lacteals, and
from the liver, into the right side of the heart, it is sent
to the lungs where it is oxygenated, and, being returned to
the left side of the heart, it is sent to all the waiting tissues
28 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
of the body. But in insects, so far as investigation has
shown, the aerating system of air tubes touches the ali-
mentary canal only at the region where the Malpighian
tubes are liberally supplied with tracheae. In the human
body, waste liberation is accomplished through the lungs
(gaseous) and through the kidneys (liquid). In insects,
through the aeration of the Malpighian tubes, that is
the kidney region, the two sorts of waste liberation may
reinforce each other. As to the remaining waste libera-
tion, not accomplished by the Malpighian tubes, the fat
body of the insect, lying along the alimentary canal and
the dorsal heart, also acts as a waste eliminator, and in
some insects acts as a storage tract for the deposit of
waste ; especially is this true where the insect is a primitive
insect and there are no Malpighian tubes. The blood of
insects, which is more like the lymphatic fluid of the
human animal, contains many fat globules, indicating a
connection between this fat body and the circulation of
the blood.
Nervous System.
The nervous system of the larva of an insect, if we
select an insect having complete metamorphosis, as a
butterfly, is a type of a simple nervous system, one
nervous ganglion for each segment of the body, joined by
a double cord, and lying in the middle line of the body
ventrally. As the adult stage is approached, there is
more or less of fusing of these ganglia in all the different
orders of insects; but in an adult butterfly the front end
of the nerve chain becomes modified into two ganglia,
one lying a little forward called the brain or cephalic
ganglion, and the other lying a little below the brain and
called the suboesophageal ganglion. The brain supplies
THE VITAL PROCESSES. 29
with nerves the simple eyes, the compound eyes, and the
antennas. The subcesophageal ganglion sends nerves
to the mouth parts, and is itself connected with the brain
by a pair of cords between which the oesophagus passes.
On back from the subcesophageal ganglion the nerve
chain passes into the thorax, where there is one fused
ganglion representing several larval segments. This
FIG. 14. Stages in development of nervous system of a water beetle.
Mcilius sulcatus; showing ventral nerve cord in earliest larval stage, and, 7, the
system in the adult. (Kellogg, after Brandt; much enlarged.)
supplies with nerves the wings, the legs, and the many
thoracic muscles. In the abdomen there is usually one
ganglion for each segment, the nerve chain terminating
in several fibrillae in the last segment. (Fig. 14.)
Lying above the oesophagus, and having its origin in
front of the brain, there lies the sympathetic system.
This, by means of two pairs of ganglia, controls those
activities which are safely automatic respiration, the
action of the dorsal heart, and the usual processes of
3<D FIELD ZOOLOGY.
alimentation. This sympathetic system connects with
the brain in the region of the cords leading to the brain
from the subcesophageal ganglion. A central nerve
also runs backward in the middle line of the thorax and
the abdomen, supplying with nerves mainly the spiracular
system, but also sending nerves to the muscles of the
abdomen and the thorax to some extent, making their
FIG. 15. Successive stages in the concentration of the central nervous
system of Diptera. A, Chironomus; B t Empis; C, Tabanus; D, Sarcophaga.
(Folsom, after Brandt.)
movements partly reflex. A grasshopper's head severed
from the thorax remains sensitive for some time, and
will move when irritated. An insect with its brain
removed will eat and digest its food if that food be
brought into contact with its mouth parts.
Those insects whose adult nervous system is least
differentiated, i. e., consists of one ganglion for each body
segment, represent the lowest type of insect life. Fusion
of ganglia and centralization of functions, signify advance
in nervous perception, and indicate higher types of insect
THE VITAL PROCESSES. 31
life. Thus the adult butterfly is more highly organized
nervously than it was in the caterpillar stage. (Fig. 15.)
Similarly, the bees and the flies, with their fused ganglia in
the three regions of the body and the attendant centraliza-
tion of functions in those fused ganglia, are to be reckoned
as more highly organized living beings than are the locusts
with their much more nearly similar and segmentally
arranged ganglia. Examination of a series of animals
from the simple toward the complex shows one other fact
of nervous organization. The upward series shows a
tendency not only toward this fusion of ganglia and cen-
tralization of functions, but also to place the emphasis
upon the cephalic ganglion, centralizing in it the percep-
tion of stimuli which, lower in the series, were either dis-
tributed to other parts of the body for interpretation, or
were not differentiated from each other; as hearing, tast-
ing, and the contact sense.
CHAPTER IV.
DEVELOPMENT AND METAMORPHOSIS.
Every animal develops from a single cell; and, when
that cell is enclosed in some characteristic wall or cover-
ing, is accompanied by more or less of reserve food or yolk,
and undergoes a resting period of greater or less length,
we call the cell an egg. That insects come from eggs is
almost as familiar a fact as the insects themselves. But
the average student of nature usually stops there, and
knows^ little or nothing of the changes undergone by the
grasshopper, the butterfly, or the firefly before the adult
insect appears. Many of us have found grubs without
knowing that they are a stage in the life of some beetle.
The various cocoons found hanging to some twig or weed
or tree are interesting, without impressing us as only one
stage in the life of some gay butterfly or somber moth.
Worms are "just worms" for most of us, nasty horrid
things that do nothing but eat up our flowers or gardens
or trees; yet even the worst one among them will disap-
pear from our sight, and if we had the desire we could
trace it to its winter quarters, mark the place, and the
next spring we should be rewarded by a flutter of bright
wings and a decided preference for flower nectar in the
new animal coming out from the cocoon, all its days of leaf-
eating forgotten, neither knowing nor caring for anything
save sunshine, pollen, and nectar.
Insects, then, come from eggs, and the changes of
form undergone on the way from the egg to the adult
32
DEVELOPMENT AND METAMORPHOSIS. 33
or mature insect are to be expressed in one term-
metamorphosis.
Development with no Metamorphosis.
If an insect undergoes no bodily changes after hatch-
ing from the egg, there is no metamorphosis. This is
true for only a very few insects, as the thrips and the fish
moths. These insects, when they hatch from the eggs,
look exactly like their parents except that they are smaller.
And they come to maturity by a series of moults after
each one of which the body is larger; no new organs ap-
pear, there is simply an increase in bulk until the size of
the parent is reached, then the moults stop.
Complete Metamorphosis.
But for other insects than those mentioned, changes
take place during the period of immaturity, changes
involving body form or life habits and conditions, or both.
The changes may affect only slightly the body form, the
life habits and conditions remaining practically unchanged ;
we speak of this mode of reaching maturity as incomplete
metamorphosis. Where these changes include not only
changes in body form, but also in the life conditions and
habits, this series of changes we call complete metamor-
phosis; it comprises the four stages of egg, larva, pupa,
and adult.
Besides these three modes of attaining maturity,
a few insects, one family of beetles, the blister beetles,
scale insects, and a few parasitic hymenopters, multiply
the larval stage several times; the blister beetles at their
different moults appearing with markedly different larval
bodies, but the last one finally merging into the familiar
resting pupa of its kind. (Fig. 16.) This last mode is
34
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
called hypermetamorphosis. All insects may be divided
along the line of complete or incomplete metamorphosis ;
those with the additional larval stages being placed with
the complete and those without change of body form
during immaturity being placed with the incomplete.
F
FIG. 16. Stages in the hypermetamorphosis of Epicauta. A, triungulin;
B, carabidoid stage of second larva; C, ultimate stage of second larva; D, coarctate
larva; E, pupa; F, imago. E is species cinerea; the others are vittata. All
enlarged except F. (Folsom, after Riley, from Trans. St. Louis Acad. Science.}
The insects with complete metamorphosis are, per-
haps, the most familiar insects. Take, for example, the
tomato worm '. (Fig. 17.) The eggs are at first green like
the tomato leaf upon which they were laid; in the course
of three or four days they turn yellow, and in about six
days they begin hatching. The eggs are laid singly and
are to be looked for on the under side of tomato leaves.
The larvae also feed on other plants, as the Texas thistle,
but the author has never found eggs on the thistle. From
DEVELOPMENT AND METAMORPHOSIS.
35
these eggs hatch tiny green caterpillars less than a quarter
of an inch long ; these begin eating the tender tomato leaves,
moult four times, and grow to a size of about four inches.
At the caudal end of the abdomen there is a blackish-
green or bluish-black horn pointing backward; and along
each side is a row of yellowish stripes placed obliquely.
During the three weeks of the larval life these cater-
FIG. 17. Larva of tomato worm. (Kellogg, after Soule; somewhat reduced.}
pillars eat enormous quantities of leaves, and they seem
especially to enjoy finding a tomato green or ripe, it
does not matter; of course this means more to eat and
less work to get it. At the end of this time they stop
eating and burrow into the ground at the base of the
plants which they have been eating, and lie inactive. If
the poor caterpillar is in a pan in the schoolroom and
cannot make you understand what it needs, it will crawl
36 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
hurriedly around the pan, attracting as much attention
and looking as ferocious as possible, and will then "turn
up its toes " in disgust at your lack of understanding. Its
period of inactivity in either place will be about two weeks,
during which the body shortens and becomes larger around,
and begins to look dried. At the end of this time, if you
are on hand when the wonder happens, you will see the
old skin crack along the back for the last time, while the
new body works itself loose from the old caterpillar skin.
This new animal is to be called a pupa. (Fig. 18.) It has
FIG. 1 8. Pupa of tomato worm.
a large head end and a gradually tapering abdominal por-
tion. The wing areas gradually become visible, with the
suggestion that the new wings are folded around the body
toward the under side. From the head end there extends
along the front of the pupal body an odd appendage look-
ing much like a jug-handle; this is the case for the long
sucking proboscis. One such transformation as this
observed by the author, began at noon and was over by
two o'clock. The characteristic mahogany brown of the
pupa case did not appear till later.
The next spring, when the ground warms up and
you go at the right time to the place where your pupa
went under, you will see this pupa case, grown old, crack
at the big head end and down a little on the back, and
DEVELOPMENT AND METAMORPHOSIS. 37
out will come the head of a gray moth. Gradually it
works its wings out, then its front legs; then, by pushing
back on the old case with its front legs, it works out the
other pairs of legs and afterward its abdomen. It rests
frequently while it is doing all this, and now it rests a
longer time than it has before. Then it braces itself and
begins pulling its proboscis out of the jug-handle sheath.
This emergence may last an hour and a half or two hours.
FIG. 19. Adult of tomato worm, showing sucking proboscis uncoiled.
The body wall must harden to form a secure attachment
for the muscles which are concerned in the violent exertion
necessary to free the insect from its hard, dry pupal case.
(Fig. 19.) This moth represents the completion of the life
cycle; it is the parent repeated, the adult again. It
hangs to the old pupal case the only familiar thing in
a world of strangeness occasionally waving its wet,
wrinkled wings. Gradually the body wall hardens, the
wings straighten out and dry, the different colors of the
scales and hairs on its wings and body appear, and proba-
bly, by the following morning, the splendid gray-winged
moth will be flitting from flower to flower on the trumpet
creeper or in the petunia bed, not needing to be taught
where to look for its breakfast, having knowledge of how
38 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
to take care of itself, provide for itself, and look after the
wise placing of its eggs in the future, if it is a female moth.
The internal changes are also great. The musculation of
the caterpillar is that of a worm, for crawling, wriggling,
worm-like locomotion, and instead of long muscles we
find many short muscles running lengthwise of the body,
while other muscles run around the body at nearly right
angles with these. In the adult the muscular needs are
very different, where, especially in the thorax and the head,
many strong cross muscles must provide for flying, run-
ning, and eating. The alimentary canal of the larva is
adapted for disposing of solid food, while in the adult
stage the alimentary canal is adapted for sucking liquid
food from flowers.
Not only are there changes such as have just been
described for the butterflies and the moths, but the
respiratory systems of some insects must also change.
The dragon-fly nymphs are adapted for living in the water,
while the adult dragon flies are air-breathing insects.
The heart and the nervous system of an insect with
complete metamorphosis, show lesser differences, but
even here there must be changes on the way to adulthood.
The ventral nerve chain of the larvae of some insects con-
tains twice as many ganglia as does that of the adult;
the cephalic ganglion enlarges on the way toward the
mature insect, and the front part of the larval heart
gradually narrows at the head end into what may be
called, in some insects, the aorta.
In the pupal stage the insect is defenseless; it can
neither fight nor run away; hence its safety lies in con-
cealment in some burrow, or in the sagacity with which
its larva spun a cocoon and hung itself up where it would
not show, or where it would so harmonize with its sur-
DEVELOPMENT AND METAMORPHOSIS. 39
roundings that it might be visible but not distinguishable.
The insect in its pupal stage does not eat, but the larva
has provided for this by eating greedily all through its
larval existence ; so there is a large supply of surplus food
within the larval body when the pupa begins the wonder-
ful changes toward adult form. Upon this reserve the
pupa draws until the time of its emergence as an adult.
Although the pupal insect does not eat, nor, except in
a very few cases, move about from place to place, we are
not to regard it as quietly doing nothing while it is in its
burrow or cocoon. Really this is the period of the most
wonderful changes in all the insect's life. Gradually
there comes about, in the case of the tomato worm, for
instance, the replacement of the solid food digesting
apparatus, with the alimentary organs necessary for
digesting liquid food; the caterpillar set of muscles must
be replaced by the wing and the leg locomotor muscles;
the wings themselves must be developed; the wonderful
compound eyes must be built, facet by facet, with the
marvelous structure behind each. Embryologists tell
us that this building up of new organs is preceded by a
breaking up of most of the internal organs into a general
body fluid, out of which rich food supply, the new organs,
internal and external, must be built, with perhaps
certain bud cells as centers for the new growths.
All young animals, even the one-celled, have a
longer or shorter period of immaturity. In the cases
where the young of insects are born alive we must conceive
these changes as having taken place before the young
were freed from the egg duct of the mother insect, as is
the case with such of our flies as do not "lay eggs." In
complete metamorphosis the insect is born youngest,
is most immature, and appears in the form farthest
4O FIELD ZOOLOGY.
removed from the parent form. In the case of the
ametamorphic insects, we may speak of the young as
undergoing some such maturing as do the young of some-
what higher animals, development without metamorpho-
sis ; while the incomplete metamorphosis sorts represent a
type between ametamorphic and complete metamorphic.
Incomplete Metamorphosis.
As an example of incomplete metamorphosis, we
may take the box elder bug that is becoming such a pest
wherever box elder trees are grown. Probably these
trees have much to do with the appearance of the bug.
All animals, even in the human tribe, follow their food
around the world; or else, if 'they have the power of
initiative, as human beings do, they take their foods along
to the new place of abode. From the egg there hatches
a tiny red bug, soft-bodied, and without wings, yet
enough like its parents to have the same mouth parts and
the same feeding habits. These small bugs feed, so far
as we know, on the sap of the young, tender stems and
twigs. They seem not to be confined to box elder trees,
though probably feeding there more often than elsewhere.
To accommodate the increasing bulk, the bug sheds its
old skin frequently. The body wall becomes hardened
by chitin, and will not yield as the insect continually
grows; hence it is split open and the insect casts it off;
but before this happens the insect has made itself a new
skin inside the old one, and when it emerges, the new
wet, wrinkled skin stretches and so makes room for the
insect grown larger. The wings are represented, at first,
by bud cells under the skin, but gradually these grow
until the rudiments of wings appear beyond the body
wall in the shape of wing pads. The body continues to
DEVELOPMENT AND METAMORPHOSIS. 4!
increase in size, the wing pads develop into wings, the
adult colorings of black and red appear until, when adult
size is reached, we see a familiar box elder bug with its
red "X" on its black back, its gauzy under wings for
flying, and its slender legs to carry it efficiently about
into more places than we wish it could get into.
^\W^ H E V*r 8 F
FIG. 20 Six successive instars of the squash bug, Anasa tristis. X 2. (Folsom.)
In this form of metamorphosis there seem to be but
two intermediate stages, the egg and the larval stage, the
latter greatly extended. (Fig. 20.) Where the insect has
complete metamorphosis, the food habits of the adult
generally differ from those of the larva ; but where the in-
sect comes to adult form by incomplete metamorphosis,
the young usually has the same food preferences as it will
have later in life and as its parents had before it.
CHAPTER V.
INSECTS AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION.
Entomology, or the study of insects, had its origin
far back in the days when scientists were generalizers
and had not yet become specialists, each in his particular
realm. Linnaeus, Carl von Linne, so often called the
father of modern botany, was one of these general scien-
tists. The field covered by this one man included
minerals, animals, and plants, any one of which is more
than enough for one man nowadays. Nevertheless, the
thoroughness of his work in insects is evidenced by the
fact that his seven orders of insects remained a satis-
factory system of classification for more than half a
century. Classification is, of course, not the most impor-
tant thing about an animal or a plant, nor is it in any
sense a finality in the study of the living being. When
one has the name for a living being, he has a handle for
using the tool of this new information in working out more
valuable conclusions. The economic relations of that
living being with other animals, with plants, or with
man, are more important. Comparison of the structure
of the lower animals with the higher is valuable. To
estimate how closely a bee approximates a man's sense of
sight, or transcends man's ability to smell keenly, to
recognize his kind, and to find his home without road,
compass, chart, or beaten track, all these are much more
valuable than to know that this particular bee rejoices in
the name of Apis mellifica. Yet, where there are thou-
42
INSECTS AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION. 43
sands of insects and not all of a kind, one must have some
way of knowing what each insect is before he can begin
to work out -all the marvelous relationships between that
insect and others much like it or differing much from it.
Besides these facts, which still are of secondary value,
the student of insects will come to know that of all the
different sorts of insects some are low, while some are
high in the life scale; some are simple in structure, while
others are very complex; some have more intelligence
than others ; some have higher nervous organization than
others, with sense powers that eclipse man's powers, with
instincts whose like we do not know, or if we did once
know them in the days when man was first learning his
new world, they are now covered over completely, buried
beneath the later stratum of reasoning as the basis of
activity, the determinant of action. In short, life is a
continuous stream with powers fundamentally the same,
whether that life is manifested in this body or that; and
each race or tribe of beings exhibits unmistakable relation-
ships to the beings above and below it, those relationships
being stated in terms of structure, or metamorphosis, or
nervous organization.
Insects, as classified by Linnaeus, were all included in
seven orders : Hymenoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera, Aptera,
Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, and Hemiptera. Under his
Hemiptera were included the insects now forming the
Orthoptera. The Neuroptera included a mixture of very
dissimilar insects now set apart in three different orders.
Rearrangement of the remaining insects on the bases of
structure and metamorphosis, and the necessity of
providing a place in the general scheme for the many
insects that Linnaeus never saw, and which later natural-
ists have been continually finding, has led to the formation
44
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
of other orders which express the new lines of division and
discovery.
The simplest insects are wingless, have little differen-
tiation of body form, and no free metamorphosis. These
are the Thysanura. The fish, moth is an example of the
order and probably the member most frequently seen
a wingless, swift-moving little creature with six legs. It
is often found among musty piles of paper or among folds
of clothing laid away. The Isoptera, or termites, have a
growth instead of metamorphosis, and only the kings and
queens of the colonies are winged. These insects are
sometimes called white ants. The Corrodentia, or book
louse order, is represented by the pale-colored, flattish
little creatures that hustle out of sight when you open
an old book long unused and a little musty. Some of
the Corrodentia are winged and all have incomplete
metamorphosis. The Mallophaga include the sheep and
the goat lice, and the bird lice. They have biting mouth
parts and eat wool, hair, or feathers, while the true lice
feed upon blood which they suck from the victim's body.
The Euplexoptera, or earwigs, resemble some of the rove
beetles, but may be distinguished by the fact that they
have a pair of forceps-like appendages at the caudal
end of the body. They have four wings and reproduce
by incomplete metamorphosis. They do not creep into
people's ears, as the old notion had it, but usually are
predaceous, feeding, according to Howard, upon dead
insects, snails, and small living insects. The Physopoda,
or thrips, are mostly flower pests, though some of them
eat other insects. Sometimes, close down to a head of
red clover, you may see some small black insects which
try to frighten you off by thrusting the end of the abdomen
energetically up into the air. And if you are looking
INSECTS AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION. 45
through a microscope this may appear a trifle ferocious.
They are winged, probably suck their food, and have
incomplete metamorphosis. The Mecoptera is the order
of the scorpion flies, so called because some of the order
have the anal end of the abdomen shaped like the sting
of a scorpion. The mouth parts are beak-like, but with
mandibles at the end of the beak. The insects have four
wings and reproduce by complete metamorphosis.
The Trichoptera have hairy wings, four of them, and
they use them only in the adult stage. They are called
caddice or caddis flies. The larvae, or caddis worms, are
highly prized as bait by old fishermen in England.
These queer larvae make a case of sticks, sand, or straw
about themselves, then stick out the head and the thorax,
and go crawling about in the water for food. The adults
look considerably like small moths.
CHAPTER VI.
GENERAL SUGGESTIONS FOR FIELD WORK
ON INSECTS.
The teacher who hopes to present the subject of insect
study must be a leader in doing things, not simply a
director, expecting to give directions and have them
obeyed. The beginner learns to do things by seeing
some one who knows how, go ahead. Not only this, but
the instructor needs to be with the pupil to show him
where to go, what to get, and when to stop. And in
securing insects, it is quite as valuable to know when to
stop as to know when to begin. There are many valuable
insects which deserve protection, and which the beginner
can learn only gradually to recognize and to spare
when looking for new insects. The real object of the
study is to learn the life habits, the individual peculiarities,
and the relationships of these insects to each other and to
ourselves; and the only way to do this is to find them in
their places of abode and observe what they are doing
and how they get along in the world. Or, if a beneficial
insect is desired for extended study, bring along with it
plenty of its natural food to keep it going while its ap-
pearance and conduct are being studied.
In beginning the work, it is an effective thing to
organize, say, four expeditions, one to some wood pile,
one to the open fields in the middle of the day, one to a
pond, and one to some electric light globe, or, failing in this
latter, a kitchen window may be raised and the screen
46
FIELD WORK ON INSECTS. 47
opened while the investigator "waits for a bite." In the
excursion which leads anywhere near trees, be on the
lookout for cocoons hung on leaves or twigs. Cut these
off and bring them home. In the garden there may be
caterpillars, and what they are eating should be noticed,
so as to bring in for study the caterpillar and its food also.
The work fails of part of its mission if it does not
teach lessons of humanity. All insects, even the injurious
ones, should be killed as quickly as possible; there is
never any excuse for taking life lightly or with unneces-
sary cruelty. Life is a thing of like powers, whether it is
bound up in the body of a grasshopper, a butterfly, or a
human being; all are God's creatures, and all deserve
consideration at the hands of God's highest creatures,
men and women, girls and boys.
The work may be made clearer and more likely to be
remembered if it is made to emphasize at first the com-
mon orders of insects, so that the element of familiarity
may be used to build the unfamiliar upon. Each insect
selected should be a typical insect of its kind, the better
to illustrate the physical differences. The bug should
be as big a bug as possible. The beetle should be a big
fellow and have hard, horny wing covers. The fly ought
to be a horse fly, if possible, as the house fly is small.
No exceptional forms, nor forms of doubtful structure
which cannot be located with certainty, should be chosen
for study; they will come all right after a while, never
fear; they are to be found everywhere, along with the
insects that are well known! One of the preliminaries
is to get together enough knowledge of the different
orders to know representative forms of them when they
are seen. Hence the physical appearance of each should
be studied so as to know the mandibles of beetles and
48 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
their hard wing covers; the mandibles of grasshoppers
and their soft, straight wing covers; the beak of bugs;
the coiled proboscis of butterflies and moths; the four
membranous wings and hairy, or smooth and pedunculate
bodies of the bees, ants, and wasps; the two wings of the
flies ; and so on, if other orders are commonly represented
in the neighborhood where the work is done.
In the late summer one ought to be able to find
butterfly and moth larvae, or larvae that have already
spun their cocoons and have turned into pupae. If the
former, bring them into the school-room along with food
enough to last them; and if the latter, bring in the
twig or stem on which the pupae are hung, or the dirt in
which they were found, and put them into a safe place,
where, later the students may have the privilege of seeing
what metamorphosis means. There is nothing that quite
takes the place of seeing the thing for yourself in the big
world of Nature's wonders. Many other things will
suggest themselves to the earnest instructor who is on
the lookout to open up the world of knowledge to the
young mind. The child will often be the leader as to
where you are to go and what you are to teach him. My
best teachers have been my students who have asked me
things that I did not know. Never forget that you are a
child yourself, and that it is still your privilege to learn
truth along with them from the great Master of Truth
Himself. The bookworm side of study is not to be
emphasized; leave that for him who cannot do the thing
in any other way. There is such a world of things that
are very much alive, that one cannot afford to waste the
time over book knowledge of living creatures. Just give
the creatures about us a chance and they will teach us
many a lesson in humanity and gentleness, ingenuity and
FIELD WORK ON INSECTS. 49
device, successfulness and joy of living, such as will often
put us to shame.
As to the apparatus necessary in the work, there
ought not to be so much of it that all the student's power
of initiative is taken away from him. The chance to
acquire the power to deal successfully with one's sur-
roundings is the birth-right of every human being; if we
teachers prepare the way too much, we rob the child of
this birth-right.
Most insects run away if they are pursued, and
some of them have a very long jump; so it is necessary
FIG. 21. Diagram of insect net.
to have some means of lengthening one's own jump to
keep up with them. A good insect net is made by
bending a piece of stout wire in the form of a circle,
with about five inches of both ends of the loop bent
parallel downward, so that the loop may be fastened to a
handle, preferably a round handle. This stick should be
about five feet long, and should have a hole bored in each
side about five inches down from one end ; and the parallel
ends of the wire loop should be bent into these holes, and
then fastened firmly to the stick by a binding of flexible
wire. This forms a frame-work for the net. (Fig. 21.)
A piece of mosquito bar or coarse net is used for the
net. The piece should be long enough to sew around the
wire loop; and the bag should be about twice as deep as
{jo FIELD ZOOLOGY.
the diameter of the loop. The bag may be left square
at the bottom, or may be cut pointed or rounded. Armed
with this, one is usually able to lengthen his jump so as to
keep up with even the grasshoppers.
For aquatic insects, another sort of net may be more
useful. The wire loop and the long handle will be neces-
sary, unless there can be mustered a pair of rubber boots ;
but the loop should be considerably smaller, not over
eight or ten inches across; this net is to be used in water,
FIG. 22. Diagram of dip net.
not in air, so it must be stouter. A piece of coarse, stiff
net should be cut into circular form about six or eight
inches larger in diameter than the wire loop. Turn in the
edge and sew it firmly to the loop, preferably with cord.
This makes a round-bottomed net, which remains spread
out whether wet or dry. (Fig. 22.)
Another valuable help for all field work is a common
reading glass. One costing about $1.75 or $2.00 is
powerful enough. It enables half a dozen people to see
a given thing at one time, and also serves to watch insects
which are eating, showing how they do it. It is held at
ordinary reading distance. It may be held over a bee
while she is on a dandelion or a milkweed cluster; even a
wasp will not resent your looking at her with this
magnifier, touchy as wasps are; and butterflies reveal many
FIELD WORK ON INSECTS. 51
secrets through its round disk. A hand lens magnifying
about fifty diameters is highly useful for the smaller
insects.
Another requisite, which is used for disposing of
noxious insects, and such others as may really be needed
for examination, is a killing bottle, or other means of
killing your 'insects. Beneficial insects should not be
killed ; but all noxious insects should be killed. To avoid
making any mistakes, all insects should be taken alive
and studied in that condition; then the advice of the
instructor is to be followed as to whether to kill your
' ' find " or not. Every living creature has its mission, and
the day has gone by when we can afford to destroy bene-
ficial animals of any kind; and you will attain one of the
most valuable results in field zoology if you learn which
are our familiar, beneficial insects and which are the
harmful ones.
Having the knowledge that some of your insects
will deserve killing, it will be necessary to have a small
bottle of gasoline for use in killing the grasshoppers, the
katydids, and the locusts. These are big coarse insects,
are not beneficial, and their bodies are not delicate enough
to be harmed by the action of the gasoline. The fumes of
the killing bottle do not readily affect them; they suffer
long, and sometimes come to life on the pin after you are
reasonably sure that they are dead ; and there is never any
excuse for causing needless suffering. The animal with
a highly organized nervous system dies quickly ; we often
hear of "instantaneous death" with respect to such
animals. But animals of less complexity are not so
quickly affected, hence die more slowly. The grasshop-
pers all die more slowly than do the flies, the bees, or the
butterflies.
c-2 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
For the more nervously organized insects, one must
have another mode of killing them. A wide-mouthed
glass bottle with a tightly fitting stopper a small candy
jar with its ground glass stopper is excellent should be
fitted with a wad of absorbent cotton in the lid. The
jar should be wide enough to admit large moths and
butterflies and flies without doubling up their wings.
Just before putting in the insects that must be killed, for
instance, saw flies, horn tails, mosquitoes, stable flies,
drop a few drops of ether or chloroform on the absorbent
cotton in the lid. Close the jar quickly and tightly.
This jar may be used for killing flies, but the advice of your
instructor must be followed as to which flies are to be
killed. It would never do to kill the valuable Tachinas,
or the syrphid flies; while mosquitoes, house flies, stable
flies, and hessian flies are to be killed without mercy.
The killing bottle will do for the stronger dragon
flies also, but not more than one specimen for the whole
class should be killed, and when you put it into the jar,
you must put considerably more ether on the absorbent
cotton. If you reach the study of dragon flies late in the
summer or early in the fall, you may find quite a number of
dragon flies that have died a natural death. These will
do quite well for examination. Care should be taken not
to put many insects into the killing bottle at one time ; if
the insects are moths or butterflies, and large, only one or
two at a time. In bringing home your finds, the natural
food inclinations of your insects must be regarded. The
shepherd would not be so foolish as to shut up the wolves
with his sheep. For instance, if you catch some spiders,
better give them a box by themselves, few in the box, and
not long at a time; or you will be likely to have nothing
left except some unusually well-fed, big spiders. So
FIELD WORK ON INSECTS. 53
along with you to the collecting field should go several
small boxes rather than one big box. Remember, your
first object is to bring home your insects alive to find out
about them, and whether to kill them or not. A cyanid
bottle may also be used for one of the killing bottles ; but
extreme care must be observed in the use of it, as the cya-
nid is a deadly poison, and the bottle must be kept always
corked; it would much better always be left at school,
and the safer chloroform or ether bottle taken to the field.
When one has become something of an expert in hunting
and trapping insects the cyanid bottle becomes a safer
companion on the various expeditions.
If the instructor decides that it may be used, it may
be made in this way. A wide-mouthed bottle should be
chosen, and into it may be dropped some small lumps of
potassium cyanid. As long as this substance is kept dry
it does little harm and may be safely handled with the
hands dry. Then on this is to be dropped a small quantity
of powdered plaster of Paris, also dry, enough to fill the
spaces lightly between the cyanid lumps. Then mix up a
small quantity of plaster of Paris in water, enough to cover
the dust and lump mixture about an eighth of an inch
deep, using enough water to have it spread easily. Run
this in on to the mixture, doing it as quickly as possible
and taking care to leave a small opening somewhere
through which you may at the very last pour in a wee bit
of weak sulphuric acid on to the cyanid lumps which may
be there, afterward quickly covering this opening with
the wet plaster also. Take care to do all this in an open
room with the windows open; then there will be no danger.
This makes the most effective killing bottle for the gen-
erality of insects; and if used rightly, with due caution,
and always kept tightly corked it will be found satisfactory.
54
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
After the wet plaster of Paris has been run in so as to cover
the mixture completely, leave the bottle in the open air
for two hours or less according to the dryness and heat
of the outer air; it will then be sufficiently dry, and after
that must be kept carefully corked except when putting
in your finds that are to be killed.
The usual reservations must be made in the use of
this bottle ; no beneficial insects are to find their way into
it unless it is past their season of usefulness; small and
large insects must not be put into it together, as their
struggles are apt to injure the smaller, weaker ones; and
insects put into this killing bottle must not be left too
long without attention. This same precaution should be
observed with respect to the chloroform killing bottle;
there is a tendency with some insects, for the muscles to
stiffen if they are left two hours or such a matter in the
fumes of chloroform. There seems not to be this fault
with the ether. When the cyanid bottle is opened it
should be in an open room ; and the killing bottle should
not be left habitually in one's sleeping-room. This last
precaution is given because it is often advisable for each
student to have a killing bottle of whichever kind the
instructor may deem the best.
The wings of butterflies and grasshoppers are part
of the requisites for finding out what kinds of butterflies
and grasshoppers you have; hence it is necessary to set
them up in such a way that their wings show well. A
drying board is useful in this case. Take two small
pieces of inch lumber, eight inches long by four inches
wide. Saw a V-shaped piece out of the long side of each
of these two pieces, with a slope of the sides at an angle
of 25 to the edge of the piece of lumber. Do not make
the V too sloping; this angle determines the angle of the
FIELD WORK ON INSECTS. 55
spread wings; some collectors prefer to spread them
horizontally. Nail a narrow, thin strip on these two
sloping sides so as to leave an open space between. After
you have these pieces together, turn the board under
side upward, and, with small tacks, fasten a strip of
corrugated paper, or strips of corn pith all along this
opening between the thin board strips. This makes a
groove in which the insect's body is to rest while the wings
FIG. 23. Drying board.
are drying and the wing joints hardening. If the class is
large, it will be best to make several drying boards, some
of them with the groove wide to accommodate large in-
sects, and some others for the smaller insects. (Fig. 23.)
A collection box would best be made by a cabinet
maker, and may belong to the class or the school, or to the
individual student. It should be made with joints as
tight as possible, and with a glass cover. Several patterns
will suggest themselves, but the best ones are the boxes
that will close most nearly air-tight. Smaller insects
will be almost sure to lay their eggs on the insects that
you have carefully dried and identified, and when their
eggs hatch out, the greedy grubs will eat up the whole lot,
beginning with your finest specimen usually. Naphtha
56 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
balls ought to be kept in your collection boxes. They
may be pinned inside a bit of mosquito bar, or a hot
pin may be thrust through the balls and then they can be
pinned in the corner of the box. For temporary boxes, cigar
boxes will do very well, and they will keep the insects for
a considerable time if this naphtha precaution is taken.
The tickets for your specimens need not be large nor
contain much of data. Several manuals may be used by
the class in identification; hence the labels should state
the authority for the name. Abbreviations for the names
of the authorities may be agreed upon, and these abbre-
viations used on the labels or tickets. The page cited
is also valuable in case of doubtful classification. The
locality, the year, and the month of finding are sometimes
used on such labels, and are useful information concerning
the time of the appearance of the insects in given regions,
and as to the character of the insects found in any given
region. The common name may be the one used on the
ticket, if the authority recognizes a common name.
The facts that may be learned from a study of living
beings are really a revelation of the Creator's way of
working out these things in his universe, of which you
and I are a part. And as the study grows upon the
student he will probably take one of two attitudes:
wonder that he is so small a part of the life kingdom, or
the marvel that so defenseless an animal, a creature so
frail physically as man, does stand at the head of the
myriads of animals to be found in air, on sea, and on land.
"Reverence is vital to morality; and whatever quickens
within us the feeling of dependence on a higher power,
whatever leads us devoutly to admire the order, beauty,
or mystery of the universe," is good for the individual
well-being of man, the highest of God's created beings.
ORDERS OF INSECTS.
Coleoptera (Sheath wings), Beetles.
Orthoptera (Straight wings), Grasshoppers, Crickets,
Cockroaches.
Hemiptera, Bugs.
Lepidoptera (Scaly wings), Moths and Butterflies.
Hymenoptera (Membrane wings) , Bees, Ants, Wasps.
Diptera (Two wings), Flies.
Odonata, Dragon Flies.
Ephemerida, May Flies.
Plecoptera, Stone Flies.
Neuroptera (Nerve wings), Dobsons, Lace-winged
Flies, Ant Lions.
Siphonaptera, Fleas.
57
CHAPTER VII.
FIELD WORK ON COLEOPTERA.
When on the way to the "happy hunting grounds"
of beetles, it is to be remembered that the beetles most
easily found are the beneficial sorts, hence one must not
make haste to kill all the beetles that he finds. If you
wish to be sure of finding only harmful sorts, go to the
granary, the wheat bins, old meal chests, flour bins;
or out to the garden where potatoes, squash, or pumpkins
are growing. The beetles whose eggs are laid on the
bark or under the bark of trees, and whose larvae on
hatching burrow under the bark, are among our exceed-
ingly troublesome insects; but going after them would,
in the hands of an amateur, mean more harm than help
to the tree. Better leave this task to the woodpeckers
and the flickers ; they have more sense in such matters
than you and I have.. On a summer evening, any
blundering June bug that comes thumping against the
screen door and goes sprawling on his back in the porch
corner take him! It would be a sin not to dispose of
him immediately by way of the killing bottle. He may
be the very same villain that, earlier in the season, lived
underground and ate off the grain roots, or grass roots,
or geranium roots, leaving the top of the plants to die in
each case. If you are to find beneficial beetles go to the
trash pile in the back yard; to the old grass or leaf pile
which is partly decayed; to the manure pile in the alley;
to some unburied carcass of dog, hen, or mouse. Hang a
59
60 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
dead mouse up in some out-of-the-way place, and you will
probably be able to attract some carrion beetles to the
carcass, and then you will be privileged to watch them
at their valuable work. In the dust of the farm road
you may be able to discover some of the tumble bugs
making away with the horse droppings to provision their
nests for their young.
If you are willing to get clear down to the surface of
the beaten path across a vacant lot, or the sandy ground
at the edge of the garden path, you may discover the hole
made by some tiger beetle. In order to go through its
larval days, after the manner of all tiger beetles, it burrows
beneath the surface of the ground several inches, then
turns about in the hole it has made and waits till some
insect comes in its way; then it hauls the unlucky victim
down far into its burrow and feasts sumptuously.
When it is again hungry it goes up to the opening of the
burrow, and again lies in wait like some tiger in its lair.
The adult tiger beetles are slim, trim-bodied insects with
strong, though slender legs, big eyes, and a general air of
alertness; they are swift runners and catch their prey
other insects in open fight, simply by being quicker and
pouncing upon them.
Some of the most interesting of the valuable beetles
cannot be found unless you go to a pond, or a river which
has pools and shallows. These beetles do their work in
water where vegetable or animal remains are continually
collecting and decaying. These things the beetles eat,
and thus serve to keep the quiet water bodies rid of this
foul matter. Otherwise such waters would be very
unhealthful to other creatures, as cattle, wild fowl, field
animals, or the human family. In going after these
beetles one must take a new pail, not an old rusty one, a
FIELD WORK ON COLEOPTERA. 6 1
rake, and some sort of dipper. The water net may be
used, or an ordinary tin dipper tied to the end of a long
stick will do very well. Or someone of the party may
wear hip boots, and you can make him do all the " bag-
ging" of the game.
The water scavenger beetles may usually be found
clinging to grass stems under water; though they may be
found occasionally coming to the surface for a store of air,
FIG. 24. Great water scavenger beetle, Hydrophilus triangul
(Natural size.) (Kellogg.)
FIG. 25. Egg case of great water scavenger beetle. (Twice nat
size.) (Kellogg.)
laris.
'wice natural
or as they paddle from place to place. The one who
goes on a beetle hunt of this kind cannot go with whoop
and hurrah, plunging with a swish into the water; that
would be the last of specimen hunting for several hours
at least. One has to go about it quietly, creating as little
disturbance as possible in the region to be investigated.
It is a sort of a Mahomet-going-to-the-mountain game.
If you give them half a chance to know that you are
coming they will disappear; and don't think that they
will come out again until they are reasonably sure that
62
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
you are out of their way. It takes patience; but it pays.
To discover God's sure and marvelous ways of working,
in these tiny creatures, cannot fail
to make the discoverer desire to live
more fully and faithfully in doing his
own tasks from day to day.
For flower beetles, one should go
to the woodland, the pasture, or the
hillside, where elder bushes, golden-rod,
yarrow, or wild asters grow. Beat a
flower cluster over your handkerchief,
and you may beat out several kinds of
beetles which have been eating pollen
and this is Delmonico fare for these
beetles and incidentally pollenating
the various flower clusters, therein lies
the value of the beetles, of course.
The next family of toad stools you
find, pick the ripest of the big ones,
and there may be found" among the gills of the old top,
flattish, rather small, slim-bodied beetles, with short
wing-covers. These are the rove beetles,
and the service rendered is that of
scavengers. In all this you do not have
in mind the pursuing and killing of in-
sects, but the knowledge which can come
only through finding the beetle in its
haunts and following it around to see how
it lives and moves and has its being. There FIG. 27. A flower
will always be room for another Agassiz, beetle, Euphoria
and who knows where he will be found ?
The one who best studies aquatic insects of all kinds
does so flat on his face, watching the water depths for
FIG. 26. Larva of
great water scavenger
beetle. (Kellogg, after
Schiodte.)
FIELD WORK ON COLEOPTERA. 63
the queer happenings there. An occasional fly 'or moth
may fall into the water, and one of the diving beetles will
dart alongside and appropriate the unlucky insect for its
noonday meal. Across the surface of the water, in straight
lines, zigzags, or circles, go the whirligigs. After watch-
ing them for some time to see whether they swim in schools
or singly, whether they dive when nothing disturbs them,
and what they eat, it will make an interesting study to
make the attempt to get some of them into your pail.
If you succeed in capturing one, turn it on its back, and
you will be rewarded by seeing it put out its antennae and
work its oar-legs back and forth. Notice whether the
antennas are thread-like or clubbed or flattened on the
outer end. The two hind pairs of legs are short and very
much flattened and a little widened excellent oars!
The front legs are longer and very slender, not good row-
ing instruments, but excellent "hands" to seize such food
as may come in their way.
At night, when summer has really come, the fireflies
may be seen, at first rising out of the grass where they
have been during the day. The next morning a little
search of the place where you saw them rise the night
before, may reveal some of these fireflies down near the
ground. Are they eating or resting sleeping? When
fireflies first begin to appear in the summer a little patient
digging below the ground surface in the same region
may find some of the larvae, worm-like creatures. It is
supposed that both adults and larvae are carnivorous,
eating soft-bodied animals smaller than themselves.
On the potato tops, search for the leaf-eating ten-
lined potato beetle, with cream-colored body and ten
dark lines running lengthwise of its elytra. A search
will surely reveal larvae, pupae, eggs, and adults in the
64 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
same field. Can you find small and large larvae? Do
these beetles have any enemies coming under your obser-
vation here?
In setting up a beetle to go into the collection box
the pin should go through the body to one side of the
middle line, through one of the elytra, never between the
elytra. Set the beetle well up toward the top of the pin,
on the upper third, perhaps, so that the insect can be
handled conveniently, and at the same time the legs will
be far enough above the paper to be removed from the
danger of being broken off. In classifying a beetle it is
necessary to know the number of joints in the tarsus,
whether the joints are all equally movable upon each other
or not. The insertion of the basal joint of the hind leg,
with respect to the first segment of the abdomen, also
comes in as part of the necessary means toward finding
what particular beetle you may have under examination.
COLEOPTERA.
CHARACTERISTICS.
1. Hard, horny, or thick, leathery front wings.
2. Thin, gauzy hind wings, folded under front wings
when the insect is at rest.
3. Mandibles developed for seizing food; some sorts
have very large mandibles.
4. Some members of the order have the wing-covers
short and the wings also short; these beetles run
rather than fly.
COLEOPTERA.
This is the order of the beetles. It is made up of
the insects often called bugs, but which are really not
bugs at all. The name, Coleoptera, is made from two
Greek words, koleos, sheath, and ptera, meaning wings;
hence the Coleoptera are the Sheath Wings among the
insects. The front wings are usually hard and horny,
often brilliantly colored and shiny. They are not useful
for flying, but are literally sheaths for the true wings,
which lie under these sheath wings. The true wings are
thin and gauzy, are considerably longer than the sheath
wings, or elytra; and when not in use are folded once'
lengthwise, plaited like a fan, and then are tucked away
under the elytra. If one watches a beetle just settling
from flight, one may see these gauzy flight wings and just
how they are disposed when the beetle alights.
Some of the characteristic beetle haunts may already
be known to the student of insects. Some beetles must be
looked for in the pond or the river; but most of them are
terrestrial in habit. In the back yard, under stones,
boards, and leaf piles; under the woodpile; in the neighbor-
hood of some decaying carcass; under the bark of some
old stump; under the umbrella-like top of some toad
stool; in the hot, dusty road; or scuttling across your
path into the friendly shelter of the weeds and the grasses ;
in the golden-rod and the blazing star clusters; on your
melon vines or in your cabbage patch; around the edges
of your carpets; in the flour bins or among the stored
grains in any of these places and many more you may
67
68 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
expect to find beetles. The order includes some of our
most beneficial insects and some of our worst fruit-eating
and grain-eating pests.
Government entomologists have given us some very
startling figures on the enormous yearly losses in growing
crops due to insects of the harmful sorts. According to
Riley, the yearly loss from grain- and fruit-eating insects
foots up $15,000,000 more than the cost of all our common
schools and our higher institutions of learning. Losses
are usually estimated in dollars and cents; that is, what
the products would have brought us if they had been
allowed to mature. But an equally serious view, if not
more serious, is the loss sustained from the point of view
of the time and labor expended without a fair return.
We are told that an annual loss of ten per cent, is suffered
yearly by agriculturists and fruit-growers the world over.
This is enormous, and would not be endured year after
year if it occurred from almost any other cause. When
one reflects, it becomes plain that this loss comes about
mainly through ignorance of the causes, and partly
through neglect of known effective measures of prevention,
as well as through the conscious or unconscious disturb-
ance of the laws which preserve the balance of nature,
whose free operation serves to enable one pest to keep
in check another pest, or one tribe of predaceous animals
to decrease the numbers of an injurious tribe. Take,
for example, the indiscriminate slaughter of the prairie
and woodland snakes; hardly anyone would allow a
blue racer or a bull snake or a garter snake to escape ; and
yet the gradual killing out of these snakes in certain
neighborhoods has led to large crop losses through the
unrestrained increase of gophers, chipmunks, mice, and
other animals which constitute the food of these valuable
COLEOPTERA. 69
animals. Annually, large numbers of these animals are
killed, which are doing their best to preserve the balance
of nature. Destroy a friend and you invite his enemies
to become your enemies. Destroy predatory insects and
birds insectivorous birds or the weed seed-eaters
among the birds and you invite a train of evils beyond
your power to control. Much patient investigation is
necessary if we would make use of these friends, also
readiness to make use of information whenever it offers
in order to know which insects to protect and which to
hunt and kill. Be it said for birds, before we approach
the subject more closely, that there are almost no birds in
our agricultural districts that do not do more good than
they do harm. Again, a plant- eating insect is not to be
condemned outright, for many plant-eaters among the
insects help to keep noxious weeds in check.
Some of the beetles which are beneficial to the farmer
and the fruit-grower, and which should be protected by
them and by all other people, for that matter, since, so
long as we eat food, none of us can get away from our
connection with the soil and its products are :
Ladybird beetles Dung beetles
Carrion beetles Rove beetles
Checker beetles Whirligigs
Soldier beetles Water scavengers
Blister beetles Fireflies
Diving beetles Flower beetles
Tiger beetles Ground beetles
Tumble bugs
Among the list of beetles just mentioned there are
some that deserve special notice, not only for their help-
fulness, but also because their feeding habits are such that
70 .* FIELD ZOOEOGY.
they are more easily caught than are the harmful insects
upon which they prey. Such are the ladybirds, small
round-backed beetles, with reddish or red wing-covers,
usually marked by some black spots. (Fig. 28.) Then,
again, some of them are of medium or large size and
brightly-colored, hence easily seen. One or two of these
ought to be mentioned. The Searcher is one of the
largest of the ground beetles, measuring about two inches
FIG. 28. Some California ladybird beetles; beginning at left of upper
row, the species are Megilla viiigera, Coccinella californica, Coccinella oculata,
Hippodamia convergens; beginning at left of lower row, Coccinella trifasciata,
Coccinella sanguinea, Coccinella abdominalis, Megilla maculala. (Kellogg.)
in length, reckoning in the widely extended, slender
legs. (Fig. 29.) The hind part of the body is much wider
than the head and the thorax. Its handsome wing-covers
are green with a red stripe around the outer edge. The
under part of the body is brilliant with shades of blue,
green, copper, and bronze. This beetle is known to prey
extensively upon cut-worms and to climb trees in search of
the gypsy moth caterpillar. The Fiery Hunter is another
of these valuable beetles. It is a little slenderer than The
Searcher, but its appearance is similar. The wing-covers
are blackish, marked with rows of bright red or copper-
COLEOPTERA. 71
colored spots or pits. This beetle eats large numbers of
cut- worms and wire- worms wherever they are found.
Many of the ground beetles, all of which are beneficial,
are blackish-brown or black, and are often found running
about on the ground or over rubbish and manure piles.
These all have slender legs and are good runners. Their
business is honest and legitimate, and they do not hide
or skulk while they are about it. They are all predaceous
or are valuable scavengers, and should be carefully pro-
tected from injury. Take, for instance, the beetles to
FIG. 29. The Searcher.
which^ has been given the name Harpalus. These are
eminently helpful beetles. They are of various sizes,
pitchy-black in color, compactly built, thorax and abdo-
men of equal width, and the head about half as wide as
the thorax. The sclerite covering the pro thorax is nearly
square and meets the wing-covers in a smooth tight joint
without constriction or ridge. Some of these beetles are
known to frequent orchards, where they search for the
larvae of plum curculios and codling moths. Another
Harpalus likes especially the army worm. Some others
of the ground beetles are dull brownish-black, while others
have metallic wing-covers.
7 2
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
FIG. 30. Ventral aspect of a carabid beetle, Galerita janus. i, prosternum;
2, proe piste rnum; 3, proepimeron; 4, coxal cavity; 5, inflexed side of pronotum;
6, mesosternum; 7, mesoepisternum; 8, mesoepimeron; 9, metasternum; 10,
antecoxal piece; n, metaepisternum ; 12, metaepimeron; 13, inflexed side of
elytron; a, sternum of an abdominal segment; an, antenna; c, coxa; /, femur;
Ip, labial palpus; md, mandible; mp, maxillary palpus; /, trochanter; tb, tibia;
ts, tarsus. (Folsom.)
COLEOPTERA. 73
Some of the beetle pests whose enemies ought to be
protected, and whose effective destruction ought to be
sought with every appearance of the pests are :
Fruit and grain weevils The Borers
Rose chafers Flea beetles
Potato beetles June bugs
White grubs Wire worms
Carpet beetles Cutworms
Curculios Leaf chafers
The elm-leaf beetle is one of the most destructive
enemies of forest trees, and it should be recognized and
destroyed wherever found. The beetle is yellowish with
some black spots on the thorax and one black stripe on
the inner edge of each elytron. The prosternum and the
legs are yellow; the remaining under parts are back. It
is about a quarter of an inch long. Its yellow eggs are
to be found on the under sides of the leaves in masses, and
these should be crushed whenever found. From these
eggs hatch larvae or grubs, marked with black or yellow;
these skeletonize the leaves, or eat out the green paren-
chymatous parts of the leaves, leaving the veins and part
of the epidermis. They then pupate, and when ready
to do this they crawl down the trunk of the tree and
burrow a short distance beneath the surface but close to
the roots, or rather to the trunk of the tree. The adult
beetle winters over, under old leaf piles, in other rubbish,
or in the hollows of trees. Domestic fowls, robins, blue-
birds, thrushes, cedar birds, and catbirds are the most
effective enemies in getting rid of these, pests, both in the
adult and the larval stage. There is always, in such
cases, some effective bird ally which can be relied upon to
accomplish the destruction of the insect pest. Encourage,
74 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
then, the coming of the birds, and protect them after they
are with you by insisting that they shall not be molested,
neither as to their nests nor as to themselves. Insure a
bird's personal safety, and he will stay with you and will
bring along his family and a host of relatives besides.
Other insect pests of the beetle kind and their de-
stroyers might be mentioned:
Potato beetle
Rose-breasted grosbeak Quail
Mongolian pheasant Yellow-billed and black-
(lately introduced) billed cuckoo
Weevils and leaf beetles
Yellow-billed and black- Towhees
billed cuckoos Kingbirds
Sparrows English sparrows
Phoebes Red-winged blackbirds
Twelve -spotted cucumber beetle
Quails Prairie chickens
Grubs of various kinds, principally of May beetles
Domestic fowls Robins
Blackbirds
Click beetles
Flickers Kingbirds
Phoebes Yellow-billed and black-
Baltimore orioles billed cuckoos
May beetles
Blue jays
Borers
Downy woodpeckers Flickers
Hairy woodpeckers
COLEOPTERA.
75
In the light of this body of facts and many others that
might be enumerated, the fruit-grower and the farmer
should not only use insecticides, but should also avail
K
FIG. 31. Various forms of antennae. A, filiform, Euschistus; B, setaceous,
Plathemis; C, moniliform, Catogenus; D, geniculate, Bombus; f, flagellum; p,
pedicle; s, scape; E, irregular, Phormia; a, arista; F, setaceous, Galerita; G,
clavate, Anosia; H, pectinate, male Ptilodactyla; I, lamellate, Lachnosterna;
J, capitate, Megalodachne; K, irregular, Dineutus. (Folsom.)
themselves of the services of their bird neighbors by
protecting them to the full extent of the law; and where
no law covers the case they ought to be wise enough to
^5 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
accomplish the enactment of a law which will protect
their bird friends from the heedless small boy with sling
shot or rifle, and from the man who hunts simply for the
sake of killing.
The families of beetles listed as beneficial beetles
are to be understood as having gained this place through
their habits of feeding upon other insects which are injuri-
ous to valuable plants or to predaceous insects, or are
FIG. 32. Different forms of legs and tarsi of beetles.
and Comstock.}
(Kellogg, after LeConte
useful because of the beneficial habit of eating decaying
animal remains, excrementitious matter, and other refuse ;
or they may be pollenizers of flowers.
Structurally, the beetles differ from the bugs in
another important respect. Their mouth parts are adapted
for biting and chewing. They have strong mandibles and
well-developed palpi. This order of insects has thousands
of representatives, and is one of the most, if not the
most, difficult to classify, owing to their almost endless
COLEOPTERA.
77
diversities of form. The forms of coleopterous antennae
and tarsi are various, and constitute type forms for nam-
ing antennae and tarsi of other insects. (Fig. 32.)
With the exception of the blister beetles, all the
Coleoptera have complete metamorphosis. They lay eggs,
which hatch into larvae or grubs; these increase in size
and moult several times, then pupate; and, after a time,
* *r
FIG. 33. Metamorphosis of a beetle.; Cyllene pictus. A, larva; B, pupa;
C, imago. X 3. (Folsom.)
emerge from the pupal case, adult beetles. (Fig. 33 .) The
blister beetles, where their life history is known, also lay
eggs; but the larval stage is much extended, and after
the different moultings the insect assumes different larval
forms suggestive of other beetles in their larval stages.
(Fig. 34.) The first larval form is peculiar to the blister
beetles, and is given the name of the triungulin larva; the
second larval form is much like the larva of a ground
beetle ; the third moult reveals a new larva somewhat like
yg FIELD ZOOLOGY.
the June bug larva, but straighter and smaller; after the
next moult there appears a larva much resembling the
June bug larva, even to the curving of the lumpish body.
The insect grows rapidly from now on, and then pupates;
but even the pupation is strange and much extended.
The larva digs into the ground a little way and moults
F
FIG. 34. Stages in the hypermetamorphosis of Epicauta. A, triungulin;
B, carabidoid stage of second larva; C, ultimate stage of second larva; D, coarctate
larva; E, pupa; F, imago. E is species cinera; the others are vittata. All
enlarged except F. (Folsom, after Riley, from Trans. St. Louis Acad. Science.}
a fourth time, and frequently passes the winter in this
stage; in the spring two more moultings may take place,
and then comes the pupa stage proper; this lasts for only
a few days, and then out comes the adult blister beetle
like its father and mother. Some of these blister beetles
feed on locust eggs, others eat potato leaves alongside the
potato beetles, and others feed on bees' eggs and honey.
In the immature stages, so far as known, their food
consists of eggs laid by other insects.
CHAPTER VIII.
FIELD WORK ON ORTHOPTERA.
If the school-house is near fields and farm lands,
the study of insects is easy; but trolley car or steam car,
or wagons may be utilized for putting one's self in touch
with regions where insects of many kinds live and work.
A dead insect is not so profitable for study as is an insect
alive; the most interesting facts of the insect's everyday
living are lacking if you take the insect out of its natural
surroundings. Hence there must grow upon the student
of insects the habit of observing what is going on about
him in places where insects live, what the insects are
doing, and whether any other living being, plant or
insect or man, is the gainer thereby.
The food-getting instinct is at work in the will of the
grasshopper when he eats up our lawn grasses and
shrubbery; and it is a successful insect from the grass-
hopper point of view, though not valuable from the
human point of view at all. Some knowledge will
already be in possession of the students as to where to
go to look for hoppers and crickets. Sunny hedge rows;
hot dusty roads; late garden patches all should be
visited for grasshoppers and locusts.
Discover :
Whether their colors are protective so far as you are
concerned,
Whether they have any enemies besides yourself,
Whether they sing at this time of day,
79
80 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
Whether the locusts sing at any time.
It is a very difficult matter to catch the leaping
orthopters without something to lengthen one's reach,
so be sure to take your insect net on this trip.
Late in the afternoon of some summer day, while
you are sitting on the veranda, you may hear a shrill
singing. Get up and follow the sound, cautiously so as
-not to disturb the singer. If it sounds like an unusually
shrill cricket song you may have to peer around con-
siderably before you see the pale, ghost-like creature,
with the big voice but the small body. Ten chances to
one it is a tree cricket, and you will find it on the vine
or some near shrubbery, in the shadiest portion, singing
for very happiness as it begins searching for its evening
meal. Can you find what it is eating? Is it a male or a
female cricket? Can you tell from its mouth parts, and
from where it is found, whether it sucks liquid food or
eats leaves?
Praying mantids may be looked for at the same time,
or they may be found out in the flower garden, crawling
warily about from stalk to stalk, praying occasionally,
with uplifted hands, that some insect may come their way.
During the height of summer these mantids will come
to your light if you leave your window open. In Septem-
ber, or later, they may be quite sluggish, when you find
them on plants or shrubs. They will probably have
laid their eggs by that time, and are soon to end their
lives, their good work done, and their mission of providing
for their young accomplished; hence it will not be wrong
to catch them for your examination or to put them into
your collection box; although a collection is valuable
because you know about what you have in it, and not
for the specimens themselves.
FIELD WORK ON ORTHOPTERA. 8 1
After nightfall, in a barn feed-room, or in some bakery,
or press-room of a daily paper, or sometimes in the most
cleanly kitchen, especially if it is in an old house, if you
step carefully and keep still for some time after entering,
then suddenly strike a light, you will be almost sure to
find some roaches, big or little. Around a wood pile,
where there is plenty of chips, you may find our native
roach, shining black, and darting slippery- wise among
the chips as you try to get it. Around the drain-pipe of
the wash-room look for the light-brown, thin-bodied
croton bug.
On your trip to the open meadows look for field
crickets and meadow green grasshoppers with long
slender antennae which they wave solemnly up and down
as they look at you, that is, if you keep still.
If you wish to find walking sticks you will have to
go to trees or shrubbery, and look on the bare twigs for
this new sort of twig. You will find that the one addi-
tional requisite for insects that are colored like the things
they live on, is to remain motionless when an enemy is
around. So you will have to be patient long enough to
quiet their suspicions, before you will be rewarded by
seeing them go about their business naturally and un-
afraid. And then will be your chance to learn about
them.
Crickets, contrary to the usual belief, are not uni-
formly eaters of clothing, and therefore to be killed on
sight. Field crickets, out-of-door crickets of all kinds,
would not know cloth if they saw it, and certainly would
not know it for food. The domestic cricket is somewhat
a vegetable feeder, but is more likely to be a scavenger;
so do not relegate to the gasoline bottle every cricket you
find.
6
82 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
Praying mantids may easily be captured, as they do
not usually fly; but you must be careful to keep your
ringers out of the reach of their strong mandibles. It is
better to offer them a twig or a leaf to sit on than to offer
your ringer. They may be kept a considerable length of
time if they are provided with food, and they will be
content to stay only under those circumstances ; you must
also give them a drink once in a while. Such insects are
used to drinking the dew or the rain drops off the plants
over which they crawl ; so if you lightly sprinkle a mantis
you will probably be delighted by seeing the curious
way it has of drinking, bringing the big front legs into use
for drawing down some water drop from the top of the
head or the eye, and slowly sucking it in through the
thirsty mouth. They like flies especially, also cabbage
worms, gnats, young and soft- bodied grasshoppers, and
will even eat caterpillars. If it is a female mantis, and
you are able to keep her till late in the summer, the egg
mass will be likely to be found around where she has been
living, though she may have been shrewd enough to glue
them up in some place where you will be unlikely to find
them, that is, if she has formed the opinion that you are
only a very big insect after all; for, like all careful insect
mothers, she looks well to the safety of the little mantids,
although she is never to see them.
In setting up a locust for a collection the pin should
be thrust well through the thorax, so that the jumping
legs and the shorter front pairs will rest on the ground
in natural position. Then set the pin with the insect on it,
into the trough of the drying board. Spread one elytron
by lifting it first up, then outward; then spread the flight
wing on the same side, and weight both down with a
square of glass. Let the locust remain long enough in the
FIELD WORK ON ORTHOPTERA. 83
drying board for the wing joints and ribs to dry, and the
wings thus keep their position. The insect may then be
put away in the collection box. It will not be necessary
to spread the wings of any others of the order; the points
of classification necessary for the other orthopters rest on
other characteristics.
ORTHOPTERA.
CHARACTERISTICS.
Front wings straight-margined and leathery or
parchment-like and overlapping when not in use;
used as wing-covers and as balancers.
Hind wings used for flight, variously colored or
colorless, and folded fanwise when not in use.
Effective mandibles, either smooth or notched on
their inner edges.
Cockroaches
(a) Body thin 'and flattened.
(b) Mandibles notched.
Praying mantids
(a) Front pair of legs much larger than the
other legs and fitted for seizing and grasp-
ing.
Short -horned grasshoppers.
(a) Hind pair of legs much stouter than the
other two pairs.
(b) Antennae shorter than the body.
Long-horned grasshoppers.
(a) Hind pair of legs stouter than the other two
pairs.
(b) Antennae longer than the body.
Crickets.
(a) Hind pair of legs stouter than the two
other pairs.
(b) Antennae long and slender, often much
longer than the body.
Walking sticks.
(a) The three pairs of legs similar but long and
very slender.
(b) Body stick-like.
ORTHOPTERA.
The name of the order is derived from the straight-
margined, nearly parallel-sided front wings or elytra.
All the Orthoptera have biting mouth-parts, and bite off
and chew their food, which is usually living plants,
especially green leaves; although there is one family
within the order which preys on other insects, and
another family prefers dried vegetable or animal refuse.
The metamorphosis is incomplete, the young, when
hatched, resembling the parents except in size and
possession of wings. This is the order of the grasshoppers,
the katydids, the crickets, the cockroaches, the praying
mantids and the walking sticks. In the early days of the
spring one may find tiny grasshoppers which have recently
hatched out; tiny slow-moving creatures, which do little
leaping at this stage of their existence. Among the leap-
ing Orthoptera the hind legs are very large and strong,
and when the insect is standing still or walking, the knees
stand much higher than the back of the insect. (Fig. 35.)
During the summer evenings, from twilight until dawn
comes over the eastern hills, one may hear the constant
hum of insect voices, or rather sounds without voices,
for no insect has vocal chords which may be set into
vibration by currents of air after the manner of the human
voice production. Almost all this music comes from the
Orthoptera. Besides the booming of the bumblebee,
the buzz of the flies, and the shrilling of the mosquito,
there is but one famous singer, and that is the cicada.
87
88
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
Besides being singers, the Orthoptera are high
jumpers. Talk of "high jump" records! Any lusty
grasshopper goes a long way toward beating the world
record every time he jumps. If he sets his heart on a
juicy leaf six feet away, lo ! he is there. Or, if you pursue
him, he will do an eight- or a ten-foot stunt before he will
let you catch him. Think of an insect two inches long
jumping, say, eight feet, ninety-six inches! At this rate
auditory organ
ocellus
fiead compound eye I
-ovipositor
femur'
tibia/
x
tarsal segments
FlG - 35- Locust (enlarged) with external parts named. (Kellogg.)
a six-foot man would have to jump two hundred eighty-
eight feet to keep up with the humble grasshopper.
But, then, the record of the grasshopper, marvelous as it
is, is not to be compared with the capabilities in that
direction, of the fleas. An ordinary flea, under stress of
circumstances, will jump from four to five feet; that is,
an insect one-eighth of an inch long will jump forty-
eight or sixty inches three hundred sixty-four or four
hundred eighty times its own length. This is a long
ORTHOPTERA. 89
way ahead of the proud genus Homo, and the fleas have
no preliminary training for such extraordinary feats, either.
Of the six families composing the order, three are
silent and do not leap, though there are some extraor-
dinary runners among them ; and the other three families
both sing and leap. This music is all night music, how-
ever ; for if a katydid were to betray his whereabouts while
the birds are astir, there wquld not be left enough of him
to tell the tale. This singing is done in different ways
FiG. 36. A short-horned grasshopper. (Kellogg.)
by different members of the order. When the locust
sings at rest, it is rasping the inner surface of the broad
hind thighs across the roughened surface of the front wings
as they lie close to the sides of the body, much as one
draws a knife across a whet-stone, only back and forth.
When the locust rattles as he goes whizzing through the
air, he is striking the front margin of the hind wings back
and forth over the hind margin of the front wings. When
the cricket sings on the hearth, he is holding up his front
wings at an angle of about forty-five degrees, and is rub-
bing together the specially modified surfaces of their
basal regions. The tree crickets, the katydids, and the
meadow-green grasshoppers have much the same musical
apparatus as have the crickets. This insect method of
making sound is called stridulation.
9 o
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
According to Comstock, the three singing and leap-
ing orthopterous families are the Acrididae, short-horned
grasshoppers; the Locustidae, long-horned grasshoppers,
generally green; and the Gryllidae, or crickets.
The short-horned grasshoppers are the grasshoppers
commonly called locusts. The Lubber grasshopper of the
South and the West belongs here. Its body is large and
clumsy, and its wings are reduced to mere pads.
FIG. 37. A long-horned grasshopper. (Kellogg,)
The second class, really the locusts or long-horned
hoppers, includes the meadow-green hoppers, (Fig. 37),
the katydids, with long thread-like antennas often longer
than the body, the shield-backed grasshoppers, and the
cricket-like hoppers.
In practically all of these, the hind legs are longer than
the front legs or the middle pair. The shield-backed
grasshoppers are wingless and are known by the fact that
the pronotum, or shield on the upper part of the body just
back of the head, extends well back over the thorax and
the base of the abdomen, like a cloak thrown over the
shoulders. The cricket-like grasshoppers are to be looked
for around old well curbs or stone piles, in damp, dark
ORTHOPTERA. 9!
places generally. The body is shining dark brown, thick,
and arched upward in the thorax and front abdomen,
while the head is curved downward between the front legs.
The antennae are long and thread-like, and are usually
carried backward over the body, when not in use to ac-
quaint the insect with its surroundings. (Fig. 38.) Their
haunts are not such as to give one an idea of the food
habits; but as they seem to be nocturnal in their habits
the indications are that they eat both animal and vegetable
food. The katydids of the lowland regions and the plains
a*
FIG. 38. A cricket-like grasshopper, Anabrus simplex. (Howard, after Riley.}
are green-bodied, green-winged Locustidae. They are
nocturnal and are hard to find; a pair of sharp eyes
searching around vines or trees or bushes late in the after-
noon of a summer day will possibly be able to find them.
Some of them have wing-covers so closely resembling
leaves both in form and color, and even venation, that
seeing is oftentimes not believing. This is one of the cases
of protective resemblance, the protection sought being
from birds. The scheme does not always work, however;
one could not spend a single afternoon among the feath-
ered tribe and the insect folk without discovering this
fact. But it is only natural to suppose that birds have
not been napping in the midst of the schemes of their
insect neighbors, but have pitted their own sharpened
wits against the various devices employed against them.
9 2
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
Another case of protective coloring is found among the
tree crickets, delicate, pale-green, shadowy insects to be
found in among the foliage of vines, shrubs, or trees. The
male tree cricket has a way of closing his wings flat on
his back, so that they extend out some distance from the
side of his body and make him look larger than he really
is ; while the female folds her wings downward around the
body. Both are leaf eaters, and if they were more
abundant or had fewer enemies, they would be quite
injurious to vegetation. A tree or a shrub denuded of its
leaves is unable to ripen its fruit for any given season, or
to make its buds for the next season.
Scudder mentions finding grayish katydids in mount-
ainous regions, and says that their quiet colors were
quite as effective against the granite rocks as is the green
of our katydids among growing vegetation.
The three families of Orthoptera that do not sing
nor walk, and run instead of leaping are the cockroaches,
the praying mantids, and the walking sticks. The
cockroaches are among our oldest insects. More than
two hundred different kinds have been found preserved
in the carboniferous rocks of North America and Europe.
They could hardly have been scavengers in those days,
as there were no kitchens nor restaurants for them to
ransack then. They were probably plant-eaters, as our
native roaches are to-day; or they may have been preda-
tory creatures; roaches indoors nowadays will often
devour bedbugs.
Many of the roaches at present found in the United
States were imported from Europe, brought over in the
holds of ships, and, coming ashore with baggage or with
the luggage of immigrants, are given access to many
buildings, warehouses, and homes where a comfortable
ORTHOPTERA.
93
living awaits them. These insects are indoor dwellers,
purely nocturnal in their habits, haunting store-rooms,
pantries, and sinks after night comes. The light brown,
rather small roach, brought over from Germany to New
York, received the name of Croton bug from its insistent
connection with the city water system. (Fig. 39.) These
introduced roaches have spread rapidly, probably at first
FIG. 39. FIG. 40.
FIG. 39. The croton bug, or German cockroach, Ectobia germanica.
(Twice natural size.) (Kellogg.}
FIG. 40. The oriental cockroach, Periplaneta orientatis. (One and one-
half natural size.) (Kellogg.}
largely following the main travel lines across the country,
until they now breed from New York to San Francisco.
The oriental roach, brought in by way of the Asiatic
steamers, has been spreading eastward. (Fig. 40.) The
last-named roach is about one inch long, with a brownish-
black body. The wings of the male are not quite so long
as the abdomen, leaving about the last two segments
exposed. The native roach most like the oriental roach
is about an inch and a half long, much lighter in color,
and the wings completely cover the abdomen. This roach
94
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
came northward into the States from Mexico. Aside from
this species, our other native roaches live around wood
piles or under the bark of trees or old stumps, or other
out-of-door convenient hiding-places, from which to set
out on their foraging trips. (Fig. 41.)
The mouth-parts of the roaches are fitted for. masti-
cating dry, hard substances. The jaws are strong and
toothed, and the insect appreciates
especially hard bread or crackers,
or dried bits of the lunch that you
did not eat up. Failing these
things, he will be quite happy to
regale himself on the leather bind-
ing of your Shakespeare, or your
winter coat, wall paper, or the
paste of book bindings if he can
get into your bookcase.
The cockroach body is flat-
^^ d ^ ^ ^
. , +*.
natural size indicated by a line.} legs are adapted for swift running,
altogether making it an insect
hard to catch. If you have not tried catching one, test
the truth of the statement. The insect has no trouble in
concealing itself in a crack or a crevice. The eggs are
laid in small cases which are carried about by the mother
until the young are ready to hatch. The young, as soon
as they are hatched, begin to run about and take care of
themselves; but they grow slowly, taking nearly a year to
acquire adult size.
The praying mantids are long, slender-bodied insects,
with the curious habit of raising their large front legs up
in front of their faces while they stare about them, meek
and motionless of aspect. In fact they are watching for
FIG. 41. Common native
cockroach .Ischnopter pennsyl-
vamca. (Kellogg, after Lugger;
ORTHOPTERA.
95
an insect, but they look far from carnivorous, as they
stand on the edge of your book and look solemnly at you.
A female of one of these mantids was recently kept in
the laboratory by the writer, for more than four weeks.
It was allowed the run of a bunch of golden-rod, and it
seldom sought to leave its quarters. It was fed flies,
occasionally catching one on its own
account. It liked small grasshoppers
and the caterpillars known as woolly
bears, but it especially delighted in
green cabbage worms, and would eat
several of these "at one sitting."
But one day, one of these worms, in
twisting and writhing to get out of
the clutches of its murderer, bit the
mantis on the softer part of the leg,
and thereafter the mantis would fight
shy of a green caterpillar unless its
head had first been crushed.
The adult males of the mantis
family are slender-bodied and usually FlG - 4*.-A praying mantis
grayish in color, while the females
have much broader abdomens, and often variegated
wing-covers. All the mantids are useful insects and
should be carefully let alone and not injured. The eggs
are laid in late summer or September, usually, and hatch
out the following spring. Their life habits may be much
more profitably studied from the living specimens, as they
readily yield to kindly treatment, being quite willing to
take food from the hand, when it is offered.
The walking sticks, as their name indicates, are
curious stick-like insects, wingless and slow-moving;
and their resemblance to the twigs on which they may
9 6
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
be resting while feeding is one of the most effective cases
of protective coloration and mimicry of form. These
insects, as might be suspected, are tree-dwellers, living
also on bushes or other vegetation, and keeping as close
FIG. 43,Diapheromcra veliei, on a twig. Natural size. (Folsom.)
as possible to the twigs of the plant. The species gener-
ally found is brown and very slender-bodied; but occa-
sionally there is found a green species with a slightly
stouter body. And whenever one is fortunate enough
to discover the brown species on the twig, or the green
ORTHOPTERA. 97
sort on the foliage, he will surely acknowledge that the
walking sticks are able to cover their tracks quite effect-
ively from both naturalist and bird.
Bird enemies of some of the orthopters :
Grasshoppers.
Quails Night hawks
Prairie chickens Bluebirds
Crows Barn swallows
Domestic fowls (ducks, Yellow-billed cuckoos
geese, and chickens)
Wild geese and wild ducks Screech owls
Red- winged blackbirds Blue jays
Kingbirds House wrens
Sparrow hawks Brown thrashers
Butcher birds
Crickets.
Bluebirds Shrikes or butcher birds
Robins The sparrow family
Towhees Kingbirds
Katydids.
Robins Domestic fowls
Shrikes
CHAPTER IX.
FIELD WORK ON HEMIPTERA.
Of the true bugs, ten families are aquatic ; hence the
same pond that furnishes material for the study of beetles,
may furnish many sorts of these insects with sucking
beaks.
To learn what this beak looks like, catch a squash bug
or a cicada, and while you hold between thumb and fore-
finger either one you may have caught, look on the under
side of the head, perhaps turning the insect so that you
can see the head sidewise. Folded back against the thorax,
between the front legs, will be found the sharp-pointed
beak. When in use, it is held at a right angle with the
body. Some of the predaceous members of the order hold
the beak "in action" straight in front of the head.
On the surface of the pond, or in quiet pools of the
river, one may see long-legged insects darting across the
water, preferring to escape from danger by more rapid
skating than by diving. These are the water striders;
and if you expect to catch them with your dip net, you will
have to make some shrewd guesses as to where the insect
is likely to be after your net strikes the water. Watch
them first to see if you can discover what they are doing
as they stride about over the water. Their front legs are
strong and could well do for hands if the insects needed
organs for grasping.
In company with the water striders, but stirring up
considerably more commotion in the water, like some tiny
98
FIELD WORK ON HEMIPTERA. 99
side-wheeler alongside a big, steady, ocean-going steamer,
are the back swimmers, performing such feats as you and
I would have reason to be proud of, if we could do them,
always swimming back downward, the hind legs directed
forward, and so formed as to serve as oars. These are
blue-gray and white insects, and they lash the water
smartly as they dart here and there in search of food. If
you can capture one, put it into your pail, which should
be at least half full of the pond water; and you will see,
especially if you have brought along the reading glass, that
the rear end of the body of each of these back swimmers
is tilted slightly upward, so that the wing margins are
slightly above the water line. The back swimmers are air-
breathing insects, and they store their air supply between
the abdomen and the wing-covers.
If you stoop on your hands and knees, or lie down so
that you can look into the depths of the pond and do it
quietly there may be found other insects clinging to the
grass stems or other objects under the water; these may
at first sight look very much like the back swimmers, but
these insects prefer to stay below the water surface, while
the back swimmers come below only when something dis-
turbs them above. The grass stems may be swept with
your dip net for some of these insects, and when you have
one of them in hand, if it has the characteristic beak, it is
presumably a water boatman. This new insect should
be flat on the back, instead of keel-shaped as the back
swimmers are. You may also find, crawling about over
the pond mud, a big brown insect about two inches or
more long. Its two front legs are held elbowed, seeking
what they may grasp. Send down your dip net or the
dipper and get one of these insects; and when you have
him look for the long beak "laid away" between the front
100 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
legs. If you find the beak, turn the insect over on its
face to discover whether the wings have an opaque and
a transparent portion. If both facts are true, you may be
sure that you have another bug; and this sort is what is
called the giant water bug. Having captured and studied
these bugs, empty your pail back into the pond ; you have
all the requisite knowledge of them, and they are useful
and must be left to do their life work by living out their
FIG. 44. Giant water bug. Benacus griseus. Slightly reduced. (Folsom.}
alloted days, and thus fulfilling their mission. You have
the really valuable knowledge when you have found that
they are valuable by discovering what they are eating;
if you want to know their real names, they can be brought
home in the pail and kept in water renewed at least every
day, with flies occasionally fed to them, while you are
studying their structure and make-up carefully enough to
recognize their accurate description in some one of the
insect manuals. All three of these insects have good'
FIELD WORK ON HEMIPTERA. IOI
flight wings under their wing-covers, and can fly readily.
Later on you may meet the giant water bugs elsewhere.
(Fig- 44-)
A very profitable hunting ground when seeking land
bugs is the garden patch; cabbage, squash, melon, or
cucumber will be sure to furnish some of the leaf -eating
hemipters. The reading glass may be used to see how
the squash bugs and the calico backs are eating. Along
with the cabbage worms you may find their enemies,
sharp-beaked, prettily colored bugs, carrying their
beaks in front of the head and thrusting it into the pro-
testing green victim from this position. After the beak
is once in, protesting does no good on the part of the
worm; it is done for.
Some clear night take your net and the small collect-
ing boxes to some electric light. It will be a good idea
to have some tall friend go with you or to take along
something to stand on. Be careful not to injure the
specimens caught in the net. There may be some valu-
able insects in the dancing swarm about the light. If
it is a cold night, it is of little use to go. Watch the
insects for a few minutes to see what you are likely to
have in your net, and also to see how they behave. Test
yourselves to see if you can distinguish members of any of
the orders with which you have grown familiar; and
whether you are able to determine how far some of them
have been attracted by the light. Possibly the latter
fact will not come out until you have your finds at closer
range.
By dextrously sweeping the net through the air, and
carefully separating into the collection boxes, many
insects may be taken home for examination immediately,
if one has a good light ; or may be kept for daylight study.
102 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
With the help of your instructor, and aided by good
insect manuals, many of the insects found may be named.
At least, you will be able to determine by the mouth parts
what different sorts of insects are attracted by the light
and fly toward it. Light has curious effects upon different
animals; some are attracted; some are repelled. As
between diffused light and a single point, some insects
will be drawn toward the diffused light, while they are
unaffected by the single point. How is it with these
insects? How is it with yourself?
The corn or the wheat field, the region of the taller
forage grasses, or sometimes the 'blue grass of the lawn
may yield, close down to the roots or up a ways on the
stem, numerous specimens of chinch bugs. Can you
discover the adults? Dig down among the roots; can
you discover them here? What is this stage you find
under the surface of the ground? On what are they
feeding? Can you find the beak? You may possibly
discover short- winged and long- winged species, or all the
individuals in a given area may have short wings. When
disturbed do the insects fly or crawl? Have you seen
them migrating? Catch and kill as many as possible.
In early midsummer, whenever that arrives for
your locality, be on the watch for cicadas. The first
cicada song should be the signal for the hunt. A hundred
chances to one the singer will be "up a tree," and you will
not be able to go after it. Be patient; the cicadas spend
the immature stage below the ground surface; so in the
orchard, or on the lawn, along the fences or hedge rows,
where trees grow, watch the ground and you will probably
be rewarded by finding a cicada moulting for the last
time. In this condition the insect may easily be caught.
You may discover some of the grayish, lumbering nymphs
FIELD WORK ON HEMIPTERA.
103
lagging across the sidewalk; and whenever you find one
do not hesitate to catch it. After examining it, it is to be
consigned to the killing bottle a pest well gotten rid of.
(Fig. 45.) When you seize the insect by its broad back,
do not be frightened by the furious noise that it makes
it is only noise, and not at all dangerous. Can you dis-
cover the "musical apparatus" on the under side of
FIG. 45. Development of a cicada. Cicada tibicen. A, imago emerging from
nymphal skin; B, the cast skin; C, imago. Natural size. (Folsom.)
the body? Are the wings half opaque or wholly mem-
branous? Can you discover the beak? How does the
cicada carry the beak? Are you able to find one of the
insects feeding?
If in some green-house, or elsewhere, there are plants
that are troubled with scale insects, an expedition may
profitably be made to see the insects, or a branch of the
plant afflicted may be secured for study. Examine the
scale as it lies on the stem. Has it any means of defense?
104 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
With a pin or a toothpick turn one of the scales over
on to a glass slide and put it under the low power of the
microscope, in good light from above. Has the insect
any legs? Can you find the sucking beak? How was the
insect fastened to the leaf? Are the young insects
hatching from the eggs? If so, can you discover their
eyes and legs?
There are many hemipters which may well be claimed
for the insect cabinet. When such harmful hemipters are
taken from the killing bottle the pin should be thrust
through the thorax. A very valuable mount may be
made from some group or family of bugs, where big bugs,
little bugs, and middle-sized bugs are found feeding to-
gether. Pin them in a row, beginning with the smallest
of the lot, and increasing toward the last pin, which
should hold the adult insect, and may also bear the ticket.
HEMIPTERA.
CHARACTERISTICS.
1. Body usually softer than the beetles'.
2. Wings, four, but the front pair usually thin and soft,
and opaque only part way to the tip.
3. Wings overlapping on the back.
4. Mouth parts prolonged into a sucking beak which
projects from the front ef the head or is folded back
on the breast under the body.
5. Wings absent in some sorts, but the mouth parts
are still modified into the beak.
I0 5
HEMIPTERA.
These insects, along with the beetles, and, for that
matter, nearly all the other insects except the butterflies
and the moths, are called bugs, and these, alone, of all
of them, are entitled to the name. The name of the order
has reference to the peculiar make-up of the front wings.
In the true hemipters, these have the base of the wing-
covers thickened so as to be nearly opaque; while the hind
wings are clear and transparent, or nearly so. (Fig. 46.)
FIG. 46. Front wing of an hemipter.
This is the order of the bugs, using the word in its
true signification, and not including beetles, wasps, flies,
or ants, nor any others of the insect kind, which we so
frequently mean when we say "bugs."
The order may be divided into: (i) Parasitic, wing-
less forms with unsegmented sucking beak. Examples
of these hemipters are the lice of the dog, horse, cattle,
hog, or sheep kinds, and also the human louse. (2) Winged
or wingless forms with the beak segmented ; wings, when
present, of the same texture throughout. Here are found
the cicadas, the plant lice and scale insects, mealy bugs,
leaf hoppers, and gall-forming aphids. (3) Winged insects
107
io8
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
with the basal half of the front wings thickened, all four
wings lying on the back when not in use, with their tips
overlapping; the sucking beak arises from the front of the
head, and the body shows a more or less distinct neck.
The last division is the division of the true bugs, that is,
FIG. 47. Mouth parts of an hemipteron, Benacus griseus. A, dorsal aspect
B, transverse section; C, extremity of mandible; D, transverse section of man-
dibles and maxillae; c, canal; /, labrum; li, labium; m, mandible; mx, maxillae.
(Folsom.)
the bugs having the characteristics which distinguish the
order from all the other orders of insects.
The insects of this order differ from both the beetles
and the orthopters in the manner of getting their food.
All of them suck the life fluids of either plants or animals.
HEMIPTERA. IOQ
The mandibles and the maxillae are formed into an effect-
ive piercing and sucking organ called the beak; and this
is enclosed by the labium, which is in this order formed of
two pieces, grooved on their inner edges, and fitting to-
gether around the stylets so as to form a tube or suction
pump, by which the sap of the plant or the blood of the
animal is pumped into the greedy maw of the blood-thirsty
bug. (Fig. 47.) One predatory member of the order is
fond of the green cabbage worm, and may be watched
while it energetically pumps away the life blood of the
unlucky worm, working the sharp stylets up and down
inside the hole made by the labium.
Unlike the beetles, the hemipters pass through no
pronounced changes on the way to adult size. Except the
males of the scale insects, all of the order have incomplete
metamorphosis, passing through the egg and the extended
larval stage, which merges into the adult form by means
of repeated moultings while the insect is eating and grow-
ing. Trie insect just hatched from the egg is a tiny bug,
resembling its parents in form and food habits; but it
has no wings, and its colors are often different from the
adult colors.
Having the same sort of mouth parts, the young bugs
have the same food preferences as do the adults, and hence
the young are to be sought in the same places as the adults.
The egg-laying process usually occupies some days ; hence
in any brood are to be found young bugs in many stages
of development; from those just hatched, tiny, wingless
individuals, to the winged adult, all sucking away at the
pumpkin or cabbage leaf. Usually the predatory insect
insists upon the right of discovery, and preempts its
victim to the exclusion of other insects -a 'useful habit,
as it rids us of many more injurious insects.
IIO FIELD ZOOLOGY.
The first division of the Hemiptera is the division of
the disgusting parasites of many of the lower animals and
also of man. These are all wingless insects having only
small locomotor powers and living the whole life round,
from the eggs to the adult, on the body of the host. The
mouth parts are all modified to form a fleshy, sucking
beak; the feet have only one claw, and this is usually
bent at an angle which enables the pest to cling to the hair,
wool, or clothing of the host. The eggs are usually glued
to the hair or wool of the host, or deposited in creases of
the clothing.
In the second division of the Hemiptera, come the
scale insects, the pests of nurserymen and florists. The
male, where this form is produced, is a winged indi-
vidual; while the female possesses no wings, and during
the greater part of her life, in most of the species, has
no feet. These insects have remarkable powers for pro-
ducing young, several broods being raised in a year, even
by the outdoor sorts, while the indoor, green-house pests
breed practically all the year round, taking advantage of
the artificial culture which man unwillingly gives them.
Various measures, such as fumigating and spraying, are
used against them with varying degrees of success.
Their most effective enemies are the ladybird beetles,
mentioned in a previous order. These ladybirds are
easily caught, and, their safety being a matter of so much
moment to an agricultural community, the killing of them
should be prevented by all means. So far as their bird
enemies are concerned, the ladybirds have a fairly good
weapon of defense in their secretion of a fluid which
renders them very disagreeable in taste; they can afford
to be so brightly colored because they taste so bad.
There is no defensive measure against the scale
HEMIPTERA. Ill
insects which should be neglected, the rapidity with
which they breed, and the difficulty of killing all the
individuals of any one brood, making them exceedingly
hard to get rid of. The females of many of the scale
insects in the adult stage secrete about themselves an
impervious shell of waxy scales or a covering made of
the juice of the wounded plant whose stems are furnishing
them with food. These coverings increase the difficulty
of treatment at this stage.
For infested plants in the green-house, or even for
trees in the nursery, fumigation with hydrocyanic acid
is recommended by those who have tried it. It certainly
kills all individuals that have hatched from the egg.
In the fumigation, a cloth covering large enough to
envelop the plant or the tree is necessary. The fumigant
is made by pouring water into commercial sulphuric acid
and adding cyanid of potassium; the three substances
to be in the proportion of ten ounces of the water to one
ounce of the sulphuric acid to three ounces of potassium
cyanid, made up in the quantity required, the amount
given being sufficient to fumigate one hundred cubic feet
of space. Dilute sulphuric acid, which is usually
made up in the proportion of one to ten, if it can be
bought, 'is better to use than to attempt the making of
the mixture one's self. There is always a little danger
attending the rapid mixture of sulphuric acid and water.
If you make the mixture, take the precaution to pour
the water in slowly. The fumes of the mixture acting
on the cyanid of potassium are deadly poison; hence
care must be taken not to breathe them ; they are intended
only for the scale insects! Have all other things in place
before you pour the mixture on the potassium cyanid.
The division of the true bugs, or the Heteroptera,
II2 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
as they are called, includes twenty-six families, ten of
.which are aquatic in their life habits. Hence in any
pool in the river or in the ponds, in the warm spring days,
the observer will find large numbers of these true bugs,
whose feeding habits should be studied while they are
darting about the pond in the activities characteristic
of their kind. The shore insects do some good as scaven-
gers by eating drowned insects along the shore line of
bodies of fresh and salt water. The water striders and the
water boatmen are to be found in the ponds or pools,
also the giant waterbug, the electric-light bug, so called
because it may so often be found flying about the electric
lights at night. Most of its life is spent in the water;
it is only the adult insect which comes out into the air
occasionally, and these expeditions seem to be made for
the purposes of food-getting and seeking another pond,
there to lay its eggs and thus distribute its kind. This
insect is fiercely predaceous, and often does serious
harm to animals much larger than itself, such as carp
and gold-fish.
Here, also, may be found the water scorpions, dirty
stick-like bugs, rather sluggish in their habits. They
have a long respiratory tube which they lift up to the
surface of the water as they lie in some shallow pool, and
through which they take in a new supply of air. Hence
they are really air-breathing insects, although they
spend their life in the water. This is true of many of the
aquatic bugs, and some of them are terrestrial in the
adult stage. The back-swimmers, the toad bugs, the
marsh treaders, and the shore bugs, all belong here, and
they all have a slender piercing and sucking beak. The
food of most of the aquatic hemipters consists of other
forms of aquatic life, and if the insects thus serving as
HEMIPTERA. 113
food are injurious, these bugs are to be reckoned among
the beneficial hemipters. Many of them eat stems and
leaves of aquatic plants.
Five of the sixteen terrestrial heteropterous families
are predaceous, hence beneficial to man. Among them
may be mentioned the assassin bug, the soldier bug,
the damsel bug, the thread-legged bug, and the flower
bug ; two species of the last-named feed
upon the chinch bug. All the remain-
ing eleven families of the order feed
upon plant juices, hence these are the
reprobate bugs which give a bad name
to the whole order, in the minds of
many people. Here among these eleven
families are to be found the squash bug,
the chinch bug, the leaf bugs, the stink -r
bugs, the shield-backed bugs, and the FlG . 48 ._ S hort- winged
negro bugs these latter are very small chinch bug, Blissus leu-
and very black bugs to be found on copterus. (Howard, after
raspberry bushes and other fruits,
which they spoil for market by imparting a very disa-
greeable odor to them.
The chinch bug, that notorious pest of the farmers of
the land, is one of these harmful hemipters. This insect
and the hessian fly do, perhaps, more damage to growing
crops than any other half dozen insects known. (Fig. 48.)
Like all other hemipters, it has an effective sucking beak,
and its larval period is largely spent just beneath the
surface of the ground, where it feeds upon the roots of the
plant whose leaves are to feed it later.
The first mention of the chinch bug dates from North
Carolina in 1785. To-day it is distributed over southern
Africa, and from Europe to the sandy plains of Hungary.
114 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
On the western continent it has the run of the two
Americas from Panama to middle California on the western
coast, and from Panama to about the latitude of Cape
Breton on the east. Inland it has spread over a region
from Texas to Manitoba. The states suffering worst from
its ravages are Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas,
Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, and Virginia.
According to accounts, it fed on native grasses originally,
and often now uses them as a breeding host, migrating
to cereal plants later. Of the cultivated crops upon
which it feeds, it seems to prefer wheat and corn, millet,
sorghum and broom corn; feeding also upon f timothy,
Bermuda grass, blue grass, crab grass, and, in the South,
upon rice.
The eggs are laid on or near the surface of the ground,
on the roots of grasses or grains. Howard reports eggs
as having been found in the sheath of grass stems. The
egg-laying occupies a period of ten days to three weeks;
and the eggs hatch in an average time of two weeks.
The adults reach maturity in from fifty-seven to sixty days
from the time of hatching. The young larva or nymph
is at first yellow, with an orange spot on the middle of
the abdomen. After the first moult it turns a bright
vermilion except the two segments at the base of the
abdomen, which remain yellow. After the second moult
the vermilion gradually gives place to the adult colors,
dusky gray and black; while, at the same time, the wing
pads increase in size. The adult has a rather oblong,
somewhat hairy body; the elytra are white with a blackish
spot on the side, midway of each elytron.
Its most important natural enemies among the insects
are the soldier bug, the insidious flower bug, one of the
ground beetles, lace- winged flies, and also spiders. Among
HEMIPTERA. 115
birds it has quite a number of enemies red- winged black-
birds, brown thrashers, house wrens, prairie chickens,
meadow larks, and quails. Of all these, the quail is the
most important enemy. The quail is protected by law;
but there is no good and sufficient reason why this bird
should be killed in the so-called legal season. North of
Lat. 38 N. the breeding season of the quail begins in
May and extends as far as September; probably two
broods are raised in the northern states and three in the
southern. Why so valuable an ally of the farmers of the
land should annually be killed off in such numbers by men
is inexplainable, save on the ground that their slaughter
is the gratification of an instinct which is savage at best,
and probably a relic of the old days when man was a
savage and had to conquer the animals about him in order
to survive. If such enthusiasts would turn their attention
to the fierce carnivorous animals, tigers, lynxes, cata-
mounts, . for example, instead of some small, weak,
fluttering bird, perhaps with a nestf ul of young, it would
be creditable to the man, kind to the bird, and beneficial to
the human tribe in general.
Certain climatic conditions seem to check the spread
of the chinch bug. Heavy rains, especially in May, the
height of its breeding season, or a continuously cold, wet
spring, impose quite effective restraints upon it.
Among the artificial, or perhaps one should say, the
other natural enemies, are two tiny mould plants, similar
to the moulds which attack our house flies in the autumn,
leaving them a mere shell filled with the white thready
growth of the plant. Certain bacteria are also present in
the intestinal caeca. As early as 1865, Dr. Shiner recorded
the fact of finding large numbers of chinch bugs of all
ages, dead upon native grasses and corn. He called it a
Il6 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
disease, and mentioned the fact that the weather was wet,
cloudy, and cool. Forbes' investigations began in 1892.
He proceeded on the theory of bacterial disease. He
found that bacteria completely destroy the secreting
glands of the tissue lining the delicate intestinal tract of
the chinch bug. This leaves the intestinal tract filled
with a mass of the bacteria together with a small inter-
mixture of fat globules and a little detritus of nonde-
script sort. It is a well-known fact that moulds are
saprophytes ; that is, they grow on decaying matter. And
here is the agency furnishing the exact condition favor-
able to the growth of the mould plants this decaying
intestinal matter. It remained for Snow of Kansas to
make the practical application of the early knowledge
along these lines. In a report made to the State -Board of
Agriculture, in 1887, he urged this theory of chinch bug
disease and its significance to the crop-growers. In 1889,
the first trial was made. There was much to learn about
it; such as the fact that these bacteria flourish best in cool,
wet weather, and that the fungous disease produced by
the two moulds is a secondary enemy, and must be pre-
ceded by the bacteria. Hence clouds and rain, bacteria
and moulds must work in conjunction, or the slaughter
of chinch bugs will not be effective.
The insidious flower bug, mentioned as one of the
enemies of the chinch bug, is also valuable from its habit
of preying on other harmful insects. It was formerly
called the false chinch bug, was of ten found associated with
it, and looks considerably like it as to colors and markings,
but has a much broader body from the head backward.
Instead of assisting the chinch bug to pump the sap out
of plants it turns the tables and destroys many of these
pests.
HEMIPTERA. IIJ
The soldier bug is yellowish as to body color; the legs
and antennae are banded with fine black bands. These
insect enemies of the chinch bug are to be valued, especially
when it is remembered that the pest belongs to a group
of insects one of whose effective means of protection is a
disagreeable odor which usually protects them from their
enemies.
FIG. 49. FIG. 50.
FIG. 49. Soldier bug, Milyas cinetus. (Howard, after Riley.}
FIG. 50. An assassin bug, Reduvius personatus. (Howard.}
The assassin bugs, as their name indicates, are
predaceous, hence helpful to man. But one of these
insects has a name less indicative of commendable habits ;
it is sometimes called the kissing bug in newspaper par-
lance, as it has the occasional habit of piercing the skin of
human beings. In this case the saliva injected into the
wound made by the stylets is, to say the least, irritating
to the human victim if its effects are not more
disagreeable.
n8
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
Some harmful hemipters and their bird enemies
might be mentioned:
Squash bugs
Hawks
Stink bugs
House wrens
Chinch bugs
Quails
Meadow larks
Scale insects
Downy woodpeckers
Bark lice
Hairy woodpeckers
Nuthatches
Seventeen-year cicadas
Cranes
Song sparrows
Prairie chickens
Kildeers
Brown creepers
Chickadees
Brown creepers
The order includes about five thousand species for
North America alone; and yet it is a comparatively small
order, the Coleoptera including more than eleven thousand
species, and that order falls far behind the order of the
flies in point of numbers. When the systematist says
species, he means kinds; so there are more than five
thousand kinds of bugs.
CHAPTER X.
FIELD WORK ON LEPIDOPTERA.
An expedition for lepidopters should be made to the
open meadows and fields some sunshiny afternoon,
between two and four o'clock.
Discover :
What colors are represented in the lepidopters which
you find in these places?
What are they seeking as food ?
Are their habits of visiting flowers promiscuous, or
constant as to a given food source ?
Do they know an enemy when one approaches them ?
Can you tell anything about how far a butterfly
can see?
Are you able to see the synchronous wing action?
What is the manner of disposing of the wings when
not in use, that is, when the insect is resting on some
object?
Do butterflies and moths ever walk?
Do they see or smell their food?
Another expedition should be made early in the day,
before the dew is off the grass, to some waste lot or the
south side of hedge rows, or wherever the grass grows tall.
Can you discover whether butterflies sleep ?
Are flowers fragrant at this time of day?
Is the dew on the insects as well as on the flowers?
An expedition should be made to the woods early in the
afternoon.
119
I2 Q FIELD ZOOLOGY.
Do you find butterflies ? Moths ?
Are they working in the shady depths of the wood-
land or in the fringe?
Do the colors of these insects differ from the colors
of those you found in the expedition to the open fields?
Look on tree branches, bushes, or tall weeds, and
even smaller plants for pupa cases. Look in the garden,
or on the forest trees, on fruit trees, and bushes for larvae.
Be sure to discover what each caterpillar is eating.
Bring home these caterpillars with sufficient food to last
them for some time. If you do not know where to get
any more of the same kind, take home plenty to last the
larva for the rest of its larval life.
Once home, the plants must be freshened in water
if they were not put into an air-tight box on being cut;
and some sort of a place must be made in which to keep
your "finds." You will find that your caterpillars will
stay with you contentedly if they have the right kind
of food and plenty of it, and are not so crowded that they
frighten each other off.
A good crawlery for your caterpillars is a large pan
with vertical sides. This will also hold water to keep the
twigs and leaves fresh ; and if you do not have too many
different kinds, one pan will likely keep all of them.
The pan must be cleaned each day; lift out the twigs, the
caterpillars, and any leaves that you may have there as
food, and return them after cleaning the pan. This pan
is useful in another way; most caterpillars must have
water to drink, and this will be supplied by the water in the
pan. It is really interesting to see a caterpillar stop
eating to drink up some water drop that it may have
found.
Caterpillars moult frequently and rest occasionally
FIELD WORK ON LEPIDOPTERA. 121
during the day; but, when fully grown, will either spin a
cocoon in some nook among the leaves or will go off into
some secluded place and "pout" until you give them a
box of earth, when they will disappear by burrowing
beneath the soil; and that will be the last of them you
will see for some days, weeks, or months, according to
what kind of a caterpillar you have. The earth for this
box should be sifted and should not be very dry. The
top of the soil should be lightly sprinkled occasionally,
and ought to be kept in some cool place, as cool as possible
and still be above freezing. Some caterpillars spend the
winter in such burrows where the temperature is much
below that of the house. Even with all your care in
keeping the box cool, the butterfly or the moth will
usually appear before his outdoor brothers and sisters
have stirred in their winter beds. The perfection of skill
would be reached if you arranged to have some blooming
plants ready for your moths and butterflies to feed on.
Sweet alyssum or petunias might be tried.
Arrange matters so that you can stay in some flower
garden from sundown till eight or nine o'clock, when the
flowers are in full bloom and the moon is near the full.
As the twilight comes on, which flowers disappear
first?
Which flowers can you still see just between dark
and moon rise?
Can you discover any insects working during early
twilight? Are they moths or butterflies?
Do any insects come after moon rise ? What brought
them ? How do they find what they want ?
As a general proposition, do moths and butterflies
confer benefit or do they do harm? In the late summer,
moths and butterflies may be secured for the collection
122 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
box; by that time they will have completed their life
work and death will soon come to them naturally.
In setting up a lepidopter, after making sure that it is
dead, thrust the pin through the thorax, setting the
insect well up toward the top of the pin ; then set the pin
with the insect on it in the trough of the drying-board,
to such a depth that the wings lie on the sides of the
board at a slight angle with the plane of the body, say
25. Carefully spread the wings, front and hind wings
on both sides of the body, in order to display the veins
and color markings. If the trough is too wide to allow
the weighting of the wings after they are stretched, put
a piece of stiff paper or card board on the board under the
wings and stretch the wings on this. Care must be
taken not to break off the legs of the lepidopters, and the
antennae must also be carefully preserved.
LEPIDOPTERA.
CHARACTERISTICS.
1. Four wings.
2. The wings generally clothed with scales; the differ-
ent colors of the scales make regular patterns on the
wing surface. There are a few clear-wings with the
scales nearly absent.
3. Body densely clothed with hairs.
4. A sucking proboscis which is coiled under the head.
5. Mandibles almost indiscernible.
6. Butterflies have clubbed antennas swollen at the
ends.
7. Moths have antennas of various forms but not
clubbed.
8. Butterflies at rest fold their wings together above
the back; while moths leave their wings extended
when at rest.
123
LEPIDOPTERA.
This is the order of the moths and the butterflies.
Both of the divisions are characterized by the presence
of scales on the front and hind wings and on the body as
well. These scales are modified hairs; indeed, on some
parts of the body of most members of the order, there are
to be found hairs, either simple or branched, along with
the scales. The color and arrangement of these scales
and hairs are so constant that they constitute a basis of
classification for many species of moths and butterflies.
(Fig. 51.) A very few exceptional species are wingless as to
the females, and a few species with clear wings look very
much like bees. But if one is fortunate enough to find one
of the clear- wings when it has just come out of the pupal
case, he will find its wings
quite plentifully provided
with scales; these readily
wear off. Indeed, in any of
the order, the old insect pre-
sents a bedraggled appear-
ance, many of the beautiful
scales having been worn off FlG - si.-Portion of wing of lepi-
... dopter, snowing scales and scale pits.
in its struggles with hard
winds or bird enemies, or perchance some cat or dog chas-
ing it. The venation of the wings is constant, and the
modifications from the type are so slight that venation con-
stitutes another basis of classification. (Fig. 52 A and B.)
A characteristic which serves to separate this order
from all other orders of insects is the highly modified con-
125
126
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
dition of the mouth-parts. In most species of the order
there is a well-developed proboscis. (Fig. 53 .) This differs
from the sucking beak of the hemipters structurally,
and it is also unlike it in the manner in which it is used.
FIG. 52, A. Front wing of monarch butterfly, showing veins. C, costal;
SC, subcostal; R, radius; DC, discal cell; R, i, 2, 3, 4, 5, branches of radius;
M, i, 2, 3, branches of median vein; CU, cubitus; A, anal vein.
FIG. 52, B. Hind wing of monarch butterfly, showing veins; lettering same as
for front wing. The scent pocket is shown on the Cu 2 vein.
The beak of the hemipter is a stiff organ, and when not in
use, is usually folded once sharply under the head, against
the thorax, by means of the hinge-like articulation just
where the beak joins the head. Not only is this true,
LEPIDOPTERA.
I2 7
but the hemipter must first pierce the epidermis of its
victim before it can avail itself of the store of liquid food ;
while the sucking proboscis of the lepidopter is coiled
neatly under the head when not in use, and when getting
its food, the butterfly uncoils its proboscis, puts it far
enough down into the flower cup
to reach the nectar, and then
drinks much as if one were sipping
lemonade through a straw. This
proboscis consists of the greatly-
modified maxillae applied to each
other so that the two fit tightly
along a common groove. (Fig.
53.) This feeding organ, in some
of the sphinx moths, projects four
or five inches in front of the head,
when it is uncoiled in the act of
sucking the nectar from some
deep flower cup. (Fig. 54.) In
other species of lepidopters it is
only a fraction of an inch long.
If you watch a sphinx moth
at a trumpet creeper blossom or antenna; /,
a moon flower, you will see it
uncoil this proboscis and lower it into the flower cup,
(Fig. 55) all the time humming busily. These sphinx
moths are often mistaken for humming birds. The other
mouth parts are, in the great majority of lepidopters,
reduced to mere rudiments. The significance of this fact
is apparent when the butterfly's manner, of food-getting
is considered.
Other instincts than taste are determinative in the
butterfly's choice of food. Apparently, sight and smell
FIG. 53. Head of a butterfly,
Vanessa. Labial palpus; p, a,
128
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
play a large part in the search for food. It would seem
that it would be a decided disadvantage, if not a positive
FIG. 54. Adult of tomato worm, showing sucking proboscis uncoiled.
FIG. 55. A sphinx moth. Phlegethontius sexta visiting flower of Petunia.
(Reduced. Folsom.)
danger, if the butterfly were compelled to wait upon a
taste decision until the liquid food had traversed the
LEPIDOPTERA. I 29
length of the sucking tube, unless it were true that the
taste cells are located at the entrance to the proboscis, or
somewhere near the entrance ; and the microscopic exami-
nation of the proboscis seems not to warrant this assertion.
In one of the representative families of the order
the mouth parts are as well developed as they are in the
beetles ; but these minute moths are exceptions among the
Lepidoptera. They are extremely small insects, being
only about one-fifth of an inch long; the front and hind
wings are about equal in size and curiously veined. Not
only is this true, but the mode of fastening the wings
together on each side of the body is different from the
other lepidopters. This latter peculiarity is shared by the
Swifts or Hepialidae. These latter moths are larger than
the ones first mentioned, the Eriocephalas, being from an
inch to two inches long. Their wings are also very nearly
equal in size and are similar to the Eriocephala wing in
venation. The peculiar method of fastening the front
and the hind wing together,
shared by these two sorts of
moths, is a small stiff hook or
chitin rib projecting backward
from the front wing and fitting
under the costal margin of the FlG " s^-Front wing of a jugate
moth, showing the jugum.
hind wing, while the rest of the
wing fits over the costal margin of the hind wing. (Fig.
56.) This projection is called a jugum, meaning a yoke;
and hence these members of the Lepidoptera are called
the Jugatse.
These moths are interesting from another point of
view. They are undoubtedly the most primitive living
lepidopters, and may be regarded as the remnants of what,
at an earlier geological period, must have been a much
9
130
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
larger tribe of insects. Differentiation of cells, tissues,
or organs is held by the scientist to mark an upward
step in the continuous stream of life. The conspicuous
similarity of the wings of these jugate moths thus indi-
cates their low position among the Lepidoptera; this is
all the more apparent when one becomes familiar with
the immense number of differentiations along just this line,
which are found in the other great division of the order
FIG. 57 A. FIG. 57 B.
FIG. 57, A. Hind wing of a frenate lepidopter, showing the frenulum.
FIG. 57, B. Hind wing of a frenate lepidopter, showing wing angle, serving
as the frenulum substitute.
the Frenatse, and not only among the lepidopter s but
among the other orders of insects. (Fig. 57, A and B.)
Among the beetles, the grasshoppers, and the crickets, as
well as the bugs, the wings are so far differentiated as to
make the hind wings bear the burden of flight, while the
front wings are reduced to wing-covers or elytra as they are
called. But in the bees and the wasps the front wings are
the main flight pair. In the dragon flies the two pairs of
wings share equally in the act of flying, besides acting
independently. In the flies the hind pair of wings are
represented only by stumps of wings, remains of what in
an earlier age in the earth's history may have been an
effective pair of wings performing their full share of the
LEPIDOPTERA. 131
labor of flight. In harmony with this view, the points
of structure as well as of metamorphosis lead our principal
investigators to place the bees and the wasps higher than
the grasshoppers and the crickets, and the flies at the
head of the insect orders.
Another law which seems to find exemplification
here the lowest individual in any class repeats the life
history of the individuals below it and anticipates the
new features of the individuals above it. According to
this law, we should find that the jugate moths have
related forms among the insects below the Lepidoptera;
and so we do find that some of these moths have the same
kind of mouth parts as have the grasshoppers and the
beetles, and the same mode of fastening the wings together
as have the caddis flies, curious insects which spend their
larval period in the water and have a short adult period
with probably little aim or accomplishment beyond the
production of their progeny. And on the other hand,
these primitive jugate moths have the scaly wings of the
more highly differentiated and typical lepidopters.
The Lepidoptera all reproduce their kind by complete
metamorphosis, all of them passing from the egg to the
larva, then to the pupa, then to the adult stage. The
eggs are not smooth-coated as are the eggs of most other
insects, but always have some fine sculpturing over the
surface. The larvae are the familiar caterpillars of the
garden or the field. The pupas are a little less familiar,
but the observer surely has seen some of the curious,
mummy-like cases, big and little, hung up in all sorts of
queer places, waiting for the great change from pupa to
butterfly or moth.
Birds are the natural enemies of insects, and lepidop-
ters are easier to catch in the caterpillar stage than in the
I 3 2
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
adult form; nevertheless these caterpillars, sluggish as
they are, are not without means of defense. For any
living organism, the natural thing is to continue to live;
hence, we find that all activities of existing life forms
have the general trend toward the preservation of the
individual; though all may not be successful in every
case. We must remember that the struggle for existence
is not between the species and the conditions that surround
it, but between the individual and those conditions, as it
faces alone the manifold influences which may mean
persistence through adaptive response, or may present
the fatal alternative of death through the possibility of
non-adjustment to conditions. The hairy caterpillars
are an uncomfortable mouthful for most birds; though it
often happens that a specially meaty caterpillar is whipped
clean of the objectionable hairs by some diligent bird
who is likewise struggling for existence dinner in this
case. The brilliantly-colored caterpillars are generally
let alone by birds, and it is known for some of them at
least, that the brilliant coloration is accompanied by some
poisonous substance or acrid taste, and hence they are
not good eating. Many of the larvae have the same body
colors as the things they feed on, and so pass unnoticed
in many cases.
The larvae are. provided with biting mouth parts, and
all are fruit- or leaf-eaters; this places the members of
this order among the non-beneficial insects so far as their
larvae are concerned, but it is only in the larval stage
that they are troublesome. In the pupal stage the insect
eats little or nothing, only such food as the greedy larva
has provided for it; while in the adult stage, the general
usefulness of the moths and the butterflies to the farmer
and the fruit-grower can hardly be overestimated.-
LEPIDOPTERA. 133
Besides this benefit as pollen distributors, the moth known
as the Chinese silkworm moth, in its larval stage, furnishes
the raw material for the silk of commerce.
Of course, the larvae do not all eat plants upon which
man depends. Many of them eat plants for which man
does not care at all, or plants which are actually injurious
so far as man is concerned; but the order has the unenviable
reputation of being more nearly uniformly injurious in
its larval stage than any other order.
Some of the larvae that are commonly found are the
larvae of the sphinx moths, such as the penman, the
tomato worm, the tobacco worm; and also the regal moth,
the luna moth, the tent caterpillars, the handmaid moths,
the black swallow-tail, the well-know T n cabbage butterflies,
the monarch butterfly, the measuring worms, the plump
greasy caterpillars called cutworms, and the Noctuids,
moths that often fly into our houses after night, attracted
by the light. Taking these in their order:
Penmarked Sphinx (larva). Greenish- or bluish-
white above, and on the sides of the body there are seven
yellow stripes placed obliquely and bordered above with
a dark green stripe. When disturbed, it throws up the
front end of the body in a threatening attitude ; this last
fact is common to many of the sphinxes.
Tomato Worm. Much resembles the preceding
larva; is usually green, but some individual specimens
may be brownish and even reddish- brown. Its pupa
is often found and may be recognized by the curious
handle that curves backward and under the brown body
case.
Tobacco Worm. Much the same as the larva just
described; the larvae are very similar but the adults are
distinguishable.
134 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
The Regal Moth (larva). This is the largest larva
that we have in the United States, measuring from four
to five and a half inches in length. It may be distin-
guished from all other caterpillars by the very long spines
with which it is armed, but which are "not loaded."
They are harmless but usually serve their purpose by
frightening off credulous birds.
Luna Moth (larva). Pale bluish-green with a much
lighter head, usually white in most specimens. On the
back are small purplish or reddish warty protuberances,
about six to each abdominal segment; in addition there
is a pale yellowish line along each side of the body.
Tent Caterpillars. Social larvae, never feeding alone,
and the tribe generally making a web in which the young
larvae live; some species of them come out of this web to
feed, returning to it at night, or whenever not feeding.
Others live in the web for the entire larval period; and
this they make provision for by spinning a web about the
branch which they wish to devour, the completed tent
often measuring more than a foot in length. The apple
tree tent caterpillar is black, at least very dark, with
white stripes along the back, and with yellow and blue
spots. The forest tree tent caterpillar is larger than the
apple tree pest, and usually has less of blue on its body,
though they seem sometimes indistinguishable except
by size.
Handmaid Moth (larva) . Often called yellow-necked
appletree caterpillar; reddish-black with bright yellow
stripes ; many scores of the caterpillars in a wriggling mass.
Each caterpillar has the habit of jerking the front and the
hind end of its body up and down, probably to frighten
off any waiting enemy. It is a well-known fact that the
Tachina flies appreciate a juicy find of these worms,
LEPIDOPTERA. 135
and with them the threatening is unavailing, for the
Tachinas usually succeed in laying their eggs in the
bodies of the protesting worms, where the young Tachinas
soon proceed to use up the caterpillars to the satisfaction
of every one except the caterpillars.
Black Swallow-tail (larva). A dark green worm
with many black rings and bright yellow spots; two
yellow horns on the segments of the body just behind the
head are protruded if the caterpillar is disturbed, a sicken-
ing odor coming off as the result of the disturbance.
Cabbage Worms. Slender green worms covered with
very fine soft hairs, and usually with some pale yellow
lines about the body. According to Comstock, the moth
produces three broods in the middle latitudes of the
United States. The effective work against it, then,
would have to be done before the cabbages head in the
spring. He gives pyrethrum powder and also kerosene
emulsion as effective treatments of this really serious
pest.
Monarch Butterfly (larva) . The larvae are often called
tiger caterpillars, greenish- white worms with shining
black bands about the body from head to tip of abdomen.
It grows rapidly, and turns into the familiar golden-brown
pupa hung by its big tail-end to some leaf or twig, the
pupa showing green and gold inside it.
Measuring Worms. The familiar loopers that chil-
dren are not usually afraid of. They have a curious
habit of standing up on their hind legs to ' ' view the land-
scape o'er," swaying the body from side to side as if
looking for a good place to eat next. They are probably
attempting to frighten off any possible enemy by their
startling movements. Another device they have, if
the first does not work, is to drop suddenly off the branch,
136 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
and you think the poor fellow certainly has killed himself;
but you may discover later on that he is swinging craftily
at the end of a silken web which he spun for safety when
you surprised him. As if these were not enough devices
for one worm, if he is at all warned of your coming or if
the cuckoo says anything before she gets near enough to
see him, he will throw up the forward end of his body,
sticking it straight out into the air, stiff and motionless,
and the bird often passes this new kind of twig by. But
justice sometimes has her due, and the villain is eaten after
all his schemes have failed.
Cutworms. The pests which, in addition to eating a
goodly share of our field and garden crops, also cut off
plants at the surface of the ground, thus destroying much
more than they can eat. The larvae on hatching out
either eat near the surface of the ground upon which the
egg was laid, or else crawl to the branches of some tree
to feed during the day, coming back to the ground burrow
to spend the night in safety. They are at first minute
worms, but soon grow larger and look greasy and plump, and
are dark brown with lighter longitudinal lines. According
to Comstock, the time and the way to catch the ground-
feeding worms is early in the morning or late the previous
night by making holes in the ground close to the feeding-
places. The worms will crawl into these holes to keep
warm or to hide as it grows light, and will be unable to
crawl out again if the sides of the holes are smooth. The
tree-feeders can be caught by spreading a sheet under the
the tree and shaking the worms off, when they can be
readily disposed of.
Some bird enemies of the harmful Lepidoptera de-
serve mention here :
LEPIDOPTERA.
137
Forest and apple tree tent caterpillars.
Black-billed and yellow-billed cuckoos
Large caterpillars of all sorts.
Hawks
Hairy and spiny caterpillars generally.
The two cuckoos, black-billed and yellow-billed
Blue jays Catbirds
Robins Bluebirds
Gypsy moth caterpillars.
Yellow- billed and black- billed cuckoos
Robins Blue jays
Baltimore orioles Chickadees
Catbirds Chippies
Vireos Crows
Smooth caterpillars.
Brown thrashers
House wrens
The two cuckoos
Cutworms.
House wrens
Sparrows, many of them
English sparrows
Quails
Cankerworms.
Chickadees
Robins
Catbirds
Brown thrashers
Army worms.
Quails
Sparrows, many of them
English sparrows
Blackbirds
Screech owls
Meadow larks
Robins
House wrens
Baltimore orioles
Summer yellowbirds
Bluebirds
Nearly the whole sparrow
family.
138 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
The Lepidoptera are widely distributed over the
earth's surface, some of them being found within the
Arctic circle, while others have the whole tropic range.
According to Kellogg, Vanessa cardui, the Cosmopolitan,
is found in every one of the continents outside the polar
circles. Some of the other species of butterflies are found
high up on mountains, near the timber line. Even the
snow flowers of the Alps have their insect visitors.
CHAPTER XL
FIELD WORK ON HYMENOPTERA.
Various lines of investigation have already been
suggested in the discussion of the order as a whole. If
you are near an apiary in charge of some old bee-keeper,
the best thing that can be done is to visit him and ask
permission to go about with him while he tends his bees.
Then, if you are wise in your questions and economical
of his time, you may be able to induce him to talk of his
bees and possibly to show you some of the brood combs
with worker, drone, and queen cells. Stand still for at
least five minutes and watch the bees coming and going;
note their manner of flight, whether it is direct, or waver-
ing and uncertain. How far off can you see them coming
home? Must their sense of the direction of home from
the last flower visited, been stronger than yours would
have been? Do you believe that it is sight alone that
guides the home-coming?
Walk out a little way to where the flowers that
are being visited are growing. Take your reading
glass and turn it on some bee found in a flower cluster.
She will not notice you and you will have a chance to see
how she does it. Remember that you are -looking at one
of the domesticated animals that have lived with man so
long that they are not fearful of his presence when on
flower business.
For observation of the bees in the school-room, a
rather narrow hive box may be provided. Get some
carpenter to make it; or there may be some ingenious
139
I 4 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
boy in the high school or the grades who may be able
himself to make a frame with glass sides and wooden ends
with a slit low down in one end for the in-going and out-
coming of the bees. Stand the hive on a shelf or a table
pushed close to the window. Raise the window a little
and put under the sash a thin strip of lumber as wide as
the window opening and with a slit cut in it, so as to be
just opposite the opening into the hive. When this is
done you can either push the hive close up to the window
or leave it a little way out. If the latter, lay down two
strips of wood to reach from the hive entrance to the
opening in the window strip and cover these with a piece
of glass, so that when you so wish you may see the bees
as they pass in and out. It is best to keep this covered
except when you wish to learn something of their doings,
as bees do not like to be watched at their work; that is,
you must not "keep tab" on them too closely.
In the study of ants the very best thing to do is to
find an ant hill and dig down under the surface, a little
at a time. If you do not know how, any small boy will
tell you. One way, possibly, in addition to what he will
tell you, is to make an attempt at a vertical section of
the ant hill by digging carefully down to one side of the
center so as to discover all that one may by so doing-
approaching carefully the center of the hill. When you
have dug away most of the earth up to this middle line
and have found how deep the nest goes down, then with
a spade or a large, sharp knife cut down from the exit
tube, straight down to the bottom. This will be likely
to cut open a number of the chambers as well as some of
the galleries and show a number of facts concerning the
use of the chambers, the modes of ant activity, and their
behavior under disturbing circumstances. When a par-
FIELD WORK ON HYMENOPTERA. 14!
ticularly good view of a gallery, or room, and the galleries
leading from it is obtained, make a picture of it. Do
you find ants going both ways in some of the passages?
Look for eggs, larvae, and pupae; and also discover the
granaries if possible. You may know them by the seeds
and other vegetable matter stored in them. Do you
find any insects in the granaries that might be serving
as food ? Do any of the ants exhibit any care for the
young when you disturb the nest ? Is this care evidently
the care for some particular ones among the immature ants,
or is it care for the welfare of the colony as a whole? It
will be quite a triumph if you are able to find any of the
mothers of the colony. The ant mother is larger and
thicker- bodied than are either the male ants or the
female workers; besides, when you have a nest under
examination, the males will not be likely to be living, as
you know that the males do not as a rule live long beyond
the starting of the ant home.
Sir John Lubbock, the eminent English student of
insects, and especially of ants, bees, and wasps, gives
instructions as to how to arrange a nest for ants so that
their proceedings can be watched for one's self. He says :
' ' After trying various plans, I found the most convenient
plan was to keep them in nests consisting of two plates
of common window glass about ten inches square, and
at a distance apart of from one-tenth to one-fourth of an
inch (in fact, just sufficiently deep to allow the ants
freedom of motion) , with slips of wood around the edges,
the intermediate space being filled up with fine earth.
If the interval between the glass plates was too great
the ants were partly hidden by the earth, but when the
distance between the glass plates was properly regulated
with reference to the size of the ants they were open to
142
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
close observation, and had no opportunity to conceal
themselves. Ants, however, very much dislike light in
their nests, probably because it makes them think them-
selves insecure, and I always therefore kept the nests
covered over, except when under actual examination.
I found it convenient to have one side of the nest formed
by a loose slip of wood, and at one corner I left a small
door. These glass nests I either kept in shallow boxes
with loose glass covers resting on baize, which admitted
enough air, and yet was impervious to the ants, or on
stands surrounded either with water or with fur with the
hairs pointing downward. Some of these nests I
arranged on stands, as shown in the figure. A A is an
upright post fixed on a base B B. C C is a square plat-
form of wood around which runs a ditch of water. Above
are six nests, D, each lying on a platform, E, which could
be turned for facility of observation, as shown in the
dotted lines D' and E'. Thus the ants had considerable
range, as they could wander as far as the water ditch. The
object of having the platform C C larger than the supports
of the nest was that if the ants fell, as often happened,
they were within the water boundary, and were able to
return home. This plan answered fairly well and saved
space, but it did not quite fulfill my hopes, as the ants
were so pugnacious that I was obliged to be very careful
which nests were placed on the same stand. (Fig. 58.)
"Of course it was impossible to force the ants into
these glass nests. On the other hand, when once the
right way is known it is easy to induce them to go in.
When I wished to start a new nest I dug one up and
brought home the ants, earth, etc., all together. I then
put them over one of my artificial nests on one of the
platforms surrounded by a moat of water. Gradually
FIELD WORK ON HYMENOPTERA.
the outer earth dried up, while that between the two
plates of glass, being protected from evaporation, retained
its moisture. Under these circumstances the ants found
it more suitable to their requirements, and gradually
deserted the drier mould
A
outside, which I removed
by degrees.
1 1 Even between the
two plates of glass the
earth gradually dried up,
and I had to supply arti-
ficial rain from time to
time."
A bumblebee's nest
ought by all means to be
discovered if it is a possi-
ble thing to do so. If a
bee of this sort is found on
a flower, occasionally one
is fortunate enough to be
able to trace it to its home
nest. Especially is this true if you sight the bumblebee
late in the afternoon, when she is making her last trip
for the day. While you have the bumblebee under obser-
vation, discover whether the two sorts of bees, honey and
bumble, like the same flowers. Do they seem to be
equally burdened with the responsibilities of life ?
Do you regard the life where the bumblebee mother
works for the good of her own family and that alone, as
beneficial with respect to life as a whole with its varied
relationships of many kinds of animals of various degrees
of efficiency, as is the life of the community bees, where
each individual contributes cheerfully and efficiently
r t
FIG. 58. Ants' artificial nest.
(After Lubbock.)
144 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
to the output of work of the whole community? This is
much like a similar question which might be put concerning
our own effectiveness in the world. No one can do his best
for others if he keeps in a corner by himself and refuses to
help right cheerfully in the work of the big, busy world.
Wasps are more difficult to study on account of their
irritability and their effective stings. Still, if you can
find a small nest of a paper wasp, watch till you are sure
that the wasp mother is not at home ; then detach it from
its fastenings and put it into a box which has previously
had a square of wire netting set into the lid. If the lid
is pasteboard, cut out a piece and sew in the netting; if
the lid is wooden, saw out a piece and tack on the netting.
This will enable you to see what is going on in the nest.
Until some adults have emerged, you may examine the
nest freely. You may find some of the cells open; this
means that the eggs formerly in those cells have developed
into adults which have gnawed their way out into the
outer world. If there are some cells still smoothly capped,
play wasp on one of them by carefully cutting the cap
around its edge, leaving a small strip for a hinge. Raise
this lid and look inside. If there is an egg, notice what
food is left beside it. If it is a larva, notice its appearance
and how it eats. Does the paper wasp mother go back
repeatedly to feed her young larva? If it is a pupa, lift it
out carefully and examine it on all sides to see how far the
adult organs are developed. By watching the place where
the nest hung you may be able to discover and watch the
behavior of the wasp mother when she comes back and
finds her nest gone, and what she does after the discovery.
Any galls found on weeds, bushes, or trees are
interesting for study. There are many insects that form
galls : mites, moths, gnats, and some small beetles, as well
FIELD WORK ON HYMENOPTERA. 145
as gallflies. The green galls, if closed, are most probably
made by gallflies; besides this, when you cut them open,
if the gall is due to a gallfly, there will be found inside
nothing save the immature larval or pupal hymenopter-
ous gallfly; while in galls made by some of the other
gall-forming agents, it is the mother that enters the gall
and rears her young within its increasing structure, and
there will be found the opening by which the escape of the
insect has been made.
Suggestions for the study of the ichneumons may be
found in the discussion of the big Thalessa and the
Pigeon Horntail. If a caterpillar outwardly in good
condition be found dead on a leaf, pick off the leaf with
the caterpillar on it, and store it in some box with a good
lid; put a label on the lid and also on the box so that it
may not be lost. Look often at the caterpillar for
developments. If the parasitic insects have not already
escaped you will be able to trace the life history of the
parasites from the larvae, which will appear, possibly,
beyond the body wall of the caterpillar when they have
attained their larval maturity and go through the pupal
transformation. And some day you may find some tiny
winged creatures flying about in the box when you open
it. When these do appear they should be given their
liberty out of doors to repeat the beneficial work of their
kind. Whenever you have learned to know a harmful
insect, miss no opportunity to kill it; in so doing you
destroy not only that insect, but also all of its descendants.
When you learn to know a beneficial insect, and this
may mean one or more of the enemies of the first sort,
be sure that neither you nor anyone else harms it; you
will thus be able to avail yourself of the good done by it
and by all of its descendants left unharmed.
HYMENOPTERA.
CHARACTERISTICS.
i. Four membranous wings, bare of scales.
Bees.
Body thick-hairy.
Legs usually thickly clothed with hairs.
Wasps.
Body smooth, constricted at front of abdomen,
or pedunculate.
Ants.
Body smooth, not pedunculate, but one of the
abdominal segments is expanded to form a
scale or button-like knot next to the thorax.
Ichneumon flies.
Abdomen curved and, in some of the smaller
ichneumons, pedunculate.
Thalessa has three long hairs (they may look
as if they were one) at the end of the abdomen.
Sawflies.
Head and thorax wide where they join the
abdomen; the female bears a saw-like organ at
the end of the abdomen.
Horn tails.
Head and thorax wide, and abdomen broad and
usually cylindrical; abdomen bears a spine-
like organ; insects large.
Gallflies.
Abdomen compressed and pedunculate by the
first abdominal segment; the second and third
abdominal segments much larger than the
other segments; insects small.
HYMENOPTERA.
This is the order of the sawflies, the gallflies, the
ichneumon flies, the horntails, the wasps, the bees, and
the ants.
Among the members of this order are to be found
the wonderful examples of community life which are not
equaled elsewhere in the animal kingdom. And yet,
while the community life of the social bees, ants, and wasps
is certainly matter for wonder, the life of the solitary
wasps and bees is not less wonderful in its wealth of
economy, scheme, and device.
The order furnishes also the most interesting exam-
ples of parasitism in the animal kingdom. According to
Fiske, the American tent caterpillar is liable to be para-
sitized by no fewer than twelve species of Hymenoptera.
Six of these primary parasites may be parasitized by
secondary parasites, also hymenopters. Four of the
secondary parasites are in turn parasitized by tertiary
parasites ; and one of these tertiary parasites may be
parasitized by an hymenopterous parasite of the fourth
rank. Not much chance for the tent caterpillar in the
midst of all this!
" Big fleas have little fleas
Upon their backs to bite 'em;
And these in turn have lesser fleas,
And so on, ad infinitum."
All members of the order have four clear, membranous
wings destitute of scales. The front wings are larger than
the hind wings and bear the brunt of the flight activities ;
149
150 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
and all four wings are provided with comparatively few
branched veins.
You may have found caterpillars with their bodies
quite thickly set with tiny white silken cocoons. These
cocoons mark the third life stage in the life of some
parasitic hymenopter, usually one of the ichneumon flies,
which laid her eggs on the body of this caterpillar, and
the greedy larvae hatching from the eggs, bore through the
skin of the host, and make many a meal off the protesting
caterpillar, which finds it difficult to eat enough for itself
and for all its uninvited guests also. The caterpillar
may still be crawing about, feebly trying to find a juicy
leaf and perhaps wondering why it feels so queer inside.
But more likely it is just dead or dying, though some of
them do manage to pupate in the face of such enormous
odds. The mother ichneumon usually lays her eggs at or
near the end of the caterpillar stage, and the fly has an
unusually short period of immaturity.
The effectiveness of these parasites as aids to man, as
well as of all parasites in general, depends upon their not
being parasitized themselves, and also upon their not
becoming so numerous as to eat up all the available cater-
pillars, or other hosts, within reach. If the ichneumon
should do the latter, the succeeding season would witness
a decided decrease in its own numbers, while the few
remaining caterpillars would have a chance to increase.
Another of the ichneumon flies, the big Thalessa, is
an interesting as well as a decidedly beneficial insect. The
Pigeon Horntail is accustomed to boring into trunks of
box elder, maple, or sycamore to lay its eggs. The larva
hatching from the egg, eats or tunnels its way into the
tree through the bark, and then turns downward along the
inner wood of the tree, eating as it goes. It then pupates,
HYMENOPTERA. 151
and at the expiration of its pupal stage, intends to gnaw
its way out to freedom, air, and sunshine; there to repeat
the life cycle of its parents. But the big Thalessa seems
to know where to find this fat, juicy, horntail grub, and
she stops above where it is lying, deep down under the
bark of the tree, throws her long ovipositor in a wide loop
over her back, downward into the tree trunk, and begins
FIG. 59. Oviposition of Thalessa lunator. (Natual size. Folsom, after Riley.}
boring straight down. How the mother ichneumon
knows the horntail grub is under the bark cannot be
determined; it is the manifestation of a marvelous power
to locate that which cannot be seen. You and I might
find the horntail tunnel in the outer bark, but we should
be unable to tell which way the larva had turned on its
way inward. (Fig. 60.) The writer found in the summer
of 1908, four of these horntails unsuspectingly drilling into
a box elder trunk ; while around on the other side of the
same tree were two of the Thalessas, also engaged in drill-
ing (but not so unsuspectingly) , providing for the wants of
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
the young ichneumons, whose one mission in life would
be to dispose of at least one young horntail apiece.
All members of the order have four clear, membran-
ous wings, destitute of scales. The front wings are larger
than the hind wings and bear the brunt of the flight
activities. In the butterflies and the moths, the wings
on each side of the body are fastened together either by a
hook, by bristles, or by a pronounced curve of the front
border of the hind wing.
The beetles, the grasshop-
pers, and the bugs use
only one pair of wings for
flying, hence do not need
to provide for the interac-
tion of the wings. But in
the hymenopters we come
again to insects with four
wings, all used for flight;
and some means of syn-
chronous action is neces-
sary. If a honey-bee's
wings are examined care-
fully it will be seen that it
is very difficult to separate the small hind wing from the
larger front wing. With a good hand lens, better with
the microscope, there will be found a line of hooks fasten-
ing the hind wing to the front wing, fitting over a strong
vein at the hind margin of the front wing.
The first abdominal segment is usually fused with
the thorax, and that means that the small segment which
forms the articulation between the thorax and the abdo-
men is usually the second abdominal segment. This is
especially true in the wasps and the ants.
FIG. 60. The pigeon horntail, Tremex
columba. A, imago; B, larva (with para-
sitic larva of Thalessa attached). (Nat-
ural size. Folsom, after Riley.)
HYMENOPTERA. 153
The mouth parts of the honey-bee are fitted both for
sucking nectar from flower cups and for eating pollen.
(Fig. 62.) Many wasps eat pollen. Ants are noted for
their strong jaws and yet they are very fond of sweet
liquids. The so-called paper wasps make the paper for
their nests by chewing bits of bark or wood to a pulp.
FIG. 61.
FIG. 62.
FIG. 61. Mouth parts of honey-bee, with right maxilla and mandible
removed, md, mandible; mx, maxilla; mxp, maxillary palpus; mxl, maxillary
lobe; st, stipes; cd, cardo of maxilla; li, labium; sm, submentum of labium;
momentum of labium; pg, paraglossa; gl, glossa; lip. labial palpus. (Kellogg.)
FIG. 62. Tongue of honey-bee, Apis mellifera; p, protecting bristles; s,
terminal spoon; /, taste setae. (Folsom, after Williston.)
The gallfly larva lies in the midst of the gall, which yields it
the most nourishing of plant juices. Hence, it is evident
that, whatever the generic peculiarity of the mouth parts,
all members of the order can either bite, or suck or lap;
and most of them have both methods of feeding. In ad-
dition, the honey-bee has her mandibles so shaped as to
make effective trowels for moulding the wax to make
154
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
the delicate walls of the comb, or for manipulating the
propolis to repair the comb in case of accident.
The ovipositor of the females throughout the order
presents some curious modifications. In the case of the
horntails and the big Thalessa, we have seen that the
ovipositor is modified into a drill for depositing the eggs
under the tree bark. Among the saw-flies, the ovipositor
serves as a saw to cut into young stems or leaves in order
to deposit the eggs therein. Among most of the ichneu-
mons, the gallflies, and practically all the parasitic
hymenopters, the ovipositor is used as an awl to prick
a hole in a leaf, a stem, or the epidermis of some caterpillar
in which to deposit the eggs. The queens colony
mothers and the workers infertile females of the
wasps and the bees, and the stinging ants, all have the
ovipositor formed to serve as a sting. This sting is the
most effective means of defense possessed by insects.
This last fact presents a curious anomaly among the
members of the animal kingdom, at least among the higher
orders. It is usually the male that is the larger and
endowed in such a way that he is the defender of the
home and the offspring. Among the lower groups, after
the appearance of the male as a factor in the repro-
duction of the species, it is the female that is the larger
and also the defender of the home and the offspring
where there is a definite place of abode. In the order of
the Hymenoptera, which is considered well up toward the
highest of the insects, if not at the head, we still see the
male in the place of subordination; especially is this true
among the community hymenopters, the highest of the
hymenopterous families.
The hymenopters all have complete metamorphosis,
and the larvae are peculiarly dependent upon the parents
HYMENOPTERA. 155
for food and safety. With the solitary wasps and the
bees, the, food is stored in the locule in which the larva
hatches. The same is true of the gallfly, where the
sap of the wounded plant furnishes food for the gallfly
maggot. The parasitic ichneumons place their eggs
in situations of abundant food supply for the hatching
grubs. The young hymenopter is unable to provide food
for itself, but grows up on the food which the careful
mother provides. This dependence reaches its climax
in the community wasps, bees, and ants, especially in the
ants. Here certain workers bring food to the larvae
continually until pupation takes place; and even the
pupae are carefully carried about to places of warmth
or safety.
Bees.
There are several sorts of flies that closely resemble
bees in their hairy bodies, shape, and general appearance,
but will be found to have only one pair of wings. The
clear- winged Hemaris among the moths looks very much
like a bumblebee with its black and yellow hairy body,
but its wings always have some scales on them. The
bees, while not very difficult to recognize, may always be
distinguished by the absence of scales on their wings, by
the presence of feathery or branched hairs on head and
thorax, and the enlargement of the mandibles for trowel-
ing wax or for tunneling in wood or ground.
The antennae of the bees are bent near the head, and
their terminal segments are provided with numerous
sense-pits and papillae; these pits are supposed to be
organs of taste and feeling, and they also probably serve
the purpose of olfactory organs. The sense of smell
reaches its highest development in the community
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
hymenopters; and the known ways in which the members
of the group use this sense is truly wonderful, to say
nothing of the marvelous actions in which we can only
conjecture that smell plays a part. You have known
bees to find honey which it was impossible for them to
have seen, and which they must
have found by their sense of
smell. Ants will crawl long dis-
tances toward a bait of honey.
Ants know each other and the
home nest and the rival commu-
nities by the sense of smell.
A honeybee community con-
sists usually of about ten thou-
sand individuals in the winter,
to about fifty thousand in the
summer, one of which is a fertile
female, the queen. Fifty to
eighty, or several hundred of the
total number are drones, and the
remainder are workers, that is,
females for the most part incapa-
ble of laying eggs, though there
have been known cases of egg-
laying by a worker bee. These
workers attend to the work of the
community strictly. There is no division of interests
here; the interest of one is the interest of the community.
An exception to this oneness of aim must be made
in the case of the drones. These individuals neither
labor at any given part of the whole task, nor do they
even provide food for themselves. Not even a job as
policeman of the community attracts them, and this is a
FIG. 63. Head and mouth
parts of honeybee, much en-
larged. Note the short, trowel-
like mandibles for moulding
wax, and the proboscis for suck-
ing flower nectar. (Kellogg.}
HYMENOPTERA. 157
position much sought after in human metropolitan com-
munities. They are rightly named drones, staying
within the hive unless pushed out, living off the labors
of the foraging workers, profiting throughout their short,
lazy lives at the expense of the industrious. And this
seemingly inexcusable waste in an organization so
economically ordered, is solely for the purpose of providing
for the propagation of the bee kind. It finds its counter-
part in the cornstalk among the plants, which makes
thirty thousand grains of pollen in its tassel in order
that perhaps three hundred grains may be useful in
producing the full, ripe ear of corn. Here is a valuable
lesson for us human workers at our tasks. Nature does
not grudge the effort; above everything she assures
herself of the accomplishment of her purpose rich
effort, sure reward!
These drones wait for the advent of the queen, in
order to take part in the mating flight. All the drones
may start out with the queen; but gradually the weaker-
winged individuals fall back, leaving the strongest drone
to follow the queen high into the air. As the result of
this union come the hundreds of eggs which the queen
will lay during the time that she remains the mother
of the colony. But the victor drone perishes at the
moment of victory, having actually given his own life
for the lives of the colony to be.
As to the mode of formation of a colony: in some of
the comb cells reserved for that purpose the queen from
some older community lays fertilized eggs, one in each cell,
and at the same time the workers are busy storing other
cells with honey and pollen. In three days these eggs
hatch into tiny soft-bodied grubs. These are fed by the
nurse-workers with honey and with bee jelly. Honey is
158 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
not flower nectar, but is made from it and holds much
less of water than does the nectar when it is sipped from
the flower by the bee. Some bee keepers insist that the
nurse-workers feed these first larvae on honey and bee
bread alone. Bee bread is made from pollen. If the
bee jelly is fed to these first larvae its use is discontinued
after two days, and then the larvae are fed on honey and
bee bread for three days longer. After these five days of
feeding, the nurse- workers roll up a mass of honey and
A B c
FIG. 64. The honeybee, Apis mellifera. A, queen; B, drone; C, worker.
(Natural size. Folsom.)
pollen, and put it beside the larva, which by this time has
grown to a considerable size; they then cap the cell and
leave it. The larva eats a little longer, then pupates in
in the cell, remaining a pupa for thirteen days, after which
a full-grown bee appears. (Fig. 64.) This young bee stays
in the hive for some days, sharing in the in-door work with
the bees somewhat older, serving as a nurse- worker itself.
It would seem from some observations that have been
made, that only the young bees are capable of acting as
nurse- workers, and that they become foraging or general
workers at a more advanced stage of their existence. If
this is true, then there are no hard and fast lines of caste
among the workers; all serve an apprenticeship in the
HYMENOPTERA.
nursery, and in the kind of work performed later, age
plays a part. This somewhat unsettles the belief in the
specialization which has been supposed to exist in a bee
community. After numerous broods of workers have
been added to the community the workers build some
larger cells in which the
queen lays some unfer-
tilized eggs, and from
these hatch the drones.
These larvae are fed by
the nurse- workers, and
with the same food, but
in this case the larval
period lasts six days and
the pupal period fifteen
days. When the com-
munity is so large as to
crowd the hive, at least
that is the way we have
of saying what the bee
has a finer instinct for
knowing, the comb-
workers tear down some
of the cells, usually, and
build up a few giant
cells or queen cells. They may build them on the outside
of the comb cells, and they are usually at right angles with
the other cells. (Fig. 65.)
From what source comes this impulse for building
queen cells is not known. At any rate, their being built
is not known early in the history of the colony when the
hive is scantily filled with bees. Bees seem unable to
count, and it would be equally strange to accredit them
FIG. 65. Portion of brood comb of honey-
bee showing one queen cell.
l6o FIELD ZOOLOGY.
with reasoning power by which they might know
when to build queen cells. It would hardly seem that
the queen would give the signal herself ; for the appearance
of a new queen brings her two possibilities which she must
face the end of her reign over a united community, or
death generally the latter. At any rate, the stimulus
is given and the eggs are laid. Occasionally 'the cell is
built up around an egg already laid. These are the royal
larvae which hatch from these eggs, and each is fed by
several nurse- workers in constant attendance, feeding
bee jelly for the five larval days. After these five days
of constant feeding, the nurses place a mass of bee jelly
beside the old larva and cap the cell, and in seven days
more, there appears the full-grown queen. This bee jelly,
on which the royal larva is fed, is a highly metamorphosed
honey product elaborated in the body of the worker and
fed to the larva by regurgitation. So far as known, it is
the feeding which makes the difference in the individuals
resulting from the two fertilized eggs, the one in the worker
cell and the one in the queen cell. The royal larva is fed
longer, constantly, and with richer food than is the worker
larva.
The appearance of the queen is heralded by a curious
piping noise which the old queen answers, and the battle
is on. If the old queen attempts to attack the young
queen the workers usually protect the young queen, at
least a portion of them may so decide to do; this may
result in the migrating of a portion of the hive with the
old queen leaving the new queen in possession of the
remaining bees in the hive. If more queens than one
issue at one time, there may follow a series of battles in
which it is decided which one among them is to stay
with the hive ; or there will be a series of swarmings which
HYMENOPTERA. l6l
will divide the community into swarms, one for each
queen surviving. Sometimes the workers interfere in a
possible battle of the queens and kill either the old or the
new queen by gathering in a tight ball about her and
suffocating her. The sting of the worker is rarely, if ever,
used against the queen; and the queen does not use her
sting save in one of these battles royal against one of her
rivals. The matter having been settled, the diminished
community in the hive sets about the work of building
up another community, while the exiled swarms do the
same elsewhere. It usually comes about in the case of the
exiled swarms that some one sees the swarm hanging to
a tree branch and uses his diligence to secure it and put
it into another hive ; but occasionally one of these swarms
escapes and makes itself a nest in some tree and the bees
become wild again, as they were originally.
With the bumblebees, at the end of the summer, the
nest is abandoned; none stays in it. The old queen
mother, the drones, and the workers die, leaving the young
queen to winter through in some sheltered situation.
Such colonies are not permanent, nor do they tend
strongly toward the persistence or the spread of the species.
Among the honeybees, the many generations of workers
hatched during the summer season, the providing of the
overstocked hive with several queens, and the swarmings
incident to the growth of such a brood colony tend
directly toward the persistence of the bee kind through
the spread of enormous numbers of them. Our hive
honeybees are all of European stock; the native bees are
the familiar bumblebees; while our wild bees are swarms
of the domesticated sorts which have escaped from the
artificial hive to the wild life again, where they build their
comb of wild honey in some hollow tree. The swarming
162
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
of bees, bringing about the formation of new colonies,
plays an important part in the preservation of the bee
kind. It is quite as necessary that the communities be
multiplied as that the numbers of the community be
increased.
CO
FIG. 66. Adaptive modifications of the legs of the worker honeybee. A , outer
aspect of left hind leg; B, portion of left middle leg; C, inner aspect of tibio-
tarsal region of left hind leg; D t tibio-tarsal region of left foreleg; a, antenna
comb; b, brush; c, coxa; co, corbiculum; /, femur; pc, pollen combs; s, spur;
sp, spines; ss, spines; t, trochanter; ti, tibia; v, velum; w, wax pincers; 1-5, tarsal
segments; i, metatarsus, or planta. (Folsom.)
Some of the industries of the hive are wax-making,
comb-building, honey-making, repairing, garbage-collect-
ing, cleaning, warming, and ventilating the hive, sentinel-
keeping, water-carrying, nursing, and fighting.
HYMENOPTERA. 163
Of the honeybees, the legs at the base, the thorax,
and the abdomen are covered with flexible branching
hairs which are for the purpose of gathering up the sticky
pollen from the flowers visited. When the body surface
is pretty well loaded, these pollen grains are combed
out into the pollen bags on the outer side of each hind leg.
If you watch one of the foraging bees, you may see her
cross the hind legs and scrape the pollen grains into the
FIG. 67. Ventral aspect of worker honeybee, showing the four pairs of wax
cralptj ( T?nl.?n<wi. n.ftrr C'hpshirp ~\
scales. (Folsom, after
pollen bag on the opposite side of the body by means of
the pollen combs on the inner surface of the hind legs.
Arrived at the nest, the hind legs are thrust into the cell
and the pollen load is pried out by the pollen spur. This
spur is also used in cleaning the wings, and is possessed
by the queen and the drones also; but the other pollen
adaptations are possessed by the workers only.
In the making of wax the workers eat a large amount
of honey, then hang themselves together from the ceiling
of the hive in a curtain, each bee clinging to the bee above
it and the bees uppermost to the hive roof. These
wax-workers seem to hang quietly, but they are really
working very hard. They must in some manner bring
164 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
about the production of wax by some internal process,
alimentary in its nature. At the end of about a day, as
the result of this process, there appear shining scales of
wax from between the segments of the abdomen. The
comb-workers may run about this living curtain, scraping
off the wax scales as they appear, to be put where they are
needed in the building of the comb, or the wax-maker
may scrape off the scales herself. It is not certainly
known just how this is done.
The bees whose business it is to furnish honey for the
hatching larvae drink nectar. By increase of body tem-
perature, probably, some of the water present in the
nectar is driven off, and, at the same time, the volatile
odors or oils peculiar to the different flowers from which
the nectar was gathered, are driven off in large measure
also. This honey is then regurgitated from the honey
stomach of the honey-maker into certain comb cells where
it is drawn upon by the nurse- workers ; or if a honey-maker,
on entering the hive, meets a nurse- worker it may there
give up its nectar store to the hungry nurse. At times
the foraging bees bring in water, which they probably get
from flowers while the dew is on them, though bees also
drink from bodies of water. This water constitutes part
of the diet of the young worker bee.
Another substance is also brought into the hive, the
resinous products of some plants; it is called propolis,
and is used in the repairing of cells or the stopping of
cracks in the comb, and especially in making the comb
joints perfect and the hive warm for the winter.
Ants.
The ants have no solitary species, all of the more than
two thousand species living in communities. The head of
HYMENOPTERA. 165
the community seems not to be in any sense a director or
an organizer, but rather a mother of the community.
An ant community always includes winged males which
die soon after their issuing from the nest to take part in
the mating flight; also winged females or mothers which
pull off their wings immediately after this flight, and wing-
less workers or infertile females. These workers may be of
two sizes, though this is not always true. There are usu-
ally the soldier workers with unusually large heads
and jaws.
Taking the common carpenter ant as a type: the
ant mother begins the colony alone, feeding the first
larvae herself with food which she brings into the nest
before she lays her eggs. This is according to Comstock's
observations. After the first brood comes to maturity
the nrembers act as foragers and nurses for the succeeding
broods, and the ant mother has nothing to do from that
time forward except to lay eggs for the community
increase. The nests 'are built usually beneath the ground
surface, some being built under stones; or you may have
seen ants excavating between the stones of the sidewalk,
popping into sight with a crumb of soil, dropping it to roll
down the side of the tiny mound, and scurrying back for
more, always more, as the underground galleries multiply.
The eggs are laid by the ant mother in masses instead
of singly as in the bee kind; and the larvae are white,
soft, footless grubs, very tiny at first, but growing to
considerable size. They are fed regurgitated food or
fresh insects well chewed, or weeds chewed up, or some
other vegetable food previously brought into the nest
and stored in the granaries. Of some species the larvae
must be fed for a month. The pupae look light-colored
and soft, but are not fed, though they are taken as much
l66 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
care of as are infants among the human kind. The
nurses must move eggs, larvae, and pupae about in the
nest from room to room, up or down, as the need may be
for keeping the developing insects at the temperature
best for their development.
The various ant industries may include honey-
gathering from plant lice or from fresh galls on oak trees.
This honey supplied by the tree is a sweetish liquid
exuded from the plant where some insect has stung it in
the act of laying its egg; and the wounded plant is in
some way influenced to secrete about the greedy larva
this sweetish fluid which is watched for by the ant,
licked up and brought into the nest to feed the young ants
during their immature stages. Among the Camponotidae
an additional class of workers must act as honey jugs, in
which the honey brought in by the foraging ants is stored,
to be served out at some future time on the requisition
of some nurse-worker. Others have laid upon them
the task of foraging for the animal or vegetable food
also used in feeding the larvae, and eaten as well by the
indoor workers, the males, and the ant mothers. Have
you not often seen two or three ants tugging away at
some beetle or worm a good deal larger than all of them
put together, pushing and pulling all the time, seeming
to have just one idea in their stubborn heads, that that
worm must be got home at any cost? The vegetable
food gathered consists largely of plant seeds which are
stored in the granaries, extra large chambers or galleries.
The cleaning of the nest often results in some of these
seeds being brought out, and it not infrequently happens
that some of them grow where they are dropped. This
may account for the ant fields and the ant husbandry so
often spoken of.
HYMENOPTERA. 167
The animal food usually is some freshly-killed insect,
possibly killed by the foragers themselves. In one
instance the writer found four of the red-brown pave-
ment ants attempting to carry off one of the common
ground beetles that had evidently been stepped upon by
some passer-by. One of its legs stuck out sidewise in such
a position that it kept catching on everything, and finally
the four ant-draymen were brought up standing, with the
troublesome leg caught under a grass leaf lying on the
walk. Curiously enough, the four excited ants did not
resent or even seem to notice when their human friend
stooped down and poked the beetle around so as to free its
body ; but off the four started with their load, as triumph-
antly as if they had done the thing themselves.
An ant nest, such as may be found in dooryards or
fields, may extend down two or three feet below the
ground surface, and contains scores of galleries with
narrower passages connecting, more intricate than the
famous catacombs, and taxing the ingenuity of even an
ant to find the way to the surface. There is but ' one
opening to the nest. At first there is but one ant mother,
and the nest is small; but as the broods multiply the
nest may become enormously enlarged. In an old ant
community there are usually many ant mothers. The
males and the females of a young ant community, or of
any branch community, come out of the pupae cases
winged; and their first feat is the accomplishment of the
nuptial flight or the marriage of the ants. Flying ants
are not especially agile, and are frequently eaten in large
numbers by insectivorous birds; but such females as
survive, pull off their own wings and scurry underground,
usually returning to the nest from which they took their
flight, though they may seek a new location. The males
l68 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
usually fall to the ground, where they may fall a prey
to any watchful sparrow.
The ant colony is practically perpetual, owing to the
facts that branch colonies are added indefinitely to the
parent colony, and that the ant mothers are unusually
long-lived. Sir John Lubbock, in his interesting book
of observations on ants, bees, and wasps, records the
fact that he kept two ant mothers six years, and some of
the workers in his artificial ant nests lived more than
seven years.
Wasps.
Comstock divides the wasps into the Sphecina and
the Vespina. The Sphecina are those wasps that have
the habit of burrowing into the ground or into wood to
make provision for their young, though there are some
peculiarities of nest-choosing even within the class of
the Sphecina. All of them are solitary; that is, each
female makes provision for her own young. The male
does not live long beyond the time of mating, the third
example among the hymenopters of the subordination of
the male in the economy of the species.
The true digger wasps, those typical of the class,
make burrows in the ground, provisioning them, and
laying one egg in each burrow. The spider wasps, so-
called because they provision their burrows with spiders,
as a rule burrow into the ground after the manner of
the family to which they belong ; but others of them make
a nest of mud which they attach to the under side of some
stone, while others still live as guests in the nests of other
digger wasps.
The thread-waisted wasps, known as mud-daubers,
fasten their clay nests up in the corners of our verandas
HYMENOPTERA. 169
or close up under the eaves, or, failing an entrance to such
a favored locality, they will glue them to the under side
FIG. 68. Nest of a mud-dauber. (Natural size. Kellogg.}
of stones. If you watch a mud-dauber at work you will
notice the curious habit it has of jerking its wings
frequently.
One family of the digger wasps deserves special
FIG. 69. The cicada killer, Sphecius speciosus.
mention; it is the family of the Bembecidae. These
wasps are to be expected to make more noise than a wasp
170 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
ordinarily does their name is given because of this
peculiarity. (Fig. 69.) In this family we find the cicada
killer, a wasp over an inch long, rusty black in color
(though sometimes brighter black than rusty) ; the ab-
domen has three yellow bands, interrupted in the middle
line along the back. This big wasp burrows into the
pith of plants for a nest, and provisions her burrow with
FIG. 70. The tarantula killer. Pepsis formosa. (Natural size. Kellogg.}
a single cicada, upon which she lays her egg. Here also
is the giant of the whole wasp tribe, the tarantula killer.
This insect is mentioned by Kellogg as common in Cali-
fornia and the Southwest, and it is also found in the
Middle West. (Fig. 70.) It measures about two and
one-half inches in length and has a spread of wings of
about three and one-half inches. The body is shining
blue-black, and the tawny wings are bordered with black.
These two powerful wasps have in the greatest per-
HYMENOPTERA. 1 7 1
fection the wonderful instinct of knowing just where to
sting their victim to render it helpless. Of course a
cicada is foolish enough to announce its whereabouts by
its shrill singing, so that the cicada killer has little trouble
in locating its prey; but the cicada is as powerful as
its enemy, and a good deal more bulky. The tarantula
must be "stalked" more cautiously because it makes no
noise. For the cicada, one stab is enough; but for the
tarantula, owing perhaps to the almost equal wariness
of the two contestants, a battle is necessary to decide
which one shall come off victor. In either case, it remains
that the two big wasps, without being taught, know just
where to insert their sting, and both usually are victorious.
Others of the digger wasps also burrow into the pith
of plants and provision the burrows with freshly-killed
insects. The kind of insect selected is usually so constant
that insect collectors come to know their wasp by the
kind of insect found in the burrow.
As to the reproduction of the Sphecina, we may
take a typical example. When the egg-laying time
arrives, the female selects the place for her burrow, though
in one species the insect provision is secured first and
laid to one side while the mother wasp digs the burrow;
but usually the burrow is first looked after. Then the
prey is secured, and this the wasp usually paralyzes by
stinging in one of the thoracic ganglia, each one of the
bugs or spiders, or caterpillars used. With some of the
species the prey is killed; but in either case it is placed
in the burrow, the egg is laid upon it, and the burrow is
closed. The mother wasp then goes away to make new
burrows, stock them, and lay more eggs. Others of the
class take a little different method, amounting to more
care in looking after the young. With these wasps the
172 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
mother goes back to feed the growing larva, taking with
her freshly-killed insects each time till the larva is ready
to pupate, then she goes away permanently.
Some of the solitary wasps burrow into the ground
until they find a fat grub, and in this they lay their egg,
whose larva will find fresh meat ready without any further
provision on the part of the mother. The egg hatches
in from one to three days, depending upon the species.
The old larva spins a cocoon about itself and enters
upon the pupal stage. In two or three weeks, if the egg
is laid in the early part of the season, or the following
spring if the egg is a late egg, there comes out a full-
grown wasp.
Some solitary wasps conceal their burrows carefully
with twigs, pebbles, or straws, returning to it with ease.
From this it seems that we must accredit the wasp with a
fairly good memory and eyesight, even though it be
memory that develops each time out of the successive
recurrence of the same stimuli, which is conceded to be
the lowest form of what we call memory. The fact that
the wasp mother flies each time to her burrow without
apparent hesitation would argue that she knows the
way much as you and I would know our way. Another
fact that should be mentioned is the preference of wasps
for sunshine. In this connection it will be profitable to
note that the sense of sight, while it reaches a high degree
of development among the Hymenoptera, nevertheless
has degrees of excellence within the order. Bees see
much better than do wasps, and it is probable that ants
make the sense of smell do much for them that sight
would otherwise do. Wasps will work the center of a
blossoming field, rather avoiding the shaded edges.
The social wasps can be distinguished from the true
HYMENOPTERA. 173
solitary wasp by the fact that they fold their wings along
the back when they alight, plait them, that is, while the
wings of the solitary wasp are left flat when at rest. It
probably would be more nearly right to say that a wasp
which plaits its wings is one of the Vespina, since, because
of other features, it is necessary to include among the
wasps that fold their wings along their backs some wasps
that have the solitary habit clinging to them. The life
of the social wasps does not present so close a community
organization as does that of the bees and the ants. The
wasp colony, consisting of all the individuals hatching
from the eggs of one queen, persists during the spring,
summer, and autumn, but generally the only members
of the colony to hold over through the winter are the
fertilized females. The males usually die early. The
females hibernate in some sheltered place, ready to crawl
out with the coming of spring and begin the formation of
a new colony. Not only is this true, but the workers
are not, apparently, so well apportioned off into classes;
one worker seems to do several kinds of work. The
workers are smaller than the drones, and the wasp
mother is distinguished from the workers by her greater
size. (Fig. 71.)
In the spring the mother wasps that have wintered
over make, one each, a nest containing a small number
of brood cells and lay one egg in each cell. Usually the
wasp provisions each cell with insects that she has killed
and partly chewed. The larvae of this first brood are fed
daily by the wasp mother, the food being of the same kind
each time; the larvae soon pupate in the cells. This
generation is a generation of workers; the brood which
consists of males and queens does not appear till later in
the season. The young workers begin at once to enlarge
174
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
the nest, making new brood cells and adding to the sup-
ports of the increasing nest. In each of these cells the
mother wasp lays an egg. Several broods of workers
are thus reared with the help of the young wasps which
act as nurses to the hatching larvae; and then comes a
FIG. 71. Nest of a paper- wasp, Polistes, a; b, young larva; c, older larva;
d, pupa; e, adult. (All one and one- half times natural size, except nest, which
is much reduced. Kellogg.}
brood of workers, males, and queens. The males live
long enough to fertilize the females and then die, leaving
the females to continue the species.
The nests of the Vespina are placed in various situa-
tions, underground, under the eaves, on a tree branch, or
in some sheltered house corner. The potter wasps the
Eumenidse make nests of clay or mud and fasten them
to the branch of a tree. This is the family representing
the connecting link between the Sphecina and the Vespina,
HYMENOPTERA. 175
resembling the Sphecina closely in habits, but differing
from them greatly in structure ; and it is on this structural
basis that they are classed with the Vespina, although
they are solitary wasps.
Others of the Eumenidse build a series of cells in
the pith of some plant, burrow into the ground, or use
burrows dug by some other wasp or by some different
kind of insect. Most of them store their burrows with
caterpillars; one species uses the saw-fly entirely as food
for its young. Outside the Eumenidae, the majority of
the Vespina build their nests of paper. This paper they
make out of old bark or wood chewed to a pulp and mixed
with the saliva of the wasp -workers. Occasionally shreds
of leaves cast up by the water's edge are utilized, and this
material seems to make a paper even stronger than the
usual material.
CHAPTER XII.
FIELD WORK ON THE DIPTERA.
This is such an immense order that there will be
attempted the study of only a few of the familiar dipters.
These are the days of crusades against mosquitoes,
nevertheless there may still be found breeding-places
where may be seen the familiar wrigglers or mosquito
larvae. If you find such a breeding-place, bring in a cup-
ful of the water with the wrigglers in it. Divide it into
two parts and carefully pour on to the water surface in
one of the two tumblers enough kerosene to cover the
water surface with a thin film of oil. When you think
you have enough oil, watch the wrigglers to see what is
happening and to convince yourself of the effectiveness of
this treatment. What is the cause of the death of the
larvae? Do the dead larvas sink or float? What is the
reason for their position? Could their death be called
drowning ?
With the reading glass examine the immature mos-
quitoes in the other glass. Are all the immature mosqui-
toes alike? Can you find any pupae ? What are the pupae
doing ? Can you discover what the larvae are eating ? Do
the larvae, when they come to the surface to breathe, rest
parallel with the surface of the water or at a decided
angle ? If you find parallel mosquitoes are they malarial
mosquitoes or not? If they hang at an angle, what
diseases may it be possible that they are carrying? Both
these forms of mosquitoes may at some future time be
FIELD WORK ON THE DIPTERA.
177
prepared to do just these things in your community, and
you may be one of the victims ; hence the only safe thing
is to kill every one of them after finishing up the investi-
gation work. It will be best to put a piece of mosquito
bar over the cup to catch any adults that may emerge
while you are not watching. Can you find any such
adults?
FIG. 72. A blow fly or flesh fly. (Kellogg, after Lugger; natural size indicated
by line.)
After you have had the family under observation
for several days, use the reading glass often to keep track
of what is going on. If in your neighborhood there are
some suspected breeding-places for mosquitoes, visit
them and take along your bottle of oil.
Learn for yourself that house flies and stable flies
breed in filth, by finding their larvae or maggots in manure
or refuse piles. If you will keep your eyes open, you may
178 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
be able to discover that carrion flies flesh flies breed
in decaying carcasses and also in some other places coming
closer to the life and health of the human family. (Fig.
72.) Notice what happens in hot weather when meat
from the dining table is not disposed of in a cleanly way
after the meal.
It will be easy to catch some half dozen flies in a room,
school-room or other room. Try to discover with the
hand lens whether the six flies are all of the same sort,
that is if they look alike. Bear in mind that, when a
fly emerges from its pupal case, it comes out adult in size
as well as in powers. Do you find any stable flies among
the half dozen captured?
An expedition should be made to the open fields;
and for this the dip net will be better than the butterfly
net. You are going after flower flies, and you will find
them hidden in flower clusters. Bring your dip net
over a flower cluster, give the flower stem two or three
decided taps, and you may be rewarded by the upward
flying of several glistening green or otherwise brilliantly-
colored flies. If you have with the other hand kept the
net open, the flies will fly upward into the top, and you
can fold the net over upon itself once and keep them
prisoners long enough to have a good look at them with
your hand lens. These are the syrphids or flower flies;
though it is quite possible that you will also find -in your
net some of your beetle friends which also frequent
flowers. The syrphids are the flies that have been
occasionally known to eat solid food, a few pollen grains;
but all other dipters, so far as known at present, partake
only of liquid food, excepting the rasping off of sugar
crumbs, but these are soon dissolved in the mouth fluids
and are also swallowed as is the usual liquid food.
FIELD WORK ON THE DIPTERA. 179
These syrphids are beneficial both as larvae and as
adults, many of them being predaceous in the larval
stage; hence they must be set free after you have looked
at them long enough to be able to recognize them, if you
were to see them again. These flower flies have some
representatives that like the shady woods a thing
rather unusual for flies, as flies notably like sunshine and
warmth; so an expedition with the insect net and the
hand lens may find some of the other syrphids, the object
being to discover what these beneficial flies look like and
where they are to be found, all with the view to letting
them alone after you have the knowledge sought.
The harmful flies are often given names which tell
what they do, as well as often giving a clue as to where
to find them ; as house flies, stable flies, bot flies, horse flies.
On the window pane of some open room in the course
of an hour, several sorts may be captured; and after
determining with the aid of the instructor whether there
are any valuable flies among them, they may be put into
the killing bottle, and should be set up as soon as they are
dead. The pins should be slender and are to be thrust
through the thorax, the fly being set well up toward the
head of the pin. When a harmful fly is captured in the
field, it is advisable to. have the killing bottle along,
in order that the delicate insect may not be put into the
collecting box along with other larger and more powerful
insects; after the fly is overcome by the fumes of the
killing agent, it should be pinned immediately. If it is
allowed to shake around in the collecting box with all the
other finds, it will be unrecognizable when it is most
wanted. Few life histories of dipters are known, and
knowledge of this sort is needed ; here is a field for investi-
gation. When one goes for the study of flies in this way,
l8o FIELD ZOOLOGY.
he should take with him forceps for picking the larvae
out of their larval quarters, and a small sieve for sifting
them free from the refuse in which they may be found.
They can be collected in a small bottle of alcohol, both
larvas and pupas.
DIPTERA.
CHARACTERISTICS.
1. Two membranous wings (when wings are present),
usually transparent, and borne by the mesothorax.
2. Hind wings either reduced to mere knobs, halteres,
or halteres accompanied by minute wing-like
organs called alulets.
3. Two compound eyes, either contiguous or separated
by the frontal lunule.
4. Antennae inserted near the top of the head line or
midway down the face.
6. A curious, fleshy proboscis with tongue-like flaps,
or a complex modification of the mandibles and the
maxillae, making needle-like, piercing stylets.
181
DIPTERA.
This is the order of the true flies, and the members
of the order are characterized by the fact that they have
but one pair of wings, though there are some exceptions
to this; there are some flies that do not have any wings,
and, of course, such flies do not fly they are parasites
and live on some other animal as a host. After the term
"bug," there is no more misused term than the name
"fly." Anything that looks at all like a house fly is
without hesitation called a fly; and nine times out of ten
your friend will understand perfectly when such a "fly"
is indicated, and will see the fly which may not be a fly
at all.
The order includes some insects that pierce the epi-
dermis of other animals, not biting as do the beetles, but
piercing, much as the bugs do; while in the other and
much larger class of flies, the members of the different
families must content themselves with lapping up liquid
food, or rasping off small particles from some solid sub-
stance, these to be dissolved in the mouth fluids later and
swallowed in the usual way.
Among other orders, there are numerous instances of
the borrowed use of the term "fly" May fly, dragon fly,
gallfly, saw-fly, and butterfly hence we see that there
is not much in a name anyway. When we speak correctly
of flies, we mean the dipterous flies with their two wings,
then we use the term correctly and with accurate
knowledge.
The hind wings of the flies are replaced by two queer
183
184
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
little humps or knobs, called halteres, rudiments of the
wings which, in the fly ancestor under far different cir-
cumstances, probably were present but are not now needed
and are only suggested by these tiny vestiges which
probably play the part of balancers in flight. The
tendency toward non-differentiated forms as we go
downward in the scale explains why the wings in the
FIG. 73. Mouth parts of a horse fly. md, mandible; mx, maxilla; mxl, max-
illary lobe; mxp, maxillary palpus; hyp, hypopharynx; Ib, labrum; ep, epi-
pharynx; li t labium; la, labellum. (Kellogg.')
lower insects are increasingly equal in size and similar
in venation, while in the higher insects there is the
apparent tendency to let one pair of wings get the ascen-
dancy over the other pair. So here, in the Diptera, we
have the hind pair of wings giving way altogether to the
front pair, and we have a two-winged animal which gives
evidence in other ways of being high in the animal scale.
The order includes house flies, carrion flies, flower
flies, horse flies, bluebottles, bee flies, pomace flies, hessian
flies, bot flies, robber flies, midges, gnats, dance flies,
punkies, and the mosquito tribe. (Fig. 74.)
The mouth parts are not fitted for biting, but the
mandibles, when present, together with the maxillae, are
DIPTERA.
185
elongated into slender, sharp-pointed stylets; but the
majority of flies, as has been said, have the mouth parts
adapted for lapping up liquid food much as a kitten laps
up milk. This lapping mechanism is a modification of the
under lip, a curious jointed organ which you may see a
house fly use if you will put a lump of sugar down on some
FIG. 74. Various forms of antennae of flies. (Williston.}
convenient surface and put your reading glass in position
to use it at a second's notice. The members of the order
having such mouth parts feed on the nectar of flowers,
on the juices of decaying animal or vegetable matter, on
some sweetish exposed liquid, or occasionally on some
solid, as a lump of sugar. In the last case the solid must
be rasped off, if one may so describe the act of licking the
solid sugar, and then conveyed to the mouth where it is
swallowed after solution.
i86
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
The compound eyes of all the non-parasitic dipters
are many-faceted and large and placed well forward;
and their convexity is such as to cause them to project
considerably from the head, giving the flies keen and
comparatively accurate sight. It is very difficult to
catch a fly napping. In addition, some of the flies have
eyes with facets of two sizes; these are flies spending the
larval and pupal stages in the water, and are called
midges.
FIG. 75. Ocelli and compound eyes of a fly, Phormia regina. A, male; B,
female. (Folsom.)
The dipters reproduce by complete metamorphosis.
The typical larva hatched from the egg is a white grub,
or maggot, as it is popularly called. The eggs are laid
in some mass of decaying matter, some filth, either animal
of vegetable ; hence the maggot has no need for the effect-
ive biting, piercing, or sucking mouth-parts with which
other larvae are provided. It is simply a helpless, footless,
sometimes headless animal, obtaining its food osmotically
through the skin. The larval moultings are usually rapid,
and the pupal stage is soon reached. In this stage, in
some species of dipters, the pupa looks not unlike a brown
seed ; it might well be mistaken for one if it were the pupa
of a house fly. When the pupa case is discarded, there
DIPTERA.
I8 7
emerges a full-grown fly, complete as to its size and
powers. Such flies are oviparous as to their manner of
bringing forth their young. (Fig. 76.) This is the meta-
morphosis of the majority of the order; but there are flies
that bring forth their young in a much more advanced
stage; these are called pupiparous flies, as the young in
n
FIG. 76. Metamorphosis of an oviparous fly, Phormia regina.
B, puparium; C, imago. X 5. (Folsom.)
A, larva;
its first stage of life looks like a pupa. And there are still
others whose young, when brought forth, are alive and in
a stage like the usual larval stage. These flies are called
viviparous, or larviparous.
According to Kellogg, the order may be divided
into two grand divisions, (i) those living as parasites on
mammals or birds or honey-bees, with the body flattened,
1 88 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
and often wingless; the young of these flies are born alive;
(2) those not living as parasites, body of the usual fly
form, and the young usually produced as eggs.
The first division includes the bird ticks, the horse
ticks and the sheep ticks, flat- bodied insects with skin
more or less leathery, and with a single pair of wings;
these ticks, of course, have six legs. The animals more
rightly named ticks do not belong to the Insecta, but to
another entirely different division of the Arthropoda,
along with the mites.
The second division comprises the true dipters; that
is, the typical insects -of the order, and this division has
much more numerous representatives than the first
division. Among the harmful dipters, we have
Mosquitoes House flies
Horse flies Stable flies
Gallgnats Horn flies
Bot flies Cabbage-maggot flies
Beet flies Hessian flies
Screw-worm flies Cheese skippers
Fruit flies Onion flies
And among the beneficial dipters may be mentioned :
Tacliina flies Syrphid flies
Long-legged flies Bee flies
Midas flies Wasp flies
Dance flies Soldier flies
Of the harmful flies mentioned, those which .are a
menace to the health of human beings are the mosquitoes,
the house flies, the stable flies, and the screw- worm flies.
(Fig. 77.) The so-called house fly that gives you a sharp
twinge as it pierces your skin with its stylets is not a
DIPTERA.
I8 9
house fly, but probably a stable fly, which looks a good
deal like a house fly and frequently comes into the house
and bites you, possibly because you taste better than its
usual food. The stable fly has stylets for piercing epi-
dermis, while the house fly can only lap its food. (Fig.
78.) The harmfulness of the house fly comes from
another habit; it gets its supply of food from exposed
decaying substances, and it is not at all particular as to
FIG. 77. FIG. 78.
FIG. 77. A stable fly. (Three times natural size. Kellogg.)
FIG. 78. Mouth parts of a house fly. (Kellogg )
what that substance is, generally the contents of slop
pails, spittoons, or filth found elsewhere in places where
filth is left exposed. The disease germs found in sputa
of tuberculous persons, or the agents of putrefaction
found wherever decaying matter is left lying in the air,
are taken up on the hairy feet of these flies as they crawl
about these places in search of food or to lay their eggs;
and if their next visit is to your dining-room table where
food is sitting, or to some abrasion in your skin, woe to
you as to the possible results. (Fig. 79.) House flies
undoubtedly spread infectious diseases by carrying the
germs of those diseases in the filth which adheres to
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
their feet. There should be as determined a crusade
against the house fly as there is now being carried on
against the mosquitoes. House flies are responsible for
the spread of Asiatic cholera, typhoid fever, tuberculosis,
and it may be proved that they have much to do with
the carrying of diphtheria. (Fig. 80.)
The eggs of the house fly are laid in manure piles
usually, or in some other decaying matter of even a more
FIG. 79. Foot of a house fly.
(Kellogg.}
FIG. 80. A house fly.
(Kellogg.)
repulsive nature. Each female lays about one hundred
eggs. These eggs hatch in about six or seven hours,
and the larvae lie in the midst of abundant food supply
for the five or six days of their larval existence; while in
this stage they are minute whitish grubs, pointed at one
end. The pupal stage lasts five days after this, and
during this stage the fly looks very much like a brown
seed. After the expiration of these five days the adult
house fly emerges to go about houses to carry on the
scavenger work and filth-carrying of its parents. Of
course it is the juices of the compost heap that render it
an attractive place for the fly to lay its eggs; and if that
compost were spread upon the land to enrich it (as it
DIPTERA. 191
should be to be most effective), the first step in the
extermination of the house fly would have been taken.
Then the second step would be the removal of all filth,
including sputa in spittoons and on sidewalks and floors,
and decaying garbage of all kinds; thus making the flies
much less dangerous as disease carriers. Much of the
danger which threatens us by way of the house fly is the
result of our own carelessness and disregard of the laws
of health. The stable fly, as has been said, often comes
into our dwellings ; and it may bite us after it has bitten
some other animal infected with some disease, or after
having crawled over some filth full of disease germs.
One of the notorious crop pests of the order is the
hessian fly. The first heard of it was in 1778; hence
it is an ancient enemy of American wheat fields, and if it
were not for its natural enemies, wheat growing would
soon become a thing of the past in the United States.
As it is, conditions are bad enough, and natural as well
as artificial means should be encouraged for the stamping
out of this pest.
The fly is a little more than one-eighth of an inch
long, with a pinkish or brownish abdomen, the remaining
body regions being mainly black. The female lays her
eggs in the lengthwise furrows of wheat leaves on the upper
side. The hatching larvae travel downward and work
themselves inside of the sheath of the leaves and begin
the absorption of the wheat sap. After a few weeks of
this kind of feeding, the insects pass into the pupa stage
familiarly known as the " flax-seed stage," because of the
close resemblance of the pupa to the seeds of this plant.
The adults, which soon come up out of the pupa cases, live
only a few days, and during this short time the egg-laying
is done for the second brood, which usually appear in
IQ2 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
August, and repeat the life cycle as far as the flax-seed
stage, in which condition they pass the winter. Wheat
stubble, therefore, ought to be ploughed under, or the
standing stubble burnt off. Late sowing of winter wheat
will be likely to deprive the second brood of a means of
wintering over.
This insect attacks barley and rye also; and some
observers record the fact that a third brood has been
known to appear when conditions were unusually favor-
able. Among its insect enemies are four hymenopterous
parasites, whose work is so well done that they are said to
destroy nine-tenths of the aggregate number of hessian
flies annually. If this is true, then even more than our
wheat crops depend on soil and cultivation, they depend
on these parasites, which we cannot see and would not
know if we did see them.
The screw- worm fly is not so well known in the middle
and northern parts of the United States, but in the south-
ern states, especially in Texas, it is very troublesome.
The adult fly lays its eggs on flesh, on manure, upon some
open wound, or even on the mucous surfaces of domestic
animals and the nasal passages of human beings. The
larvae, on hatching out in any one of the places mentioned,
eat such foods as may be supplied by each source. In the
case of the human being, they eat upward into the nasal
cavities of the upper part of the face, causing great
distress and frequently death.
Among the grass stem flies are the tiny Hippelates,
the smallest of all flies. They are to be seen in summer
weather about the eyes of cattle, dogs, and others of our
domestic animals. In a recent epidemic of the "pink-
eye" down in Florida, the germs of the disease were proved
to have been carried by the flies of this genus.
DIPTERA. 193
The pomace or fruit flies, or vinegar flies, as they are
so often called, feed on decaying fruit or other vegetation
which is over-ripe or decaying. A basket of pears may be
attractive to these flies, not only as furnishing a meal,
but also as a good place to lay their eggs. Their larvae
are often seen in poorly-sealed cans of fruit, in pickle
jars that have been left open, or in brine barrels. Later
their pupae may be seen around the sides of the containing
vessel just above the liquid. They often do damage to
grapes on the vines.
About one-half of the dipterous families live in the
water until ready to become adults, feeding upon vege-
table matter probably and are supposed to do some good
as scavengers. Of the remaining families, some pass the
immature stages in the water, some on the land, while
the remainder do not depend upon water at all for their
development.
The most notorious of all the aquatic families is the
mosquito family. Like all other dipters, the mosquitoes,
some of them, have mouth parts adapted for lapping,
while others have the piercing and sucking beak. Only
the latter sort are important from the human point of
view; and of the piercing and sucking sort only three
genera, so far as present knowledge goes, are of importance
to the human family, because of the relation they have
been found to sustain to the spread of certain diseases.
These three genera are Culex, Stegomyia, and Anopheles.
To Culex belong the mosquitoes that keep up their shrill
buz-z-z-z around our heads, stopping only to "take a
bite." The mosquitoes of the genus Culex are the car-
riers of the disease known as filariasis. Some species
of Culex, and the mosquitoes belonging to the genus
Stegomyia, spread the yellow fever. The Anopheles
13
194
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
mosquitoes are responsible for the dissemination of
malaria.
All mosquitoes have aquatic immature stages. The
eggs are usually laid in rafts, or flat packs, or in some
species, singly, on the surface of ponds or pools or slowly-
mx
m.
I li h
D
FIG. 8 1. Mouth parts of female mosquito, Culex pipiens. A, dorsal aspect;
B, transverse section; C, extremity of maxilla; D, extremity of labrum-epipharynx;
a, antenna; e, compound eye; h, hypo pharynx; /, labrum-epipharynx; H, labium;
m, mandible; mx, maxilla; p, maxillary palpus. (Folsom, after Dimmock.}
moving water, and hatch in from one to four days. The
larvse are .the familiar wrigglers of the rain barrel or the
neglected pool. The head is provided with two bunches
of vibratile hairs and these, lashing about, keep a current
of water constantly moving toward the greedy mouth,
DIPTERA.
insuring plenty of food. The superficial opening of the
respiratory system for the wriggler is in the posterior end
of the body, the exterior ending of this tracheal system
being the two-forked arrangement which you have seen
so many times. The opening is closed by tiny flaps
which fit tightly together while the larva is under water.
196 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
When the air in the tracheal system is exhausted, the
wriggler backs up to the surface of the water, holds on by
the tension of the water molecules, opens up these tiny
flaps, and breathes its tracheal system full of air again.
The larval stage lasts from one to four weeks or even
longer, according to government investigations, depending
upon the species, the season, and the varying conditions
of food supply, temperature, water, and light. After
the third moulting of the larvae they appear as pupas,
each having a thick head end, which includes the slenderer,
curving abdomen. Now the respiratory tube ends
exteriorly by two tubes which arise from the upper side
of the thorax. The pupal stage lasts from one to five
days for the different species.
If you have been watching some standing water
with some of these mosquito wrigglers in it, in the course
of time, many of these curved pupae may be observed.
They hang at the surface of the water and do not go below
unless the water is disturbed, or they are frightened by
some other means. Then they move downward with a
curious jerking motion made by repeatedly flapping the
slender abdomen against the big head end of the body.
These pupae are an exception to the usual pupal con-
dition; they are non-feeding, as pupaa usually are, but
they are very active. Most pupae carry on their marvelous
changes on the way to adulthood in some case or cocoon,
hidden from our eyes and to all appearance motionless.
But the mosquito "tumbler" lives -alongside his younger
brothers and sisters, in the same medium, breathing as
they do, and gradually developing wings and long legs,
antennae and new mouth-parts, all the while being jostled
about by numberless other creatures in their tiny ocean.
Soon after the first one of these "tumblers" appears,
DIPTERA. 197
a little patient watching will reveal some of them turning
into adults. The cast-off pupal skin may float on the
water surface while the soft-bodied mosquito is sunning
itself on some grass stem or bit of a leaf; or the young
mosquito may sail on the tiny raft of its old pupal skin,
FIG. 83. Anopheles punctipennu. Female, with male antenna at right and
wing tip showing venation at left enlarged. (Howard.)
while the wings are drying, its body wall hardening, and
while it is taking the first draughts of air without water.
Mosquitoes have wings sparsely covered with scales,
and in the genus Anopheles these scales are so arranged
as to give an alternately light and dark appearance to the
wings. (Fig. 83.) In Culex the wings are clear. Again
198 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
the malaria mosquito lays its eggs singly, while Culex lays
them in packs or rafts. In the pool which contains many
of the wrigglers and tumblers, there may be seen some
wrigglers which are coming up to breathe ; some of them
will be seen to hang at an angle of about forty-five
degrees, while others will rest nearly parallel with the
water surface above them. The latter are the Anopheles
or malaria mosquitoes, and the forty- five degree wrigglers
are the Culex.
While it is true that there may be mosquitoes present
where there is no malaria microbe, and vice versa, the only
safe course to pursue is to kill off the mosquitoes already
hatched, and to destroy any possible breeding-places.
It has been proved that the malarial parasite can complete
its life round in some species of birds, but an Anopheles
mosquito, biting first such a bird, and second a human
being, might thus transmit the disease from the bird to
the human being. The malarial parasite enters the
digestive canal of the mosquito through its biting some
infected person, breeds in the intestines, passing finally
by the blood tract to the head and neck region, where
it collects in the salivary glands. When such a mosquito
bites another person the saliva from these glands injected
into the wound made by the stylets, carries with it
numbers of the parasites, which are at that time ready
to enter upon the next stage of their life history in the
body of the human host.
Except in a very few cases, the male mosquito has
long feathery antennae, the feathery appearance being due
to the auditory hairs which cover the antennal joints
thickly. The female mosquito has antennae with fewer
and shorter hairs. The male mosquito, where he eats
at all, eats vegetable food; most of them live a much
DIPTERA.
199
shorter life than do the f erhales ; some have little-developed
mouth parts and presumably eat nothing at all.
As to the hibernation of mosquitoes, some species
pass the winter in the adult stage, other species in the
egg stage, and still others as larvae ; none is actually known
to winter over in the pupal stage. Observations show
that mosquito larvae are strongly resistant to cold, some
FIG. 84. Antennae of mosquito, Culex pipiens: A, male, B, female. (Folsom.)
being able to freeze repeatedly and yet survive. The
larvae live mainly on decaying vegetable matter and
living algae; though some of them are carnivorous, eating
other animals in the pond, smaller than themselves.
Practically all mosquito breeding goes on in waters where
there are no fish; as the mosquito mother, probably
obeying the self-preservative tendency of its ancestors
to lay its eggs in situations as free from dangers as
possible, usually deposits its eggs in some pond or stagnant
pool. One species of Culex prefers to deposit its eggs in
200 FIELD ZOOLOGY
some hollow in the ground where the water stands only
occasionally, and where the eggs will hatch in install-
ments. Another species of mosquito deposits its eggs
singly; the eggs sink to the bottom of the pond, where
they remain till the following spring before they hatch.
Government experts tell us that the normal food of adult
mosquitoes is probably plant juices, and that the taste
for blood is probably an acquired habit. If that is true,
we certainly have reason to be thankful that the blood-
sucking habit is confined to the females of our dangerous
mosquitoes.
Small fish are by far the most important natural
enemies of mosquitoes. The carnivorous minnows, the
sticklebacks, the sunfish, are all efficient destroyers of the
larvae in permanent pools of water. The common gold
fish does good service in similar places. Aquatic insects,
such as the water scavengers, the diving beetles, dragon-
fly larvae, all are valuable allies of man in getting rid of
immense numbers of eggs, larvae, and pupae. Adult
mosquitoes are devoured by bats, night-hawks, swallows,
martins, and flycatchers, as well as by the adult dragon
flies. These last-named seem to have special preference
for a mosquito diet, for which we ought to be so thankful
that we would never kill a dragon fly needlessly. It is
said that the streets and houses of Honolulu would be
practically uninhabitable if it were not for the dragon
flies that hunt the mosquito swarms constantly (Kellogg) .
Mosquitoes in the adult stage are also attacked by
certain fungous diseases similar to those which attack
our house flies, and leave their bodies mere shells, filled
with the hyphal growth of the plant.
On the part of man in the attempt to destroy these
disease carriers, the first step is to drain every pool or
DIPTERA. 2O I
pond, and empty every rain barrel or other vessel which
might serve as a breeding-place. If draining is imprac-
ticable, covering the surface with a coating of oil will
kill the larvae and the pupae. They are air-breathing
animals, and the oil film makes it impossible to get air
to breathe; they drown as you and I would if we were
shut off from air. Good ventilation will usually disperse
large numbers of them, which have the habit of collecting
about dwellings, porches, area-ways, and other sheltered
places. Mosquitoes are not strong on the wing, and a
stiff breeze often sweeps them out. of their course. This
is especially true of Anopheles, the malaria disseminator.
Anopheles and the semi-domestic species, Culex pipiens,
have limited powers of flight and so must breed close to
their feeding-places, two hundred yards, in some cases
twenty-five feet will be found to be their limit. Adult
mosquitoes vary in their feeding
habits; some fly only at dusk, some
fly almost all night, hiding in dark
places or at the bases of rank-growing
grasses during the day ; and still other
species may be found abroad in the
daytime.
As to the good qualities of the
beneficial fly families, much more FIG. 85. A s yrp hid or
1,1 1 ^1 ,1 r flower fly. (Kellogg.']
might be said than there is space for
here. To them we are indebted for the destruction of large
numbers of wood-boring beetles (midas flies) ; of grass-
hoppers (bee flies and wasp flies) ; and the pollenation of
many plants (flower flies or Syrphids). (Fig. 85.) The
Tachina flies deserve special mention here. They are rather
heavy- bodied flies, with hairs generally more numerous
and longer than the hairs on the house fly's body; though
202 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
they resemble the house flies in the gray tints of the body
and in the buzzing sound with which they fly, though the
buzzing is not so pronounced in the case of the house fly.
This fly family, Howard, the government entomologist,
tells us, is the most beneficial of all the fly families, and the
benefit conferred by them enormous. The Tachina flies
make short work of a brood of army worms by laying
their eggs in the juicy bodies, and the Tachina larvae do
the rest. They also attack grasshoppers, saw flies and
saw fly larvae, bugs, beetles, and wasps by the same sure
parasitic means. Any big-bodied, dark-colored fly with
bristling, stiffish hairs, rather sparsely scattered over the
surface of its body, is fairly sure to be a Tachina fly, and
should be carefully let alone; and, if it by any chance
gets into the house, it should in due time be turned out of
doors where it may freely carry on its good work of getting
rid of harmful insects.
The Syrphids are the flies that rival the Tachinas in
point of usefulness to man. The larvae vary in their
feeding habits, but most of them are useful in this stage;
some of them feed upon plant lice, some upon decaying
plant and animal remains. In the adult stage they are
the flower pollenators. The drone fly that comes into
the house in the late summer is one of these Syrphids.
It much resembles a bee in appearance, hence its name.
Its maggot is the rat-tailed larva so often found in mud
or excrementitious matter. They are all conspicuous
flies, with some bright markings on the body, usually
yellow; and often metallic in color, or green with black
bandings.
Of these two fly families, all the members are bene-
ficial ; of some of the other flies mentioned in the beneficial
list there are some that would be rather on the "half-
DIPTERA. 203
way " list. Such a family is the family of the robber flies.
They are entirely predaceous, fiercely so; and as long as
they prey upon injurious insects, all well and good; but
when they pounce upon a bee, a tiger beetle, or a dragon
fly they are decidedly injurious. They also eat many
smaller flies, and the chances are that such flies are better
dead than alive. The robber flies are swiftly-flying
insects, pointed as to the abdomen; the legs are long and
strong and the claws are prominent and set nearly at a
right angle with the tarsi. The long-legged flies are
much slenderer flies, with long dangling legs which get
tangled up as their owners fly uncertainly short distances,
and sit down frequently, as if tired of managing such
difficult things. They eat smaller flies and gnats.
FIG. 86. Aggressive mimicry. On the left, a bee, Bombus mastrucatus; on the
right, a bee fly, Volucella, bombylans. (Natural size. Folsont.)
The wasp flies are exceedingly like wasps in body
form and coloring, but possess only two wings. They are
all flower pollenators, and in addition to this their larvae
are parasitic, thus conferring a second benefit.
The soldier flies have slender legs, often variously
shaped, some having the femora and the tibiae flattened
or spinose or scaly. Most of them look hump-backed
because of the thorax' being very convex on the upper
side, the neck, where it joins the head to the thorax,
2O4 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
also being very slender. The beak stands out straight
in front of the head, and their prey, smaller flies, they
impale upon it.
The bee flies have rather heavy bodies covered with
soft hairs, and look much like bees, even to the colors in
some species. (Fig. 86.) The adults are flower pollenators ;
and in eating the pollen assist in carrying it about on
their hairy bodies, thus accomplishing cross-pollenation
for many plants. Their larvae are parasitic upon the
eggs of several kinds of insects, especially locusts.
It may seem, from the fly families mentioned, that
the order suffers a reputation which it ill deserves; but
hardly so. The one family, Muscidae, the house fly family,
is the most numerous order, and includes pests enough to
put the work of the beneficial flies in strong contrast, if
not to outweigh it.
ODONATA.
CHARACTERISTICS.
Dragon flies.
1. Four gauzy, shining wings of about equal size.
2. Body strong, long, and tapering toward tip of
abdomen.
3. Compound eyes large and prominent.
4. Flight zigzag, swift, and long-continued.
Damsel flies.
i. Same as for dragon flies but on a much smaller
pattern.
205
CHAPTER XIII.
ODONATA.
This is the order of the dragon flies and the damsel
flies, the fiercest of all predaceous insects, preying upon
other weaker insects, and upon the weaker members of
their own kind in the larval stage ; and even in the adult
stage the weaker occasionally furnish a meal for the
stronger. The damsel flies are the narrow- winged dragon
flies, and are more nearly strictly aquatic, usually flying
only short distances above the pond or river and not
making long excursions away from the vicinity of their
water haunts. Dragon flies fly higher over the water
surface, or into fields and sunny places generally; a few
species have a liking for the neighborhood of dwellings.
All dragon flies have four strong wings, and the pairs
are nearly alike in size. The body is slender, smooth,
and cylindrical or tapering. Their flight is strong and
long-sustained, and the wings are built to stand this
strain. The subcostal vein of each front wing is placed
at the bottom of a groove, and the short cross- veins in that
groove are enlarged vertically so as to form effective
braces. About two-thirds of the way out to the tip of the
wing, there is a notch or node in the front margin of the
wing; and at or near this notch, there is usually a dark
spot called the pterostigma or wing mark. In some of
the species the wings are clear of other markings, but in
other species the wings are crossed by various bands or
spots of color. In the male of the Black Wing, the dark
207
208 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
color suffuses the whole wing. In the damsel flies these
colorations are often bright green, blue, or red. The
iridescent gleam from the wings of a living dragon fly is
probably due to the refraction of sunlight from the
minute blood drops mingled with air, as this fluid circu-
lates through the delicate double sac forming the wing, thus
refracting the light components of different length, giving
corresponding color impressions. These colors fade in
death and the wing seems uniformly colored or colorless.
The wing movement in flight is a figure eight per-
formed by the wings acting separately. These are the
insects which have the tracheal pockets reinforcing the
usual tracheary tubes of the respiratory system. They
do not fly so high as do some of the butterflies; nor do
they make migrations as do some of the lepidopters, but
their flight is much stronger, they can go much longer on
the wing, and they hunt their prey exclusively from on
the wing. The Odonata, both immature and adults,
have strong mandibles and maxillse for seizing their prey
and tearing its flesh in pieces.
The head is unusually large, more than two-thirds
of it being made up of the compound eyes. There are
more than thirty thousand facets in the compound eye
of a dragon fly; that means more than thirty thousand
parts in the mosaic of yourself when the dragon fly looks
at you. And with the Odonata as with the Lepidoptera,
the finer the mosaic, the better the image. Indeed you
will find it very difficult to catch a dragon fly off its guard.
You may be obliged to steal upon it from behind, and then
feel ashamed for killing an insect so intelligent and so
beneficial in every way. Dragon flies have a special
fondness for flies and mosquitoes, and they also devour
wasps. If you are ever sneaking enough to catch one late
ODONATA. 209
in the afternoon, on his way home, you will usually find
his mouth full of flies, so full that he has not yet had time
to stop to chew and swallow them. The prey is caught
by the six slender legs, and then held by the front legs
while the insect devours it.
It is a curious fact that, with the draining of the
ponds and streams for the extermination of the harmful
mosquitoes, has come a decrease in the number of dragon
flies. If these dragon flies ate only mosquitoes, this would
not be a serious matter ; but the large service which dragon
flies render in eating flies, gnats, and moths, puts another
face on the situation. For several years, since 1895, in
fact, there has been an organized crusade against mos-
quitoes, and it has been quite successful in ridding the land
of large numbers of these pests. But the house and the
stable flies constitute an even greater menace to the health
of human communities as well as to lower animals, and
chiefly because they are a tolerated nuisance; and for
that very reason, dangerous in the extreme. It would
seem, therefore, that the loss of any insects that prey
upon flies would be productive of an increase in disease
among human beings, unless direct measures were taken
against the breeding and domestic harboring of these
pests. Stock-breeders pay more attention to the attacks
of bot flies and horn flies than do human beings to the
insidious approach of the disease-carrying house and
stable fly in our homes, living-rooms, sleeping-rooms, and
dining-rooms. Whether this decrease in the number of
dragon flies will result in disturbing noticeably the balance
of nature remains to be seen.
The development is with incomplete metamorphosis,
the larval stage being greatly extended and the pupal
stage lacking. The egg-laying is accomplished usually
14
210
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
while the female is on the wing. The female poises just
above the surface of the water, occasionally dipping down
as an egg is discharged; or from her flight she swoops
down at the instant of depositing the egg. The eggs are,
by some species, deposited free in the water, while others
deposit them in the stems of water plants, the slit in the
stem being made by the sharp ovipositor. The time of
hatching of the egg varies with the species and with the
FIG. 87. Stages in development of a dragon fly, Libellula pulchella.
nymphal skin; B, imago. (Slightly reduced. Folsom.)
A, last
season of deposit. The eggs of some of the dragon flies,
laid in midsummer, hatch in a few days, six to ten, while
eggs laid in autumn do not hatch until the following
spring.
From the eggs hatch tiny nymphs with slender legs,
thin bodies, and ho wings, of course. These nymphs are
aquatic throughout their long life ; hence their respiratory
system is adapted for breathing under water, being a
curious internal modification of the alimentary canal
at the anal end of the body. Their food consists of other
forms of aquatic life, mosquito eggs, larvae, pupae, and
ODONATA. 211
adults; May-fly nymphs, some weaker nymphs of their
own kind, and aquatic worms.
Some dragon-fly species do not attain their full size
under a year, while others reach adult size in a few months.
The nymph comes to maturity by frequent moultings;
the exact number of moults is not known, but an old
nymph may be known by its size and dingy color. Just
before each moult, the colors are uniformly dingy brown,
while the new nymph will be a brighter color, usually
greenish; and when it approaches maturity it will
approximate the size of the adult dragon fly.
If you are fortunate enough to live near a pond, go
down to it some warm spring morning or morning in the
early summer, and you may be lucky enough to see some
dragon fly making its final moult. Here it comes, a
clumsy, big-headed thing, dragging itself up out of the
water on to a grass stem or on to the mud at the water's
edge. It sits still in the sunshine while its old nymphal
skin dries and cracks along the back, and out of the rent
there begins to appear the adult insect, shoulders first,
and head afterward. After considerable maneuvering
it is finally free, and you see a wet-skinned, soft-bodied
dragon fly, with its big wings wet and wrinkly and yet
lacking the brilliant colors. It may take a good share of
the forenoon to dry. Drying means the hardening of the
chitin in its body wall; and in its wings the chitin ribs
must dry before the insect can perform its wonderful
feats of flight. The colors gradually come out as the
body dries, and possibly while you are looking, the shining
wings expand and off sails the insect on its maiden flight,
for its first breakfast on land.
The old nymphal cases, or exuviae, may be found
around the water's edge, or you may rake them out as you
212 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
poke about for water beetles or aquatic bugs. They are
thin, translucent cast-offs of various sizes, according to the
age of the nymph which crawled out of them. The wall
material is chitin, and they will remain in the water a
considerable time before they will suffer distintegration ;
chitin serves its purpose well as a body covering, and
wears long before it suffers injury from any cause. Though
it usually suffers decomposition in water after the lapse
of a year, it is much less affected by acids than it is by
water.
About three hundred species of dragon flies are known
in the United States and adjoining countries ; two thousand
in the world. The great majority prefer warm localities,
although Kellogg records some as having been found as
high as ten thousand feet altitude, and as far north as
63 in Siberia, 65 in Alaska, and 76 in Norway.
CHAPTER XIV.
EPHEMERIDA.
This is the order of the May flies, curious gauzy-
winged creatures to be found in the neighborhood of
ponds or streams, where the sunlight falls, or near the
electric lights, if you are on the lookout for " sights."
The body of the adult May fly is extremely frail ; the wings
are made of the finest gauze stretched over a framework
of delicate veins. The front wings, when all four are
present, are much larger than the hind wings; and the
hind wings, in some species, are greatly reduced or wanting.
There is very little of chitin in the body walls, hence the
powers of flight are slight, and the insect lacks fighting
qualities, the qualities which always make for the individ-
ual in its struggle for survival in a world filled with other
living beings. The insect is so weak in the adult stage
that about the only explanation of its persistence seems
to be: first, the greater strength and assertiveness of the
insect in its immature stage; and second, the fact that the
reproductive energy of the adult is discharged so soon
after the last moult.
In the female the legs are weak, while in the males
it is only the hind legs that are weak. The abdomen
of both sexes usually bears two or three stiffish bristles at
the caudal end. The head has compound eyes and short
antennas ; some species are provided with weakly-developed
mouth parts, but in most May flies the mouth parts are
213
214
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
so little developed as to be of no use. Eating seems
hardly necessary during the extremely short adult life.
The metamorphosis of the May flies is incomplete.
The eggs issue from the egg glands in packets, as the
swarm of adults zigzags about over the surface of the
FIG. 88. Nymph and adult of a May fly, Hexagenia variabilis. A, nymph; B
imago. (Natural size. Folsom.}
water. From the eggs hatch tiny nymphs without wings
or wing pads, and looking very much like the most
primitive of living insects. These nymphs crawl about
over the bottom of the pond, eating any acceptable food
that may offer, possibly feeding on other animal life.
The mouthparts of the nymph are adapted for biting
EPHEMERIDA. 215
and chewing; and the larvae seem well able to protect
themselves, being able to act on the offensive as well as
being warily defensive. During this stage the insect
fares as well as do most other insects ; it is only in the adult
stage that the insect is peculiarly a weak insect. Finally,
at the end of a year, or two or three years for some species,
the nymph is ready for the last moult. It breathes while
in the water by means of flat, leaf -like gills, extending
into the water from either side of the body along the
entire abdomen and in some species from the thorax also.
Some very young nymphs are without these lateral
appendages, and seem to make the exchange of carbon
dioxid for oxygen through the delicately thin body skin,
which is at that time without chitin.
Having reached the adult nymph stage, the old
nymph floats to the water surface, or crawls out onto the
bank, begins to dry, the skin splits, and out comes the
adult May fly. Others appear in rapid succession, so
that there is soon a swarm of these delicate creatures;
then all join in the whirling dance over the river surface,
or under some electric light if there is one near. If the
swarm belongs to the short-lived May flies, the mating
occurs during this dancing flight, the females drop their
egg packets, and soon flutter after them and fall into the
water, the frail adult life over and done before the coming
of another sunrise. It is because of the shortness of the
adult life of the most of the species that the name of the
order is given. Ephemerida is made of the Greek
preposition y ephi, meaning during, and the Greek noun
emera, meaning a day.
No May fly, so far as known, lives beyond the third
day; and three days is an unusual period, the majority
of our May flies living only a few hours. With some few
2l6 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
of the May flies, a moulting occurs after acquiring wings;
this is called a subimago stage, and is a phenomenon not
known to occur elsewhere. This stage may last from a
few minutes to twenty- four hours. Such unusual exten-
sions of the adult stage as are known to occur, seem to
have relation to this subimago stage, the adult life of the
different species after this subadult moult is undergone,
being nearly uniform in length.
CHAPTER XV.
PLECOPTERA.
This is the order of the stone flies. In the same
water with the May flies, possibly, but where the water
runs swiftest, may be found some nymphs that look very
much like the May fly nymphs, but the bodies are flatter
and darker, and show some light and dark stripes.
These are the stone-fly nymphs, and they cling to the
under side of stones, whence their name. They cling
where the water current is swiftest, but when pursued,
they run very swiftly, and disappear under other stones
with amazing rapidity.
The nymphs breathe by means of thoracic gills, one
tuft of filaments or one single filament to each leg. The
remains of these gills may be seen in the adults of some
species. The feet of the stone flies are provided with two
claws, while the May flies have but one. The larvae,
so far as they have been observed, are active and well
able to defend themselves. They are carnrvwous as to
food habits, with strong biting mouth parts, the same as
the adults. The number of eggs laid by the females is enor-
mous, seeming to indicate that the larvae must take many
chances of being eaten; and this is true. For, although
the nymphs are better able to protect themselves than the
May-fly nymphs, yet great numbers of them are eaten by
various enemies, fish, dragonfly nymphs, and water birds.
The body of the adult stone fly is rather long and
flattish, and soft-walled. Its wings are membranous,
but the hind wings are larger than the front wings; and
217
2l8
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
when the insect is resting on some grass stem, the hind
wings are plaited and the front wings lie flat on the back.
The antennae are thread-like and reach far out in front of
the head.
None of the stone flies has a well-known life history.
They seem to reproduce by a metamorphosis much like
that of the dragon flies. Their food habits are not
FIG. 89. Nymph and adult of a stone fly, Pteronarcys regalis. A, nymph (after
Newport) ; B, imago. (Slightly reduced. Folsom.)
certainly known ; they probably eat other forms of aquatic
life; but some observers who have made a somewhat
extended study of them, say that they also seem to be
scavengers, eating decaying organic matter. Small stone
flies are less than one-fourth of an inch long, while the
larger species are two inches long. Here is a field for
investigation for someone who likes to be much in the
open, and who is in sympathy with life in its manifold
phases and activities.
NEUROPTERA.
CHARACTERISTICS.
1. Wings four, many- veined, sometimes spotted with con-
trasting colors. The main vein of the wing is usually
some distance from the front margin of the wing, and
the space is crossed by many oblique, parallel veins.
2. Mandibles strong; in the male sometimes enormously
enlarged.
False Rear Horses.
1. Wing-covers usually shorter than the abdomen and
bending around it, not lying flat on the back as in the
praying mantids.
2. Front legs much larger than the other two pairs, and used
for seizing the prey.
3. Prothorax long and slender; the front pair of legs fastened
well forward at its front, so as to bring them close up to
the head.
219
CHAPTER XVI.
NEUROPTERA.
In the order as first established by Linnaeus, were in-
cluded the May flies, the dragon flies, the caddis flies, and
some other insects to be mentioned later. At present, the
May flies, with their flat, external abdominal gills, form
the order of the Ephemerida; the stone flies, with their
filamentous, thoracic gills, their ocelli as well as compound
eyes, and their inability to live in stagnant water, form
the order Plecoptera; the dragon flies, with their internal
rectal gills in the larval stage, their peculiar aerating
system, and their strong adult wings, form the order
Odonata; the caddis flies, or caddis worms, after their
more familiar larval appearance, form the order Trichop-
tera; while the lace- winged flies, the dobsons, the ant lions,
and the scorpion flies are left to make up the order
Neuroptera.
All the insects of the order have net- veined wings,
strong mouth parts, either for biting or piercing, and a
development by complete metamorphosis. So far as
known, the members of the order are carnivorous in their
feeding habits, and many of them are aquatic in the larval
stage. The snake flies, rather rare insects with the pro-
thorax slender and curved, making them look humpbacked,
feed largely upon the larvae of the codling moth, one of our
worst apple-tree pests. The aphis lion, in its larval stage,
crawls about over the surface of plants infested with plant
lice and makes short work of them. Later in the summer,
221
222
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
there will possibly be found the eggs of some aphis lion
on the leaves of some louse-infested plant. Always on
the upper surface of the leaf or stem, and standing on
slender, swaying, translucent stalks, the greenish eggs
look curious enough. (Fig. 90.) The reason for the plac-
ing of the eggs in such a situation
is plain enough when one finds
out by watching that the young
aphis lion is fond of an egg diet,
prefers it to anything else, and
the egg containing his brother or
his sister tastes quite as good to
him as does any other egg. The
aphis lion mother, instead of
trying to break up the egg-eating
habit, simply builds a stalk for
each egg, and glues the egg fast
to the top of it. The young
aphis lion upon hatching out,
crawls down to the leaf surface,
and goes off to seek for other
eggs for his meals, all uncon-
scious of the rich feast so close
at hand.
The adult aphis lion is a beautiful, lacy-winged fly,
with greenish body and delicate white wings with iri-
descent hues shimmering from them at every turn of the
owner. The eyes are large for the size of the adult, and,
while the lace- wing is alive, are bright golden in color;
for this reason the lace-wing is often called the Golden-
eye. The adult probably has similar feeding habits to
those of the larva.
The larvae of the dobsons are well known to fishermen
FIG. 90. A lace-winged
fly, Chrysopa, laying eggs.
(Slightly enlarged. Folsom.}
NEUROPTERA. 223
in the eastern states, and they are occasionally found in
ponds in the West. The adult form is the form more
commonly found, however, because the small boy in the
West more often uses angleworms for bait, and so does
not discover the dobsons till later in life. The adult has a
wing spread of more than, four inches, the wings are
translucent with veins showing quite
plainly, and irregularly spotted with light
and dark. The hind wings are larger
than the front wings and are enlarged
considerably at the angle next to the
body ; hence, when folded, they are some-
what plaited, while the front wings lie
flat above them.
The dobsons have a very long im-
mature stage, two years and eleven
months, all spent in the water, hunting
fiercely for May fly and stone fly larvas.
The pupal stage covers another month;
hence the insect consumes three years in
growing to adulthood in size and power. FlG - 91- Larva of
TM j_ 1 j 1 1 j_ a dobson. (Kelto??.)
The insect having the longest immature
period is probably the seventeen- year cicada, which re-
mains in its underground burrow, feeding on plant roots,
for seventeen years. The male of the dobsons has the
mandibles developed into long curved organs standing far
out in front of the head ; in the female the mandibles are
less prominent. (Fig. 92.)
Here also are to be found the false rear horses, insects
much resembling the praying mantids among the Orth-
optera. Their long front legs, by which they catch their
prey, look very much like the queer "hands" of the pray-
ing mantis when he perches on your magazine cover and
224 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
looks solemnly at you ; and the rear horse is quite as blood-
thirsty as the mantis . The front part of the thorax is drawn
out into a slender, stick-like segment, and on the front end
FIG. 92. Adult dobson, with head of female above. (Kellogg.}
of this are placed the big, grasping front legs. This
gives the insect the queer appearance of having its front
legs fastened to its small head. The other two pairs of
NEUROPTERA. 225
legs are bunched at the further end of the thorax near
the abdomen. (Fig. 93.)
The ant lion is one of the most interesting members
of the order while it is in its larval stage. The adult
ant lion lays her egg in the sand; and the larva, im-
mediately upon hatching, digs for itself a pit in the sand,
hollowing it out carefully and smoothing off the sloping
sides. Then it carefully digs under at the bottom of this
pit, leaving nothing of itself visible except its head and
FIG. 93. A false rear horse or mantispa.
sharp jaws. There it lies, quietly, but keeping sharp
watch ; and when an ant comes scurrying along with some
big burden, intent only upon getting home, over it goes
into the pit, the treacherous sand giving way under its
feet. After many more meals of the same kind, the old
larva hollows out for itself a burrow in the sand, lines
it with silken threads, and there pupates. The adult
has four membranous wings, thickly crossed with veins
and usually more or less spotted with brown or black.
All of the members of the order are valuable insects,
feeding upon other insects which are harmful ; hence none
of the order should be carelessly hunted, nor killed
without good and sufficient reason.
15
CHAPTER XVII.
SIPHONAPTERA.
This order includes but one class of insects, the fleas.
By early entomologists, the fleas were classed as a family
of the Dipt era, on the ground that they were structurally
flies that had lost their wings through a process of degen-
eration, growing out of an increasing habit of parasitism.
But their structural differences are now known to be so
great that they are made to occupy an order by them-
selves.
They are parasitic upon mammals and birds; hardly
any warm-blooded animals are exempt from their attacks.
The order, at present, consists of but a single family, the
Pulicidae. The insects are wingless, and have piercing,
sucking mouth parts. The body surface is heavily
chitinized and smooth, but is regularly set with spiny
hairs. The body is much flattened vertically, a fact that
makes it easy for the insect to pass readily between the
hairs of the dog, cat, or bear host, and also makes it
difficult to catch them.
Among the most curious of the Siphonaptera are the
jigger fleas, insects more common in warm countries than
in our own latitude. The male jigger flea is winged, and
leaps on or off the body of the host ; but the female lives
on the body of the host nearly her entire lifetime. When
the female is ready to lay her eggs, she burrows beneath
the skin of the host, which may be one of the lower animals
226
SIPHONAPTERA. 227
or a human being. The body of the female, congested
with the egg burden, bursts in the burrow thus made,
and the larvae hatching from the eggs feed upon the
blood of the host until the time for pupation. This
period is also passed through in the burrow underneath
the skin of the victim; and the adults emerge through
the festering wound to seek new places where they may
make new burrows and rear new jigger flea families.
Oftentimes, the irritation incident to the rearing of these
jigger flea families is sufficient to cause the death of the
host. This flea is not to be confounded with the chigger
of our western plains and lawns. The latter animal does
not belong to the insects at all, but is one of the mites, ha
eight legs instead of six, and a differently- segmented body.
It ought to be noted here that the female of the hen flea
also burrows beneath the skin of the host, and the eggs
are laid in the small tumor that forms around the body
of the insect.
The Siphonaptera include also the human flea, the
dog and the hen flea, and the fleas infesting so many of our
wild mammals, also birds and domestic animals. These
fleas are parasitic only during the adult stage, and then
mainly at meal time.
The eggs of the dog flea are laid between the hairs
of the host, from whence they drop to the ground and
hatch among the refuse and dust. The larva? seem to
feed on organic matter, though they are more adaptable
than most other insects, being able to develop on other
food, such as dry plant remains, epidermal scales from
the body of the host, and possibly excrementitious matter
from adult fleas. Some fleas have been reared artificially
on dried crumbs or dried blood. The time of develop-
ment of fleas ranges from less than two weeks to consid-
228
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
erably more than two weeks in different species, though
for the majority of our native fleas, the time of develop-
ment is about two weeks.
The eggs of the human flea, Pulex irritans, are laid
in the house around the edges of the carpet or in the cracks
FIG. 94. Egg, pupa, and adult of the cat and dog flea. Pulex serraticeps.
(Howard.)
of the floor; here the hatching larvae feed upon such food
as offers itself in such places, lint and shreds of clothing,
scales of epidermis, and other organic or inorganic dust
components. Human beings are also molested by the
dog flea. The dog flea is provided with a row of stiff hairs
projecting backward from each segment of the abdomen;
while the human flea lacks these hairs. The whole
SIPHONAPTERA. 229
development of the human flea requires about a month
from the time the eggs are laid.
In tropical countries, the flea which infests the rat
is very closely related to the human flea. This consti-
tutes a serious menace to the health of our sea-coast
communities. Rats are known to be distributors of the
bubonic plague in their own country; and rats crossing
the ocean from any of these countries, soon spread the
infection among the rats where they land. San Francisco
has had to fight this horror more than once. Unde-
sirable people are not the only undesirable things we re-
ceive from foreign shores.
PART II.
ARTHROPODA EXCLUSIVE OF THE INSECTS.
CHAPTER XVIII.
NEAR RELATIVES OF INSECTS.
Myriapoda Millipeds and Centipeds.
These are air-breathing arthropods, having the head
distinct from the thorax. The thorax and the abdomen
form one continuous region with from six to two hundred
segments in different representatives, each segment
bearing at least one pair of legs. The millipeds and the
centipeds constitute a class of the Arthropoda, some of
which are harmless, some harmful, and some of them
of real benefit to mankind.
Millipeds.
These myriapods have two pairs of legs on each
segment of the body except the front three. The body in
most of the representatives is cylindrical, the antennae short
and few- jointed. Millipeds may be found in damp places,
under leaves, or when one turns over a stone or a board.
Occasionally one sees on the sidewalk a reddish-brown,
cylindrical "worm" ; and if you touch it, it will curl up and
lie perfectly motionless with the numerous legs on the
inside of the curl, as if to persuade you that it is dead
231
232
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
anyway and you might as well go on about your business.
And if you pretend to do so, it will after some time uncurl
and scurry away. (Fig. 95 .) If it is smart enough to do this,
you would better let it run you would hardly have nerve
enough to get away from your enemy that way; besides,
FIG. 95. A milliped, Spirobolus marginatus. Natural size. (Folsom.)
this milliped, like many others of its kind, feeds on decay-
ing vegetable matter, which constitutes another reason
why you should let it alone.
Centipeds.
These myriapods have but one pair of legs to each
abdominal segment ; the body is usually flattened, and the
antennae are long and many- jointed. (Fig. 96.) Centipeds
are found in nearly all parts of the world. They abound in
the United States, the species in the southern states being
generally venomous, while the species native at the North
are small and rarely inflict injury upon their human
neighbors.
The centipeds are all predaceous, feeding upon insects,
and also upon fruit and other plant food occasionally if
NEAR RELATIVES OF INSECTS.
2 33
they are southern centipeds. In the North, one may
look for them under stones, logs, and bark. One species
is often found running about over the house walls. It
is a very swift runner, has
very long legs, and only fifteen
pairs of them . These legs drop
off easily if the centiped is
touched, and remain sensitive
for some time. This centiped
is sometimes called the cock-
roach tiger, and it has never
been known to bite a human
being. Its scientific name is
Cermatia forceps.
It has remarkably long
antennae, longer than the body,
and these seem to be ex-
tremely sensitive. They are
carried forward when the
animal is exploring things,
and are waved gently up and
down when the animal stops
after having been disturbed.
A Cermatia recently experi-
mented upon, had a wet leaf
thrust in its path so that the
leaf touched the tip of one of
its antennas. It stopped ab-
ruptly, threw the
FIG. 96. A centiped, Scolopendra
antenna heros - About two-thirds the maxi-
mum length. (Folsom.)
which had been touched in a
long loop backward and upward, remaining in this position
for some time with the antenna which had not been touched
straight out in front of the head and quivering slightly.
234 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
Acarina Mites and Ticks.
These Arthropods have the abdomen unsegmented
and fused with the thorax. They include the mites and
the ticks. The majority of them are very small, though
some of the ticks reach considerable size. All mites,
except one family, hatch from eggs. In the case of this
exceptional mite family, the eggs remain in the adult
body after cell division in the egg begins, and until the
segmentation of the young mite into head and abdomeno-
thoracic regions with rudimentary legs. These young
mites or larvae, properly speaking are then discharged
to begin their separate, individual existence.
Young mites usually have three pairs of legs, but
develop a fourth pair while maturing. Some mites
produce galls similar to those produced by the gallflies,
but there is always an opening through which the young
mite escapes. The itch mite infests the human tribe and
burrows beneath the skin. With the exception of the
mite which infests pear trees, all mites have four pairs
of legs. The cattle tick is a true Acarina, but the sheep
tick is a dipterous insect.
Mites are sometimes found on plants. The best-
known plant mite is the so-called red spider which so
often injures house plants. In a dry summer it will
sometimes attack fruit trees. It thrives only in a hot,
dry atmosphere; hence the effective treatment of the
pest is water and plenty of it, sprayed onto the under
as well as the upper sides of the leaves. The mite seems
to work mainly from the lower side, up through the juicy,
green portion of the leaf, leaving the remaining upper
part to wither and drop off.
NEAR RELATIVES OF INSECTS. 235
Phalangina Harvestmen or Daddy Longlegs.
These Arthropods may be recognized by their very
long legs, though some members of the class have much
shorter legs, while resembling the typical harvestmen
in the general body structure. The head and the thorax
are fused to form the cephalo- thorax, with hardly
perceptible segments or none at all. The harvestmen
have two simple eyes, and instead of these being placed
in the usual position as modified portions of the body
Wall, they are placed on long tubercles near the middle
of the cephalo-thorax. The respiratory system opens
on the ventral surface of the body, just where the cephalo-
thorax and the abdomen join.
Although these ''Grandfather Graybeards," as they
are sometimes called, are so easily caught, they have a
means of protection in the ill-smelling fluid which they
eject when they are disturbed. This defense is effective
in the case of most birds. A bird has to be hard-pushed to
eat so ill-smelling a thing. They are not strictly nocturnal
in their habits, yet they avoid hunting in the broad
daylight. Instead of being unfriendly to their own kind,
as the true spiders are, several of these harvestmen may
frequently be seen close-gathered in some half-lighted
corner; and occasionally they seem to hunt in companies.
Their prey consists of small insects, especially the green
plant lice, which are such pests of garden plants. The
Phalangina are really beneficial Arthropoda, and little
children ought to be taught to protect them from harm.
Solpugida Jointed Spiders.
These differ from all the other Arthropods, except
the insects, in having the head separate from the thorax,
and in having the thorax divided into the three familiar
236 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
segments, pro-, meso-, and meta-thorax ; in each of which
characteristics they resemble the insects. In general
appearance, they look very much like spiders, but because
of these insect-like segments, they are called jointed
spiders. The Solpugida of the western states are found
in sandy regions, and are tawny and light brown in color.
Their mandibles stand straight out in front of the head,
and only the pincers of the mandibles are directed down-
ward, which is the position of the mandibles in the true
spiders.
The maxillary palpi are very long, and besides being
used as guides to food selection, are also used as sensory
organs to warn of danger, and as organs of locomotion.
The front legs are without claws and are provided with
sense hairs, that is, hairs capable of conveying sense
impressions. So far as observation may be depended
upon, these legs are often used as palpi.
With relation to the fact that the maxillary palpi
and the front legs may be interchangeable in function, it
may be remarked that on the basis of specialization of
organs these arthropods must be of lower rank than are
the arthropods in which there is no such shifting of
function. Accurate bases for classifying living beings
rest upon two supports, structural specialization and
mode of reproduction; and on these two bases the
jointed spiders would be classed lower than the true
spiders. They are rare; they eat small insects, and have
never been known to poison by their bite.
Scorpions and False Scorpions.
The true scorpions have the thorax unsegmented, the
head fused with the thorax, and the abdomen differentiated
into two portions a pre-abdomen, broad and consisting
NEAR RELATIVES OF INSECTS.
237
of seven segments; and the post-abdomen, slender and
tail-like, at the end of which is a poison sting.
The false scorpions have no such differentiation of
the abdomen, and there is no sting at the anal end of the
abdomen. False scorpions j
live under tree bark, in
mosses, or they may occa-
sionally be found between
the leaves of some book
that has lain unused for a
long time. The true scor-
pions may be found in
sandy regions, around old
stone quarries, or other
places not usually fre-
quented by their human
neighbors. (Fig. 97.)
Scorpions bring forth
their young alive, and the
young are carried about
by the mother for some
time. They attach them-
selves to the mother . by
their pincer-like mandi-
bles. The adult scorpions
FIG. 97. A scorpion, Buthus. Natural
size. (Folsom.)
are nocturnal, and feed
upon spiders and insects,
which they first sting to
death.
The whip-tailed scorpion is found in the far South-
west, New Mexico and Arizona. This is the largest of
the scorpions, measuring four or even five inches in length.
The palpi are enormously enlarged into stout pincers
238 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
which curve forward in front of the head, and make one's
fingers ache even to look at them. The body is dark
brown and rather heavily chitinized, even in the pre-
' abdomen. The post-abdomen is much slenderer than in
the common scorpions. They destroy their prey by
crushing it in their powerful palpi; hence it would seem
that their sting is less a means of defense than is the sting
of the common scorpions.
Spiders.
Spiders are not insects, though they are closely
related to them. According to Comstock, the Arthropoda
are to be divided into the Crustacea, the Myriapoda, the
Hexapoda, and the Arachnida. The Crustacea include
the familiar crayfish, or "crawdads," and the lobsters, the
shrimps, and the crabs of our sea-coasts. The division
also includes the familiar pill bugs, light gray, round-
backed creatures with a shell covering the dorsal surface
of the body. They have numerous legs, and when they
are frightened they curl up in a ball, shell outward, looking,
as their name implies, like a shiny pill. They are found
in damp places, under the bark of old logs, near wood piles,
or under rotting boards. Their food seems to be decaying
wood or other vegetable substances.
The Myriapoda have been seen to consist of the milli-
peds and the centipeds, The Hexapoda are the six-
legged Arthropoda or the insects; and the Arachnida, then,
would include the scorpions, true and false, the jointed
spiders, the harvestmen, mites and ticks, and the spiders.
The spiders differ from the insects not only in the possession
of an extra pair of legs, but also in the structure of the
body. The head is fused with the thorax, making the
cephalo- thorax, which is not segmented. The abdomen
NEAR RELATIVES OF INSECTS. 239
is also unsegmented, and is joined to the cephalo-thorax
by a slender stalk. At the base of the abdomen are
located the openings of the respiratory system ; and at the
apex of the abdomen are located the external organs of
the spinning mechanism peculiar to spiders.
The appendages of the head are the labium, the
maxillae, the mandibles, and the palpi. The mandibles
are two- jointed; and near the point of the second claw-
like segment there is a small opening, the outlet of the
poison gland. This poison kills or disables the insect
victim; but its effect upon the human family differs in
different cases, ranging from no effect whatever to serious
inflammation in some cases. Possibly it may be with
spider bites as we say of liability to a disease. We
desire to believe, and it may be a tenable theory, that the
perfectly healthy person is immune from all disease, the
natural warders of the body, the white blood corpuscles,
being in such a person present in such numbers as to be
capable of disposing of all disease germs that may enter
the system, with safety to the individual.
The walls of the cephalo-thorax are heavily chitinized.
From this portion arise the four pairs of legs; and here
must also be attached the many muscles used in the swift
movements of the spider. The abdomen is soft and non-
chitinized. The legs consist typically of seven segments
coxa, trochanter, femur, patella, tibia, tarsus, and
metatarsus. The tarsus is usually composed of several
segments, and is one-, two-, or three-clawed.
Spiders breathe as insects do, by means of tracheae;
but to the tracheae are added two sack-like cavities, in
which are numerous plates called pulmonary lamellae.
These sacks are really rudimentary lungs and have their
openings on the front ventral surface of the abdomen;
240 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
among the plates the air is kept in constant motion, and
in the spaces between them the interchange of oxygen
for carbonic acid gas takes place. The heart has
branches along the sides through which the blood is
sucked in, and finally the blood passes through these
sack-like lungs. The tracheary system also has its sepa-
rate openings, two of them farther back on the abdomen,
near the anal end.
Unlike the insects, most spiders do not swallow their
victim, but chew the body and suck at it until it is little
more than a mass of dry shreds. One may occasionally
find in a spider's web the body remnant of some insect
which has been so disposed of. Spiders are able to go
for long periods of time without food; this is fortunate,
for they must set their traps and wait for an insect foolish
enough to fall into them. They are not gregarious in the
least degree; each spider jealously guards its own food
traps. Of course, in so doing, it simply obeys the neces-
sary instinct of food-getting, and serves the law of self-
preservation. Even the male and the female spiders are
bitter enemies for most of their lives. The male of any
species may usually be known by the fact that he has
longer legs and a slenderer abdomen a fortunate
provision that often saves him from being eaten by the
fiercer and hungry female.
The sense of touch seems to be well developed. A
spider, waiting for a bite, sits patiently in its web, if it
is of the web-spinning sort. The wind may shake the
web, a twig may fall through it, and the spider pays no
attention. But let even a small insect hit one of the
gossamer threads, and the alert spider is on its victim
in an instant, either binding it with threads newly- spun,
if it is large and threatens to tear the web and escape, or
NEAR RELATIVES OF INSECTS. 241
at once killing it in preparation for the feast. In locating
the exact place of the insect in its web, the spider appears
to use the sense of touch, telling from this sense which
thread is vibrating, and thus running small risk of losing
its victim.
Not all spiders spin webs to trap their prey. Some
of them stalk their victims through the grass or in the
usual lurking places of insects in barn or house. One of
the light-colored crab spiders was recently observed to
run down the cord of a window curtain, and pounce upon
a luckless fly, sunning itself on the cord. These crab
spiders seem to be less afraid of human beings than are
most spiders. The author has several times offered one
of them a fly and it accommodatingly stood still and let its
human friends see it eat. When a second fly was offered,
it seized the second and at the same time attempted to
hold on to the first.
The trap-door spiders live in sandy or clayey soils,
and instead of spinning webs they stalk their prey and
then take it to their home to eat it at their leisure.
Their home is one of the most perfect places of abode
made by the Arthropoda. It consists of a burrow dug
in the fine clay soil, and lined with a soft silken lining,
the product of the spider's own industry. The opening
to the burrow is closed by a lid, which fits tightly over the
opening and is made of silken threads and soil, so disposed
over and among them that the top of it looks exactly
like the ground about the nest or burrow. The lid is
hung to the side of the burrow by a hinge also made of
the silk threads. When disturbed on the hunt, instead
of standing and showing fight, these spiders run to the
mouth of their burrow, pop inside, turn partly around,
and hold to their trap door with the two front claws while
16
242 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
holding on to the walls of the burrow with the hind pairs of
legs; and travelers say that one may more easily pull
the lid off the hinge than to pull a spider loose while
she is thus guarding her burrow.
The sense of sight seems to be but feebly developed
in spiders, but they appear to be very sensitive to light
as opposed to darkness. Spiders have no compound
eyes, but have instead an unusual number of simple eyes,
eight in most of the families. The object moving is
pictured in quick succession by the numerous simple eyes,
and the spider quickly takes the alarm and runs away.
Whether spiders hear or smell is not known ; at least there
appears to be no unmistakable evidence of the fact.
The habit of spinning for trapping food would dis-
tinguish spiders from insects if there were no other
distinguishing traits. Many of the lepidopterous insects
spin cocoons when ready to pupate, and the cocoon of
the silk- worm is made of gossamer- fine threads; other
insects can spin some sort of a pupal case, and some
worms will let themselves down out of harm's way by a
spun thread. But as a means of gaining a livelihood, and
as spinners of threads consisting of still finer strands
drawn into one composite thread, the spiders are unique.
The uses made of this spun silk are numerous. They use
it in making linings for their nests, in making the sacks in
which the eggs are to be stored, and in making traps of
various shapes and sorts in which to catch their prey.
Frequently the spider mends its web by tearing out the
dirty or torn piece and, at the same time, spinning in new
threads.
Webs are stretched in various places. The garden
spider always places its web vertically. The house spider
spins her web in the corner of the attic or the stable, or
NEAR RELATIVES OF INSECTS. 243
some other places where we think she ought not to be. A
favorite habit of hers is to spin irregular webs in the angle
from ceiling to side wall overnight. This has the entirely
innocent purpose of trapping flying insects; but you
object and rudely sweep them down next morning.
Another spider places her web on the grass horizontally;
another joins twigs of trees or bushes with a web placed
either horizontally or vertically. During midsummer,
in the early morning, these webs of the grass spiders may
be seen glistening with dew.
Argyroneta aquatica spins a silken web on the stems
of submerged water plants, fills it with air, and lives in it;
the opening being below, the air cannot escape. This
seems to solve the old riddle
" Under water, over water,
Yet never touching water."
The way in which she transports the air below water is in-
terestingly recorded by Kingsley. The spider comes to the
surface of the water, turns around, bringing the abdomen
out of the water, and spreading the spinnerets apart so as
to let the air in between them; then she closes the hind
legs tightly over the spinnerets, and goes below with the
drop of enclosed air glistening white against the water, backs
to the opening of her nest, and spreading the spinnerets,
lets go the air into the nest opening.
The flying spiders spin a float which, beginning as a
tiny raft, soon becomes powerful enough to carry them
away up into the air, if the breeze is stiff, on a merry
sail in the late summer sunshine; or in the sunshiny
autumn days, you may have felt the delicate ropes of this
craft draw across your face, while the tiny aeronaut above
was probably wondering on what reef his ship's anchor had
caught.
244 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
The spinning organs are numerous glands which lie
in the abdomen, filling the larger part of the cavity; and
the fluid matter in them leaves the spinning glands to be
joined in larger, less watery groups of spinning material,
and finally leaves the body by the spinnerets, six in
number. Out of each of these spinnerets flows a drop of
the semi-fluid material ; and by some motion of the spider's
body, the separate spinneret products are combined
into one strong thread or cable. In spinning the web, the
spider runs the supporting frame- work first, and as it
spins the cross threads, if it is a round web weaver, it will
glue each new thread every time it crosses the frame- work.
If you are quiet and stand where your shadow does not
fall on the place where the spider is working, you may see
for yourself how she spins her web.
As to the development of spiders: each spider spins
a tiny silken mat, upon which she lays her eggs ; then she
doubles up the corners of the mat and glues the ends
securely about the clutch of eggs. Other spiders spin a
large urn-shaped case with a small opening; the outside
of the sack is formed of tough, compact silk, while the
inside is lined with loose threads. The inside of most
spider nests are similarly made, probably to keep the
eggs from sticking together when they are first laid, as they
are then wet and more or less sticky.
The rate of development varies. Some eggs laid in
autumn develop slowly all winter; while others laid in
early summer will hatch in a few weeks, often two. The
hatching usually occupies a day or two. The tiny spiders
are white, soft-bodied, without any hairs or spines, and
with only small claws on the feet. Maturity is reached
by frequent moultings. In a few days they begin to
look more like spiders; the hairs begin to form, and the
NEAR RELATIVES OF INSECTS.
body becomes darker in color. In the case of spiders
which develop slowly all winter, perhaps hatching
prematurely, when the natural food does not offer, the
young spiders are liable to eat each other. Indeed, in the
summer time, if the brood hatching from one clutch is
very large, the stronger ones in the sack hatching first
eat the weaker; thus gradually thinning out the colony,
and bringing about the survival of only the strongest
spiders.
Before the second moult, the young spiders generally
leave the cocoon or nest, and for a time live in a web which
they spin together. This second moult occurs very soon
after hatching and usually is not preceded by any eating
on the part of the spiders ; this early abstinence from food
is not an anomalous condition. It is duplicated in the
life of the young of many animals, such as chickens, ducks,
and birds of many sorts, and even of some of the mammals.
Subsequent moults bring the young spiders to adult form,
size, and ferocity; and, because of this last fact, the separa-
tion of the brood into distinct places of habitation will
have taken place before this period is reached.
Females of the family of running spiders keep their
egg sacks with them attached to their spinnerets by the
threads reaching from the spinnerets to the mouth of the
egg sack. Another spider in the same family carries her
egg sack about with her in her hunting expeditions, until
the eggs begin to hatch ; then she fastens the sack to some
bush or other stem by a loose, irregular web of her own
weaving. This web also serves the other valuable purpose
of providing the young spiders with a chance meal of
insects now and then. So far as known, this is the only
instance among the spiders of care for the young beyond
the egg stage.
CHAPTER XIX.
KEY TO FAMILIES OF SPIDERS. ADAPTED FROM
EMERTON.
Drassidae. Tube weavers; spin no webs, but make
nests in form of flattened bag or tube; seek prey on
ground among leaves and grass. Body usually two or
three times as long as wide; somewhat flattened on back.
Legs about equal in length, two pairs forward and two
pairs backward, velvety; hairs and spines short; feet with
two claws with a brush of flat hairs; mandibles together
as wide as head. Eyes eight, about equal in size, in two
rows of about equal length and not far apart. Colors
dull gray, brown, or black; few markings or none.
A few species are brightly marked, and there are some
slight differences in the different species in the arrange-
ment of the eyes.
Dysderidse. Eyes six. Four breathing holes in the
front of the abdomen. Appearance otherwise like
Drassidae.
Thomisidae. Crab spiders; flat, short-bodied, much
wider in the abdomen. Travel side wise, look like crabs.
First and second legs often much longer than third and
fourth; all extend sidewise from the body. Feet with
two claws and thick brush. Body smooth or covered
with very fine, soft hair ; coarser hairs sometimes scattered
over back areas. Eyes small, in two curved rows, upper
row the longer. Mandibles small, narrowed at the end.
Attidae. Jumping spiders; live in open places among
246
KEY TO FAMILIES OF SPIDERS. 247
low plants, occasionally seen running across sidewalks ;
quick in movements. Most of them brightly colored,
colors change when spider is wet. Body short and
stout; cephalo-thorax large, wide in front. Eyes eight,
in three rows, middle two of first much the largest; two
eyes of second row very small ; two eyes of third row far
back on head. Length of legs varies with different
species, often front pair longest; feet with two claws and
thick brush; walk backward or sidewise. Make no webs,
but a tube or bag to hibernate in.
Lycosidse. Running Spiders; our commonest spiders;
live near ground; do not hide. Colors black and
white or colors of ground, stones, or leaves, sometimes
uniformly arranged, sometimes in patterns. Fourth pair
of legs longest ; spines on legs long, stand out in running ;
feet with three claws, under claw small and covered by
hairs. Eyes in three rows, four eyes in the lowest row,
two big eyes in the middle row; and two small eyes farther
back and wider apart for the third row. Body long in
most species; head high; abdomen about the width of
the cephalo-thorax, and as thick as wide.
Agalenidae. Larger ones make flat webs common on
grass, horizontally, and in corners of barns and cellars.
Head large and marked off from thorax by shallow
grooves, contracted behind eyes. Mandibles large, swol-
len at base (female). Eyes like Drassidae. Upper spin-
nerets longest. Feet with three claws and a brush.
Males have longer legs, smaller abdomen. Palpi large
and complicated.
Therididae. Loose irregular webs, no flat sheet, but a
loose tent in which the spider stands; in upper room-
corners, on fences, between rocks, on leaves and branches
of low trees. Body small, soft, light-colored; abdomen
248 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
large and round. Legs slender, no spines. Eyes about
the same size, in two rows close together, often touching.
Mandibles weak, without teeth. Maxillae pointed and
turned inward. Most of them live in webs, hang back
downward.
Linyphiadae. Roof weavers; body elongated. Legs
stout with many spines. Mandibles large, strong, with
teeth around claws; maxillas not inclined toward labium.
Live in shady woods, under leaves, in caves and cellars;
colors plain and dull. Web usually a large flat sheet
supported by threads, and under this the spider lives.
Epeiridae. Round web weavers; hang in web or
nest, back or head downward. Cephalo-thorax short in
most of the species, low and wide in front. Eyes eight,
side pairs close together and farther from middle eyes than
middle eyes are from each other all located near front
edge of head. Mandibles large; maxillae short and not
pointed nor turned inward. Legs long and stout in most
species. Abdomen, in some species, rounded and cu-
riously humped or angled. Colors often bright, and
arranged on abdomen in triangular or leaf patterns.
Some species show deceptive coloration for concealment
among the plants where they live.
Cribellata. Six spinnerets and a cribellum, a flat,
wide spinning organ in front of the spinnerets; calamis-
trum on hind legs, that is, a row of hairs to draw out the
band of silk from spinnerets and cribellum. Feet with
three claws.
PART III.
BIRDS.
CHAPTER XX.
GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR FIELD WORK ON
BIRDS.
The best general equipment for classes within the
scope of this work on birds, is a good field glass, which
ought to be the property of the school, a camera or a
kodak, and some good guide to the identification of birds.
If Reed's excellent little book, ''Bird Guide," is the one
used, each member of the class ought to have his own
copy. If Chapman's "Color Key to North American
Birds" is chosen, there might be fewer books needed.*
But so far as experience goes, it would seem that the
condition where each member of the class has his own
little manual secures the best results.
The field glass is indispensable for studying birds
in the open. It brings the bird within close enough
range for its identification. Birds fly so rapidly and are
so easily disturbed, or they perch so far away, that one
cannot get near enough for a "good look."
A camera or a kodak, it can be a Brownie kodak owned
* Information concerning the two books mentioned may be had of
Chas. K. Reed, 238 Main Street, Worcester, Massachusetts. This
gentleman also furnishes a field glass for bird study.
249
250 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
by the school, or it can be the property of some member of
the class, is an adjunct of the first order in studying birds.
The memory does not always serve one as to how a given
bird looked, or where it was found, what it was doing,
what kind of a nest it built, whether it was found social
or solitary, and whether the birds of the pair looked alike.
All these things the kodak will record faithfully, and it
will furnish them on demand for future reference.
Pages 260 and 261 afford suggestions for the different
areas which may be studied. The locality where the study
is being undertaken, and the environing neighborhood must
also furnish many other suggestions. In large cities, some
of the shy passerine birds and picarian birds will occasion-
ally nest upon the roofs of tall buildings. About factories,
in spite of the noise and smoke and the presence of human
beings, there may occasionally be found members of the
sparrow tribe. In the communities less cosmopolitan,
the opportunities are more numerous for getting acquainted
with more sorts of birds than in the city. But in the
country town or the village, one finds the ideal conditions,
conditions which are usually well-nigh perfection for the
study of the feathered tribe. Especially is this true if the
outskirts of the village merge into the woodland, or lose
themselves in some river or marsh or stream with an under-
growth of bushes and tree thickets. Both city and
country conditions may be made to yield their secrets
of bird life, if one has eye and ear alert to perceive. When
you hear a bird-call, then is your time to seek a glimpse
of the bird. When about one's regular duties, it fre-
quently happens that from some unexpected source
there will come just the item of information which you
may have desired for days. In this, as in all things else,
what one heartily desires, that will one attain unto.
GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR FIELD WORK ON BIRDS. 251
The object in bird study, as it was in the study of
many of the insects, is the knowledge of the birds, not
the killing and the mounting, nor yet the killing and the
eating and surely not the killing for a sharpshooter's
medal, or some aim more idle still. A record of the
facts gleaned from a study of birds, if faithfully and neatly
kept, may turn out to be valuable at some future time
in ways which may be entirely unforeseen at the begin-
ning. This is the way in which all the men who have
since become useful in the great world of science have
begun their life work. And they are proofs that it always
pays to do a thing faithfully and well.
As suggested in the pages mentioned, there are certain
times of the year during which bird study is especially
interesting and profitable, and these are the nesting season
and the season of migration. There are many new facts
yet to be discovered about these two phases of the bird's
existence ; besides the many problems concerning individ-
ual birds and their neighbors, and the bird's ways of
meeting the growing needs of its environment.
If the class is near enough to some museum of natural
history, it will be a rare privilege to study the birds at
close range, where they will all sit still long enough to be
studied completely. Other ways of doing will suggest
themselves to the earnest teacher who is alive to the
duties and privileges of the situation. Special aptitude
for the subject is not an indispensable requisite, although
it makes things easier, but there are needed such qualities
as these: a clear aim; an enthusiasm which is warranted
not to flag; and a genius for patience. These given, the
reward is sure.
CHAPTER XXL
INTRODUCTION TO BIRDS.
Birds belong to the class Aves. This word is the
plural of the Latin noun, avis, meaning a bird. Birds
constitute a much smaller class of animals than do the
insects. The Arthropoda, the branch of the animal
kingdom to which the insects belong, is the most numerous
of all the groups, comprising more known sorts or species
of animals than do all the other branches put together.
Williston places the number of flies alone, known at the
present time at eighty thousand. And every year
witnesses discoveries of Arthropoda hitherto unknown,
as the study of familiar regions becomes more intensive,
or as new earth and ocean regions are explored for the
first time. Just now, in these days, are appearing accounts
of the explorations of several traveler naturalists in
South American, West Indian, and East Indian lands,
men who are doing much as did men in the days of
Linnaeus, when they traveled into foreign lands for the
sake of seeing the wonderful sights of. Nature in the way
of rock, plant, or strange animal. But in these latter
days, our travelers have to guide them all the great body
of truth which it has been man's privilege, under God, to
discover, from the days of Linnaeus down to the present
time.
Life is the most wonderful of all the facts of creation,
and only life can understand life and discover its meaning.
Its full meaning is always a little beyond the compre-
252
INTRODUCTION TO BIRDS. 253
hension, and yet there is always something in the nature
of the highest of created beings, man, that urges him
ever forward toward a fuller understanding of life, its
powers and individuality of action, as manifested in
plant or worm, insect, bird, or man.
At the head of the animal half of the life kingdom is
man, and below him, other numerous, and some of them
scarcely less wonderful mammals, as the horse, the dog,
the elephant, and the fox.
As to the place of birds in the animal kingdom,
they stand just below mammals and just above reptiles;
and more closely allied to reptiles than they are to
mammals in points of structure, but more closely approach-
ing man in sense development. Taken as a class, the Aves
are more clearly denned than any other group of the
higher animals. The birds most unlike each other are
still more closely allied than are the varying life forms
among the fishes, the reptiles, or the mammals.
There is good evidence that birds had reptilian
relatives in the good old Jurassic days, and to one of them
was given the not unmusical name of Archaeopteryx, a
name which means ancient bird. Two specimens of this
bird have been found, and both of them in the slates of
Solenhofen in Bavaria. One of them is now preserved
in the British museum, and the other in the museum of
Berlin. It had the feet, the limb bones, and the beak
of a bird; but the beak was set with strong teeth. The
tail was as long as the rest of the backbone put together ;
and the vertebral bones extended on down into the tail,
and from these the feathers came off in pairs, one feather
on each side. (Fig. 98.)
The Archaeopteryx was about the size of a crow, and
probably climbed trees by means of the hook at the
254
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
apex of the first wing bone. In support of the theory of
life continuity from simple to complex, it is to be noted
that a living South American bird, the hoatzin, while
young, has similar hooks at the apex of its first wing bone,
and it climbs trees by means of feet, bill, and these claws.
Birds have also been discovered in the Cretaceous
strata of Kansas. In 1870, Professor Marsh, of Harvard,
dug up a specimen of a bird in western Kansas, near the
FIG. 98. Arch&opteryx lithographica, an early Reptilian Bird. (Galloway, from
Claus.)
Smoky Hill river. It was named the Hesperornis, and
was evidently a water bird, as it had no wings; but its
legs, feet, and tail were remarkably adapted for swimming
and diving. Its tail consisted of twelve vertebrae, the
hind ones flattened, much as in a beaver's tail. Several
other birds have been found in western Kansas and the
bones of about fifty different specimens of these birds
are in possession of Yale University.
All the western Cretaceous birds have been found
in the soil of western Kansas, except where the same
formation in Texas furnished a few; while the eastern
Cretaceous birds come from the Green-sand of New
INTRODUCTION TO BIRDS. 255
Jersey; and these latter represent a later period in the
earth's history. The Hesperornis measured about six feet
from bill tip to toe end, and must have stood, according to
Marsh's restoration, about three feet high. It seems to
have been a huge diving bird with the general build of a
loon. The Ichthyornis, another find in the same for-
mation, was a much smaller bird about the size of a
pigeon, and had more of the characteristics of the birds
of nowadays. The earliest known bird of the passerine
type belonging to the United States, was found in the
Florissant Beds of Colorado, those rock beds that have
yielded so many specimens of fossil insects also. This
bird shows relationships with the immense modern family
of the Fringillidae or finches, sparrows as they are more
commonly called. To-day, birds are more widely dis-
tributed than are any other animals.
The relationships of birds to man present three
phases of study: the scientific, the economic, and the
aesthetic. The embryologist, the systematic classifier
of animals, the comparative physiologist, and the psychol-
ogist, all find abundant material for study among the
birds. Among the students of birds may be mentioned
Audubon, Coues, Ridgway, Jordan, Goss, Chapman,
and a host of lesser students of birds. The labors of
these eminent men are of use to the amateur in enabling
him to become sufficiently acquainted with birds in their
resemblances and differences, to know them in their groups
and families, to understand much of their anatomy and
physiology, their peculiarities of inter-dependence and
relationship among themselves, and the similarities of
their sense powers, activities, and behavior to man.
The economic value of birds to man rests upon the
service they render to him in preventing the increase of
256 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
injurious insects and burrowing rodents, and in eating
the seeds of harmful plants, or devouring refuse which, if
left, would be a menace to the health of the community.
Many of the birds which are known to be seed-eaters are
not, for this reason, to be set down as harmful birds.
The seeds eaten may be seeds of troublesome or harmful
plants. A great many of the birds that stay north during
the winter, or come south at that time, devour large
quantities of weed seeds a fact not to be disregarded
in the economy of our seed-planting, plowing, and
harvesting.
Among our specially useful birds are the woodpeckers,
both downy and hairy, yellow-billed and black-billed
cuckoos, bluebirds, robins, brown thrashers, catbirds,
grosbeaks, red-winged blackbirds, sparrow hawks, quails,
prairie chickens, marsh hawks, red-tailed hawks, barn
owls, swifts and swallows, the large family of sparrows,
the warblers, and the vireos. Others might be mentioned
as valuable to man, but these whose names are here given
do such great service as to deserve special mention. The
service rendered is simply obeying the instincts of food-
getting and of caring for their young; but by a wise pro-
vision of the Creator, the two necessities named lie heav-
iest upon these birds during our season of crop-growing
and harvesting. Moreover, in order to do themselves
this good and us this service, most of these birds just
named journey on their tiny wings a thousand miles-
some of them much more, some less going far south when
our summer is over, and coming back when our spring
returns. And yet many people see no more in this than
a casual happening, something to be taken for granted,
instead of a great lesson of the Creator, taught anew every
spring in the flutter of hundreds of wings and the melody
INTRODUCTION TO BIRDS. 257
of bird songs, as our summer friends come flocking back to
the meadows, fields, gardens, and orchards that need them
so badly.
The insectivorous birds, in their search for daily food,
explore different regions. The swifts and the swallows
have the air for their hunting grounds, the swallows often
hunting flies and gnats far into the twilight. Night-
hawks and whip-poor-wills take up the hunt after night-
fall. The flycatchers, in their dun-colored coats, will
sit in the shadows of tree or bush, ready to dart out at a
passing insect, or they have been known to locate a gnat
swarm and sit with open mouth in the path of the flying
swarm, filling their crops to overflowing. Warblers
explore the circumference of herb, shrub, or tree, picking
off leaf -eating insects. The vireos do police duty on the
underside of leaves and in out-of-the-way corners. The
woodpeckers and the brown creepers take up the chase on
the tree trunks and the larger limbs, exploring every
inch for some flat-headed or round-headed borer, for ants,
or insect eggs. A woodpecker can get himself a fairly
good meal out of a telegraph pole, but he will do better
service on an elm tree. The orioles, the cuckoos, and the
blue jays delight to hunt for caterpillars, hairy and smooth,
in and out among the foliage and fruit, where worms may
be found eating leaves or curled up comfortably in some
blossom. Such sparrows as are winter residents live off
weed seeds principally, while the summer residents of the
tribe are for the most part ground feeders, and find a rich
harvest in insects and seeds near the ground. Aquatic
birds help the dragon flies eat the mosquito larvae; or
occasionally there is found a bird shrewd enough and
quick enough to turn the tables and eat the dragon flies.
Along our sea-coasts, aquatic birds do great service as
.17
258 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
scavengers. This is a service little appreciated. Along
bay, lake, pond, river, or stream, flies, moths, beetles, and
other insects frequently fall into the water and are drowned,
and their bodies lodge in the shallows or are swept down
stream. One hardly suspects this fact till on some lazy
summer afternoon, he lies quiet and motionless in the
shadows and sees over and over again about him the
enactment of this tiny tragedy, of insect fall and quick
pursuit by the bird.
Hawks and owls as a group, with the few exceptions
of Cooper's Hawk, the Sharp-shinned, and the Goshawk,
are of large benefit to farmers in getting rid of the small
rodents so destructive to growing crops. No one knows
this so well as the cattlemen on the western plains, who
regard the hawks as valuable allies. It is difficult to
overthrow an age-old belief, and to convince people
without repeated and strongly impressed proof ; but every
student of birds, and everyone interested in crops and
their dependence upon different birds in different parts
of the world, ought to do his utmost to correct the prej-
udice against the family of hawks. The reprobates of
the tribe have just been mentioned ; but there are plenty of
beneficial hawks whose service should be a matter of
gratitude, on the part of farmers especially.
Analysis of numerous stomachs of hawks, the most
conclusive way of determining a bird's habitual diet,
reveals the facts that squash bugs, grasshoppers, and large
caterpillars are freely eaten, while the marsh hawk is a
valuable destroyer of field mice and ground squirrels.
The sparrow hawk is a valuable ally in getting rid of
grasshoppers; the adult red-tails eat largely insects and
mice; and the young of the hawk tribes are more exclu-
sively insectivorous than are the adults.
INTRODUCTION TO BIRDS. 259
The terrestrial scavengers are the vultures, the
ravens, and the buzzards ; while along our shores are the
scavenger cormorants, herons, and gulls, though gulls
usually work farther out to sea than do the other birds
mentioned.
Birds are the best friends the farmer has, not except-
ing our Secretaries of Agriculture, state and national.
Even the corn-eating crow that we hear so much about
in the spring has been eating mice and grubs and scraps
through the winter; while in the grasshopper season he
probably eats more grasshoppers than corn grains, day
for day; and grasshoppers increase much faster than crows.
It is not to be denied that crows do some damage to
sprouting grain ; but there is hardly any animal that is at
all times beneficial. How about ourselves, for instance?
In a recent government report, a yellow-billed cuckoo,
killed at six in the morning, had in its crop the partially-
digested remains of forty-three tent caterpillars! How
many more it would have eaten before nightfall is- a
question. Birds digest their food very rapidly, so that
it is difficult to make estimates covering much time, and
the cuckoo belongs well up in the scale of bird life, where
all the vital processes are rapid.
Besides furnishing "bread and butter" for scores, of
birds, insects are eaten by many of the other vertebrates.
Lizards, toads, frogs, and prairie squirrels catch insects
as long as the insects are with us; that is, until the ap-
proach of winter leads to the disappearance of their
natural food, when the conditions lead up to the hiber-
nation of many of these animals. The mole, which has a
reputation for being such a pest, is only trying to get
the white grubs and the caterpillars that have dug under
the ground surface to winter over. Of course, as the
260 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
mole tunnels around among the grass roots in search
of his breakfast, he does not take the trouble to go back
and cover up the grass patch where he found a fat grub.
The juicy meal only fills him with a craving for more, and
on he goes. Field mice and skunks eat grasshoppers.
Fresh-water fishes are insectivorous to nearly fifty per
cent of their diet. Hence, and this is the valuable point,
these insectivorous animals cannot be destroyed by an
agency outside their own domain without disturbing the
nice balance of nature. Only in regions destitute of man's
presence is this balance most nearly preserved. Man
is the largest disturbing force.
The study of birds should not be restricted to any
one season, nor to one locality; but should cover a year
at the very shortest for a locality and its surrounding
country. For instance, if you are in the country for your
special field, your study should cover also the nearby
town. The different zones of life ought to be investigated ;
the ground birds, the tree-top birds, the day and the
night fliers, the woodland birds and the birds of the open,
the morning and the evening birds, the shy birds and the
birds that like the society of their human neighbors.
Their food habits should also be a matter of study.
Yo.u can be reasonably sure that when a bird is astir he
is doing one of three things : hunting for food, singing, or
looking after the home, either the prospective home, or
the home in possession. In addition, birds have individ-
ual traits; as pugilism, for the pure pleasure of downing
an opponent; poaching, running another bird off his
feeding-grounds because he is bigger and can do it;
blustering braggadocio, which, by the way, is often able
to gain its ends; and sly cunning, which quietly gets
ahead of the other fellow and leaves him wondering
INTRODUCTION TO BIRDS. 261
what has happened. These are a few more of the ways in
which birds bear out the biologist's assumption that they
are closely related to man. White-rumped shrikes, blue
jays, house wrens, and English sparrows will reveal these
traits; and if you will study the birds in your own neigh-
borhood, you may be able to discover additional traits.
Be continually on the alert. If you hear a bird call,
catch a glimpse of the bird ; it may be that you will have
to run; or, if it is an insectivorous bird or a seed-eater,
you may have to steal around the base of the tree several
times, tracing the bird's fleeting shadow as it creeps in and
out among the leafy twigs. It is making as little noise
as possible, so that it may not frighten the worm out of
sight, and you must do the same with respect to the
bird.
CHAPTER XXII.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF BIRDS.
As to the physical features of a typical bird, we may
consider the uses of the bill, the feet, the tail, and the
meaning of the coloration of birds. We are to understand
that the biologist does not think that things just happen,
and have no meaning nor use in the great scheme of life.
No life trait appears without the preceding stimulus to
that form of activity; hence under the operation of this
law all those features characteristic of an individual are
seen to be fraught with meaning to the individual in the
ease or success with which he "gets along in the world."
FIG. 99. Conirostral bill of a canary. FIG. 100. Falcate bill of cross-bill.
The Bill.
The chief office of the bill is to take the place of the
hand, which the bird lacks. It really belongs to a biped
which is without arms or hands, and so must make the
bill do much of the work of both these members. It is
the organ of prehension, of defense, and is of use in making
262
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF BIRDS.
263
the toilet. In the nesting season, it is always more
brightly colored than at any other season of the year;
and some birds have it adorned in some way, with an
outgrowth of feathers, perhaps, near it and accentuating
its beauty at the nuptial season.
FIG. 101. Fissirostral bill of a
swallow.
FIG. 102. Fissirostral bill of
chimney-swift.
The shape of the bill is indicative of the food habits
of the tribe of birds. The long, thin, pointed bill indi-
cates the insect and worm
eater; the short, stout con-
ical bill belongs to the seed
eaters; the stout, hooked bill
indicates the flesh eater,
which tears its victim, fish,
mouse, rabbit, or decaying
carcass; the American cross-
bill cuts out the pine seeds
from the cones, more effect-
ively than it could be done with a pair of scissors.
FIG. 103. Hooked and cered bill
of a hawk.
A few birds, as the owls, snap the mandibles together
if they are frightened or angry. All birds use the bill
as a toilet accessory, while performing the curious duty
264 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
known as preening their feathers after a water-bath.
This they do by pressing out a drop of oil from the oil
gland at the base of the tail, and rubbing it smoothly
over the feathers while drawing the feathers through the
bill. Aquatic birds, such as the domestic and wild ducks,
make special use of the advantages derived from this
process; as the oil renders the feathers less readily wet
by water. Grebes, which can remain long under water
in the act of diving and swimming, come out dry and
glistening, ready for another plunge, because of their oily
plumage.
FIG. 104 Tenuirostral bill of a nuthatch.
Parrots use the bill in climbing. Some birds use the
bill as a weapon. But as an organ for securing food, the
bill has shapes as various as the food habits of the genera
of birds. It may have the form of a lever in one tribe of
birds, a pair of forceps, a hammer, a sieve, an awl, a hook,
or a knife in others.
The Feet.
Aquatic birds have lobed or webbed feet; or if the
bird lives in swampy places or wet grass land, the toes
are long and strong. In the Mexican and South American
jacanas, the toes are enormously lengthened, a provision
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF BIRDS.
265
which makes it possible for the bird to walk over the water
surfaces in its native haunts by stepping on the broad
leaves of the water plants. Our own shore and swamp
'Second Joint "
Tibia
-Legproper
"Drumstick"
Knee
Heel
Foot, or me tatans
"Tarsus "
FIG. 105. Hind limb, or leg and foot, of a bird. (After Coues.)
266 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
inhabiting birds have these long toes also. The short-
legged, slim-bodied rails have toes all out of proportion to
the length of leg and body ; but their efficiency is such that
the bird easily finds its food or eludes its enemy in its
marsh home.
Parrots use their feet as a hand, holding the food in
them while tearing it in pieces for devouring. Hawks often
carry nesting material in their claws; and birds of prey
as a class hold their prey in the talons while tearing it
into morsels. Ostriches have especially strong feet,
besides being able to kick. The grouse have naked feet
in the summer ; but in winter, the feet are thickly feathered
to the toes.
In the matter of getting about on the ground and in
trees, birds use their feet variously. For instance:
do you know whether a blackbird, when it is on the ground,
puts one foot before the other, as we do in walking; or
does it hop, using both feet alike? How does the black-
bird get about among the tree leaves? Do robins, blue-
birds, domestic pigeons and chickens, quails, hawks,
and eagles, walk or hop? How do the woodpecker and
the brown creeper use their feet when going about over
the tree trunk? The flickers are often seen on the ground
looking for ants; how do they use their feet at this time?
Does the domestic hen stand on one foot while she scratches
with the other? Does the parrot use both feet together,
or alternately? If you are fortunate enough to discover
a bird at work building its nest, try to discover whether
it uses both bill and feet, or only one of these members,
and which one?
How do domestic ducks use their feet in swimming,
alternately or simultaneously? Do they dive? If so,
for what purpose ? Do they eat afloat or ashore ?
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF BIRDS. 267
The Tail.
The shape of the tail is in accord with the bird's
habits of flight and food-getting. Its main office is to
act as a rudder in flying, and as a balancer in alighting
from flight. The inter-action of the muscles of the
tarsus and the tibia with those of the toes is such that the
perchers among the birds are safe on the trees, even when
sound asleep. The natural bend of the bird's foot comes
between the heel and the toes. Now, with some of the
muscles attached to both tarsi and toes, and playing
around the bend of the foot, the toes .are firmly locked
around the twig on which the bird may be sitting; and
the bird must make a real effort to let go rather than to
hold on. This coordination of muscular effort is perfected
only in the fully- developed bird; hence the young bird,
or the bird with its tail only partially grown, or the old
bird deprived of its tail, are both awkward in flight and
unsteady in alighting.
Most birds walk on their toes with the heels con-
siderably elevated above the surface over which they are
walking. If you would see the force of this, try walking
on your toes with your heels elevated. The birds which
do walk on their heels, the cormorants and the grebes,
are exceedingly awkward and unskillful on the land.
Long-tailed birds fly with greatest ease, and can
even turn sharp corners with marvelous success. A
robin, digging for a rapidly descending angleworm, uses
his tail as a sort of fulcrum for the necessary leverage in
raising the unlucky worm. All the tree-creeping birds
use the tail as a prop or brace. The motmot gesticulates
with its tail, as do also the angry wren, the robin when he
has his fighting blood up, the catbird when you go near
his nest, or the amatory blackbird when he is doing his
268 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
best to appear well before some maiden blackbird. In
some species of birds, the tail is more expressive of the
emotions of the bird than is any other organ of the bird.
The stiff feathers of the tail are called rectrices.
In birds, as in all classes of animals, there are facts
expressing gradations of development. We speak of the
birds of highest nervous development as the highest
family of birds. Nor is this fact without its accompanying
facts of classification. These are also the birds in which
we find the altruistic instincts best developed, in which we
find fatherhood no longer deprived of its share in the
interests of the offspring. Again, in the highest class of
birds, we touch most closely the life of the human family,
where, oftentimes, the bird is willing, if we will let it,
to work in happy partnership with man, both reaping
legitimate gain from the same region. In this class of
birds, we find some that are able to pit their shrewdness
against the shrewdness of man, and in eight times out of
ten come out ahead; for example, the English sparrow.
The Wing.
The wing is the organ of flight par excellence. It
has furnished to the human race the inspiration to "go
and do likewise" from the days of Darius Green to the
Wrights and the host of other present-day aviators.
The albatross and the gulls are almost tireless on the wing.
It is true for the bird in general that it seems to be in more
stable equilibrium when off its feet, either in the air or the
water, than while it is perching or walking, probably due
to the fact that the base within which the center of
equilibrium then lies is so broad, the wings being set
quite a good deal forward of the feet. The quadrupeds
below birds go on all fours, with the head iittle raised above
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF BIRDS. 269
the horizontal body level. In the bird, we have an
upright quadruped, or a biped with the front limbs used
as wings, and the head considerably above the rest of the
parts of the body. This narrows the base within which
the center of equilibrium falls while the bird stands
upright; but when the bird spreads its wings it bends
forward, and thus widens its base and places itself in
more stable equilibrium. Yet, skill in flight has its
degrees of excellence of development in the different
sorts of birds. The birds just mentioned are the most
notable fliers among the aquatic birds. Among the land
birds of North America, the buzzards and certain of the
hawks come the nearest to being tireless on the wing. The
most familiar feature of the landscape, in some parts of
the continent, is the vulture, or buzzard, as he and his
comrades soar above the land expanse beneath, no part of
it hidden from their observing eyes, searching for a carcass,
soaring till they find it, apparently alighting only when
feeding. The hen hawk, the familiar red tail, was
watched by one observer from seven in the morning till
four in the afternoon, during which time it kept aloft in
the air.
The skeleton of the bird's wing has much the same
construction as our arm; insomuch so that we call the
large bone articulating with the shoulder the humerus;
the two smaller bones below it and articulating partly
with each other, the radius and the ulna; while the still
smaller bones or series of bones on beyond the radius and
the ulna are called the fingers, the one just at the turn
of the wing corresponding to our thumb, the middle and
longest finger corresponding to the middle or main exten-
sion of our hand.
As organs of flight, the wings are provided with
270
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
stiff quills or primaries, the one lying lowest and under-
most being called the first primary. These are reinforced
by the secondaries, lying above the primaries, and gener-
ally of rounder and softer outline. The barbs of the pri-
maries are unequally developed on the two sides of the
central shaft; the barbs on one side being set at a higher
angle and often being of shorter length than the barbs
,SKoulcf<
"UTrisi ID one 5
2,n<f dxg-tt
3r(f cfxgit
Eltow
FIG. 106. Front limb, or wing, of a bird. (After Coues.)
on the other side of the shaft. In the secondaries, the
barbs grow more nearly symmetrically. Complex muscles
connect with the epidermal sockets from which these
feathers grow; so that the bird, in flight, spreads the barbs
apart and turns them so as to " feather its oars" in the
aerial ocean which it inhabits.
The upper arm is not free from the forearm, but a
fold of skin crosses the space between them and a strong
muscle supports this fold of skin between shoulder and
wrist, diminishing or increasing their approach to each
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF BIRDS. 271
other as the bird beats the air with its wings, or keeping
taut and tense as the bird soars, apparently a motionless
speck in the blue above our heads. The number of pri-
maries is usually constant, being typically ten ; but in the
highest birds the first primary suffers various degrees of
reduction, ranging through short and spurious to obsolete,
in which last case it has disappeared, and but nine
primaries remain.
Like the hand, the wing of a bird is capable of express-
ing emotion. The challenge to battle, the attitude of
defense, the tenderness of the nest-mate, the helpless need
of the tiny nestling, all are expressed by various move-
ments of the wings. As to the feathers covering it, the
wing is in many birds one of the most highly varied areas
of the plumage, vying with the head and the tail in the
brilliancy of its coloring.
The wing may also be used as a musical instrument;
though in this case it is instrumental music, of course.
The woodcock whistles chiefly through the use of its
curiously marrowed outer three primaries.
Coloration
The plumage changes with the season, with the
nesting period, with the age of the birds, with the climate,
and with a change of food. It is a well-understood fact
that birds are lighter in plumage in arid regions and
darker in humid regions. For instance, one of our
sparrows, the common song sparrow, having a range from
Arizona to Alaska, is a pale, sandy-colored bird in Arizona
and dark sooty-brown in Alaska. Between these ex-
tremes are to be found nine intergrading species, accord-
ing to Coues. Some animals are more affected by climate
than are others, and this is a rather extreme example.
272 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
It is a fact that will probably hold good throughout the
animal kingdom that organisms of high nervous organ-
ization are more open to variation in any of its modes
of approach. These climatically produced subspecies are
to be regarded as variations upon a single species ; but if
the climatic barriers were destroyed, or if some climatic
revolution were to cut off the intervening species completely
from each other, .then, in the first supposed case, the
subspecies would gradually disappear, all the individuals
tending toward one form, expressing the fact that climate
had the same measure of effect upon all ; or, in the second
supposed case, the subspecies would, in time, appear as
distinct species, each having its own definite, persistent,
unvarying characteristics.
The matter of the bird's individual plumage seems
to have definite relation to its environment and its plan of
food-getting. Colors of plumage seem to be deceptive,
protective, and attractive. Birds spending the life
round in one region, frequently have a winter and a summer
plumage. The ptarmigan in its winter home on the
mountain slopes is snowy white, and in summer, brown-
mottled. This is protective coloration. But the snowy
owl, which lives in about the same regions, is snow-white
in winter also ; and often makes a meal off the ptarmigan
because of this fact. This is deceptive coloration.
Fruit-eating birds are often brilliantly colored to keep
you from seeing what they are doing. Not that they
know that you like fruit better than they do, or are
better entitled to it (either fact need not be conceded),
but as animal against animal in the struggle for getting
enough to eat, when they are best nourished by fruit,
they are best assured of getting enough of it by being
fruit-colored.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF BIRDS. 273
With exceedingly few exceptions, the male is more
brightly colored than the female. He displays his brightest
colors at the opening of the mating season. This seems
to 'be for the attraction of the females, and it is perhaps
an example of egoism. The most attractive male would
be likely to attract the most desirable female for the
strongest nestlings. Not that either has the power to
reason it out that way, and see the desirable end before
the impulse to action, but the instincts of the individual
tend in this direction. Living begets the habit of living,
and that living is naturally to the fullest extent of the
individual's powers.
iS
CHAPTER XXIII.
MIGRATIONS AND NESTING HABITS.
Migrations.
This is, of all bird habits, the least to be accounted
for biologically or on any other grounds. Migrations are
not helter-skelter movements, but are like the well-
planned march of an army under excellent generalship.
The impulse that starts the birds north at the approach
of spring in the Southland, or the impulse that sends timid
birds over far reaches of country, across vast bodies of
water, are hardly to be explained by the single fact of
obedience to the instinct of food-getting. Climatic
changes, as well as seasonal changes must have played
their part. Changes in continent configuration, through
upheaval or subsidence, may have occurred slowly enough
to establish the habit of travelling a certain route in the
periodic migrations. These movements are not simply
north and south movements, but many of the migrating
birds take an east and west course. Habit plays an
important part ; the route once established, the bird tends
to retrace its path, whether it is the short route or not.
But the formation of the habit is the inexplicable thing.
If we call the place where the birds raise their young
home, then leaving may be brought about, possibly, by
the stronger instinct of food-getting ; while returning to it
is the rising of the first instinct again into dominance; or
it may be that it is simply the desire of the individual to
bring about harmony between its desire and its sur-
274
MIGRATIONS AND NESTING HABITS. 275
roundings the raising of young in the region that yields
food abundantly.
Many naturalists and some biologists have discussed
the subject with profit. Mr. William Beebe, in his
interesting book, "Two Bird Lovers in Mexico," well
describes this wonderful periodical journeying back and
forth of the birds. He visited the Mexican lake men-
tioned in March of a Mexican winter :
"But Chapala honors us with a final farewell. The
sun is sinking in a cloudless sky, a wind rises from some-
where, ruffles the face of the pools, and brings the scent of
the March blossoms to us. A small flock of white-
fronted geese passes rapidly overhead, not very high up,
when all at once there floats into view cloud after cloud
of purest white, stained on one side by the gold of the
setting sun. We dismount and look up till our bodies
ache, and still they come, silently driving into the darken-
ing North. The great imperative call of the year has
sounded; the drawing which brooks no refusal. Our
letters from the North tell of snow and blizzards the
most terrible winter for many years. No hint of spring
has yet been felt there, while here in the tropics no frost
nor snow has come through the winter, food is abundant,
hunters few; yet a summons has pulsed through the finer
arteries of Nature, intangible to us, omnipotent with the
birds. Until dark, and no one can tell how long after,
the snow geese of Labrador, of Hudson Bay, of Alaska,
perhaps of lands still unknown, speed northward."
Nor is the bird tribe the only one that migrates.
Lemmings, rats, grasshoppers, monarch butterflies, green
bugs, chinch bugs, salmon and many others of the fish
kind, migrate. The human tribe is not without its
records of historic migrations, to say nothing of those
276 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
great movements, not understood except as to their
results in peopling lands now widely separated by oceans.
The Crusades and the assembling of the Pilgrim fathers
upon our own shores, offer two great illustrations of this
tendency of the human family to migrate. In the whole
range of the animal kingdom the individual must have
the inner feeling of satisfaction with his surroundings,
or there will crowd upon him the irresistible impulse to
find satisfactory surroundings elsewhere. With the
human family, this feeling may arise through reasoning
out the non-beneficial results of a particular condition;
with the animals below man, the impulse to migration
must be less a matter of mentation, and predominantly
a matter of physical, bodily, discontent. Still, with the
highest of the lower animals, there must enter the first
stirrings of the impulses that are mental in the animals a
little farther up in the scale of life.
The sexual instinct must play a large part in the
migrations of birds. This instinct may be regarded as
the expression of the desire of the individual to live on.
Failing this possibility within himself, then to live in his
offspring; and from this latter feeling may arise the
desire to place the offspring in the most desirable con-
ditions possible, at whatever cost to himself.
Birds staying in one region the year round must,
if it is in our latitude, temperate, change their fare with
the season. But birds that are dependent upon one
kind of food, as fruit, must migrate to find it. Insect-
eaters must also migrate to follow up the insect hordes.
Most migratory birds of the western States pass the
winter in Mexico and Cuba. The same general statement
may be made for the birds of the eastern United States,
most of them go south for the winter. Many of the
MIGRATIONS AND NESTING HABITS. 277
birds nesting in the states east of the Alleghanies simply
find their more genial winter conditions in our southern
states, and do not leave the United States. The purely
insectivorous species may cross the channel to Cuba and
winter there, or in some other of the West Indies. Some
of the birds of both East and West go to Central or South
America. Many of the eastern sparrows, the bluebirds,
and the robins of the eastern States usually winter
from the Middle to the Gulf States. The bobolink, one
of the birds rarely seen west of the Missouri river, is an
illustration of habit in migration. The bird winters in
South America. It enters the United States on its
northward journey, by way of Florida, comes northward
through the Eastern States, and from there strikes west-
ward to about the Mississippi line; then goes northward
to Michigan, Wisconsin, and eastern Minnesota and
Manitoba, where it nests. In the autumn it reverses its
path but follows the same zigzag course, bidding farewell
to the United States at Florida's southern coast on its
way southward to its far South American winter home.
This is also one of the few examples of the two sexes,
migrating separately; the males, flying in large flocks,
precede the females by several days.
Any observer of bird life in the plains states and east
of the Rockies, knows that the conditions for birds have
changed wonderfully in the last fifteen years, or even ten.
The homestead laws, beneficial to the settlers willing to
become pioneers in the wild, unsettled western country
in the early years of the half-century preceding this,
bore part of their fruit in the spread of birds into the
regions thus occupied. Gradually, many birds have been
encouraged to stay all the year, where food and shelter have
offered. The robins, the Kentucky cardinal, the blue jay,
278 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
the meadow lark, often winter through where formerly
they went southward under the stress of food lack during
the cold season. In the vicinity of settlements, villages,
or towns in the Plains States, anywhere from thirty to
forty species of birds may be found during the winter.
Some of these are winter visitors from the north, and
others are birds that have been changed from summer
visitors to permanent residents.
These winter birds do an amazing amount of good
in the eating of weed seeds, and of winter forms of insect
life, eggs, grubs, and hibernating, skulking adults. In
Lapland, Norway, and Sweden, the winter birds are
provided with food by tying grain stalks and other seed-
producing plants to tall poles or to tree branches. Dwell-
ers in new agricultural communities might, with great
benefit to themselves, follow the custom, especially
during the seasons when excessive snows cover the usual
food supply.
As to their times and seasons of migration, birds
are to be classified as:
All-the- year-rounds, birds staying the year
round in a locality.
Summer residents, birds staying during the
summer only and going back to their southern home
at the approach of cold weather.
Winter residents, birds coming from the north
in the fall and going back to their northern homes
in our spring.
Transients, whose winter home is south of the
given locality, and who go north for the nesting season,
returning again across the locality at the approach
of northern winter.
MIGRATIONS AND NESTING HABITS. 279
Timid birds, or the smaller birds, as the wrens and
the vireos, travel by night and feed by day. Bold, strong-
winged birds as the robins, the blackbirds, and some of
the larks fly by day or night, can go long distances, and
so can afford to stop sufficiently long where food is
abundant. In good weather, migrating birds fly high,
and often follow some guiding feature of the landscape,
a river line, particularly, with its promise of food and
water; though they seem also to be guided by mountain
chains. There is little doubt that coast lines are a large
factor influencing birds in their migrations. Usually
fogs or storms bring them lower, probably to seek addi-
tional guiding features of the country over which they
may be passing ; though it is true that sight alone will not
suffice to explain all the marvelous activities which we
witness across the country every spring and autumn.
Whatever the guiding sense may be, old birds seem
to possess it in greatest perfection. It is likely that
many young birds making the trip for the first time
fall by the way; but those who survive have "learned
how" by the next year; and thus a permanency of
leadership is kept up which becomes a strong factor in
the continuance of the life of the individual within
the species. Whatever the sense by means of which
the birds maintain their direction of movement toward
a fixed point we call it orientation fog seems to produce
much the same effect upon them as it does upon us, when
it shuts out the familiar landmarks. Man, as a traveller,
is perhaps the most helpless of all animals. Before the
invention of the compass, he stayed close home; and it
was indeed a hardy soul that ventured on the sea far
from the home shore. Blind-folded, he travels in a
circle; or lost on a plain, he travels again and again the
280 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
round of his own steps. Let him pass from the streets of
a town into a pathless field, and he will be quite likely to
lose his way unless he sees some objective point and keeps
it in view. He seems not to possess now, if he ever did
possess, any inherent sense of direction with respect to
himself. This sense of direction is possessed by many of
the lower animals, and by some of them in a marvelous
degree.
The Nesting Season.
Spring in every clime is the nesting season for birds.
This does not mean April or May the world round. On
the other side of the equator, it is September and October.
Spring, with migratory birds, means the season of plant
growth in their nesting homes. In the tropics, although it
is warm the year round, the nesting season is as well
defined as it is in more northern climes; there it occurs
with the return of the tropical rainy season, the time
when fruits and seeds are abundant, and insects are abroad
in search of either or both. Among temperate latitude
birds, the birds whose young are fed on flesh are the first
birds to nest, while fruit- and insect-eaters nest later. In
the middle latitudes, the domestic pigeon may nest
earlier than even the flesh-eating birds; occasionally
young broods are heard in January, if the winter is an
open winter.
In the choice of a mate, birds display traits surpris-
ingly, sometimes mortifyingly, human. The believer
in the theory of natural selection will find abundant
material for study if he will observe birds during the
mating season. For any given season, the rule for the
union of birds is monogamy, and polygamy is the excep-
tion; and so far as present knowledge goes, the choice of
MIGRATIONS AND NESTING HABITS. 281
a mate, with many birds, covers a period as long as the
life of the birds. It is believed of the eagle that his choice
of a mate is a life-long choice. The English sparrow is
believed to be polygamous, and our domestic fowls are
also. The bob- whites are monogamous, a dual union
being an exception among them, although they belong to
the same order of birds as do our domestic fowls.
The number of eggs in the full set for different birds
varies from one to twenty. The young of some birds
are hatched with a full covering of down, and can run
about or swim from the time of hatching; such birds are
called praecocial. Of other birds, the young are hatched
naked and helpless, and must be long fed and nourished
in the nest; these birds are called altricial. Such birds
are in a rnuch less advanced condition than are the prae-
cocial birds, and the nest becomes a home where the
development takes place under the care of one or both
parents. This fact has biological significance; the longer
the time of development from birth to maturity, the
greater the degree of complexity which may be reached,
and the higher the position of the animal in the scale of
life. . In accord with this fact, we have within the class
Aves, a possible ranking of the families of birds; and we
shall find that the birds of highest nervous organization
are the altricial birds, while the praecocial birds plainly
rank lower in the bird scale.
The period of incubation is the period intervening
between the laying of the eggs and the hatching of the
young birds. With some birds the eggs are left loosely
covered but exposed to the rays of the sun, the loose
covering serving to prevent undue radiation at night.
With many birds the eggs are covered by the female,
the male during the entire time taking upon himself
282 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
the care of feeding the sitting bird or repairing the nest
in case of accident. Among the highest birds within this
class, the male in addition to the duties just mentioned
defends the female from enemies and seems to try to
encourage her in her long task by his songs, his presence,
and his manifest attentions beyond those necessary in the
way of feeding her. If affection exists among birds, that
is, affection in its accepted human meaning, the conduct
of birds during the time of home-building and caring for
the nestlings, is to be interpreted adequately only on the
basis of affection of a degree which is commensurate with
the advancement of the bird in the scale of living. Among
the highest order of birds we have numerous illustrations
of the interestedness of the two members of a bird house-
hold in each other. Anyone who has ever had the
pleasure of watching a pair of owls, knows that one
seldom sees so genuine a display of affection among the
human tribe.
In others of the bird tribe, the female has to take
the brunt of the burdens of incubation, the male taking
her place only a short time, while she is off feeding.
From this, the conditions vary until finally, in such
birds as the phalaropes, there is such a division of labor
that the care of the eggs and of the young also falls upon
the male bird. Truly, the male phalarope seems to be
the "new man" among birds; and the female bird is
surely the "new woman, " so care-free a life does she lead
while her mate is at home busy with home duties !
The ostriches, largest of our living birds that have a
keeled back bone, share the home duties ; the male assist-
ing in covering the eggs in their sand-hollowed nests.
The wood duck, handsome fellow that he is, leaves the
incubation and the care of the young to his mate. It is
MIGRATIONS AND NESTING HABITS. 283
a rare thing for the domestic cock to pay any attention
to his offspring. It really seems to be a matter of con-
descension on his part when he brings some choice morsel
of food or an insect to the attention of the overburdened
hen mother with fifteen or twenty little chicks.
As to the feeding and care of the young, about the
same individual differences hold good; though for the
majority of birds both parents share in the feeding of the
young birds, at least to some extent. In the higher
orders both parents seem to have equal solicitude for
the safety and comfort of their young. And it is certainly
no easy task to fill the gaping mouths from daylight to
dark. Sometimes it is a fine, fat, juicy worm, or a piece
of a berry; sometimes it is a half dozen seeds beaten to a
pulp ; or some other dainty, regurgitated morsel from
the parent crop ; or perhaps it is a little fish dropped down
the willing throat. With praecocial birds the training
usually consists in showing the young birds where and
how to find food for themselves. You have doubtless
seen a mother duck teaching her ducklings to spoon up
the mud from the bottom of the pond for insect larvae
and juicy water plants; or the domestic hen showing her
chicks how to make the dirt fly in the weed patch, or in
the mellow garden good angleworm ground!
June and July are the high tide of the nesting season
with our temperate latitude birds, and on some especially
hot afternoon one may be surprised to find some mother
robin, catbird, or cedar bird astride her nest, with wings
half extended, thus attempting to shield her nestlings
from the sun, and at the same time give them air.
As to their notions of cleanliness, birds adhere more
or less closely to standards, which also seem to vary with
the nervous development and the advancement of the
284 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
birds in the scale of life. Here, again, they exhibit a
resemblance to their human neighbors. We say of one
farmer, he is thrifty, his farm is well-kept; of another,
he is shiftless, and everything is at loose ends. House-
keepers are slovenly, untidy, or disorderly; or they are
industrious, orderly, .artistic, neat the other sort of
homekeepers about whom we would prefer to think.
These traits seem human and not to be applied to other
animals. But it is to be accepted as true that these
notions, along with many other traits and powers in this
wonderfully complex nature or being of ours, have their
roots deeper than the soil in which we grow; and we shall
understand ourselves better for studying and seeking
out the glimpses, and sometimes clear evidences, of
our own powers in animals lower in the life scale than
ourselves.
The instincts clustering about home and home-
making, and care for the young, are among the finest
of all the instincts. And nowhere, not even the human
tribe excepted, are these instincts more clearly in evidence
than among the members of the higher orders of birds;
indeed the care found among the lower orders of animals
is often superior to the care vouchsafed to the helpless
infant by some human parents.
With these instincts as with others that have been
mentioned, we find various degrees of excellence in the
making and tending of the nest. Some birds are slovenly,
careless nest-builders, scooping out a hollow in the
sand of the sea beach, or pushing a loose pile of drift
together to make the hollow in which to lay the eggs.
Crows and jays make nests that look as if they might fall
to pieces if the female birds did not sit upon them very
carefully. Blackbirds' nests are little better. English
MIGRATIONS AND NESTING HABITS. 285
sparrows seem to stand off and throw together almost any-
thing they can find loose and carry off, and will contentedly
rear several broods in such a nest in the course of the year;
without making any attempt to mend or clean up. When
you attempt to take down their nest, it comes to pieces
in your hand. Contrast such nests with the nest built by
the Baltimore oriole, or the bluebird, the tailor bird, or
the dainty, lichen-covered home of the humming bird.
Again, nests, aside from their construction, are filthy
or cleanly, according to the notions of cleanliness possessed
by their pair of owners. The pelicans and the cormorants
have disgustingly filthy nests, the offal and garbage and
excrementitious matter being allowed to accumulate ; and
in the case of the cormorants, its fermentation serves to
furnish the heat necessary to incubate the eggs. Crows
and jays among our more familiar land birds do hardly
any better. In strong contrast with these birds stand
the careful robin or the oriole or the dainty cedar bird
mothers, who regularly clean their nests of all litter left by
the food, or of excrementitious matter; keeping house so
excellently that an old nest, with them, usually means
a weather-beaten, not a dirty nest. Some birds mend
their nests after an accident from a storm or some other
happening. Here, too, they exhibit varying degrees of
success, as human beings measure success in such
matters.
In the matter of personal or bodily cleanliness, birds
have varying standards. Some insist upon a clean water
bath often and thoroughly performed; some can be quite
happy if the bath water is muddy or is not indulged in
each morning ; while some others are content to find a soft
spot in the middle of the road and take a dust bath. If
you live anywhere near a water course, it will repay you
286 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
to make a trip to it, timing your arrival so as to reach it
and conceal yourself before the birds are astir. You
will enjoy a glimpse of bird life at its best; and if you will
keep perfectly still so as not to make your presence
known, you will see these feathered creatures freely express
their individuality.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE FOOD OF NESTLING BIRDS.*
While adult birds may be valuable to farmers and
fruit-growers at any time of the year, they are more
valuable at the season of the year when they are raising
their young. And whatever the food preferences of the
adult bird, the nestling is quite likely to be fed on soft-
bodied animals such as insects. Also, at this time the
body-building processes are so rapid that the food needs
of the young bird are greatest and it eats more than at
any other time of its life.
The nesting season of birds corresponds to the
season of the year when agricultural activities are at
their height, and the nests of the birds which are valuable
to the farmer are always placed in the vicinity of his grow-
ing crops. On an average, most birds raise two or three
broods of nestlings in a year, with from three to five in a
brood, though the broods of the quails and the owls
include more than either of these numbers. In the South
a spring clutch of quail's eggs may number as high as
thirty-two; but the autumn nestful is rarely more than
ten, about what it is in the North. The barn owl lays
from five to eleven eggs; the marsh owl about six; while
the screech owl may number nine eggs before she begins
sitting; the number of eggs for these owls varies from
four to nine.
*For much of the material under this heading the author is in-
debted to various investigators in the Government Department of
Agriculture, notably Mr. Judd of the Biological Survey.
287
288 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
The labor of feeding the young birds, for all the day-
flying sorts, begins before sunrise and continues until
after sunset ; the appetites of the nestling seem insatiable ;
the meals, as we would call them, often averaging one
every two minutes.
Birds which do not change their diet bring up their
young on the same sort of food as they themselves eat.
For instance, pelicans and terns bring up their young
principally on fish. But gulls, some species of which nest
in Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa, have developed a fondness
for soft- bodied insects and worms, and may frequently
be seen following the plow, searching the freshly-turned
furrows for fat angleworms. Exclusively insectivorous
birds, as cuckoos and swallows, feed their young on insects.
Pigeons and doves feed their young on starchy seeds.
Seed-eaters and birds of mixed diet, both animal and
vegetable, have powerful, muscular, grinding gizzards;
and may, in addition, as in the case of our barnyard
fowls, mocking birds, and some other birds partly fruit-
eaters, swallow sand or small pebbles along with their
food. Birds lack teeth, and some of them use this means
of supplying the lack, thus breaking up the food in the
gizzard rather than in the mouth. Those birds that live
on insects, worms, or soft-bodied vertebrates, have thin-
walled, comparatively weak, non-muscular stomachs.
A further fact is interesting: those birds which in
the adult stage live on both animal and vegetable food
feed their young on an insect diet. This fact must not
be lost sight of in estimating the value of a bird. What-
ever the character of the stomach of the parent bird, the
nestling has, in most cases, a membranous sack with but
little development, and cannot digest anything but the
softest and most readily digestible substances. Vege-
THE FOOD OF NESTLING BIRDS. 289
tarian birds, with the exception of the pigeons and the
doves, feed their young for a time on soft-bodied insects.
The crow blackbird, which in the adult stage is both
insectivorous and a seed-eater, feeds its young on. soft,
plump spiders, young grasshoppers, and small cutworms.
The pigeons feed their young on pigeons' milk, which is
grain in semi-fluid condition, partially digested in the
parent's crop and fed to the young bird by regurgitation.
For the last two sorts of birds mentioned, as the
stomach changes, the diet changes; beetles become a
part of the daily fare, until by the time the blackbirds
are half -grown their stomachs are ready to digest such
hard grains as corn. This may be given to them freely,
and when they leave the nest, corn may form one-fourth
of their diet.
Following is a tabulated list of our most common
birds with the nestling, and, in some cases, adult food
habits.
Brown Thrashers. Adults eat one-fourth fruit and
three-fourths insects; but the nestlings are exclusively
insectivorous.
Mocking Bird. Adult eats fruit and insects, half and
half ; but feeds its nestlings exclusively on insects, such as
caterpillars, spiders, flies, moths, and butterflies.
Catbird nestlings are fed on fruit to four per cent,
of their diet, the other ninety-six per cent being insects,
such as spiders, ants, caterpillars, and grasshoppers.
Cuckoos, black-billed and yellow-billed, prefer a
caterpillar diet to any other kind, and this is varied with
leaf -eating larvse. One stomach examined contained two-
hundred fifty caterpillars. The hairs of a caterpillar are
usually barbed at the end, and are apt to catch in the
soft mucous lining of the cuckoo's stomach; hence the
19
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
stomach of an adult bird often has a lining of these hairs.
The yellow- billed cuckoo is called the rain crow. Their
nestlings are fed on smooth caterpillars at first, the hairy
ones, being added later.
Towhee nestlings are fed on long-horned beetles,
weevils, crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, and snails.
Grosbeak nestlings are fed exclusively on insects.
One nest observed by Mr. Judd was built in a potato field,
and the nestlings were fed the larvae and pupae of the
beetles, and later the beetles themselves.
Sparrows, as a Family. Taking it by the large, are
granivorous or seed-eating, as to the adults, to two-
thirds of their diet; but their nestlings are insectivorous,
eating, as long as they are nestlings, such things as grass-
hoppers, army worms, bugs, weevils, beetles, cutworms,
crickets, earthworms, cabbage worms, and snails.
It may be said of the sparrows and the towhees, both
of which feed snails to their nestlings, that this is a service
not to be despised if sheep-raising is carried on in the
region where these birds nest. The snail has been found
to be the intermediate host for the river fluke, that pest
of sheep farmers.
English Sparrow. The adults are insectivorous to
only about one- tenth of their diet, according to Mr.
Judd's investigations; yet, in the cases that have come
under the author's notice, this foreigner is gradually
becoming more of an insect eater. Each spring and
summer, for the last three years, these birds have been
watched eating cutworms. The nestlings, and here is
the interesting part of it, are insectivorous to fifty per
cent of their diet, being fed grasshoppers, spiders, cater-
pillars, weevils, cabbage worms, white grubs, and cut-
worms.
THE FOOD OF NESTLING BIRDS. 2QI
Red -winged Blackbird. Both adults and nestlings
are seed-eaters only to the extent of one per cent of their
diet; the other ninety-nine per cent being weevils, leaf
beetles, grasshoppers, and dragon flies.
Kingbird. The adults feed on beetles, many of them
being asparagus beetles and rose beetles, besides horse
flies and other flies injurious to stock; and in addition,
the adult does much service in driving away crows,
sharp-shinned hawks, and Cooper's hawk, all of which,
although they are larger than he is, are bravely attacked
by the kingbird. He feeds his nestlings on crickets,
grasshoppers, moths, and beetles.
Cooper's Hawk; Sharp-shinned Hawk; Goshawk.
The adults feed on smaller birds, most of them of great
value, and on chickens, quails, grouse, and ducks. The
sharp-shinned hawk is one of our smallest hawks, measur-
ing from ten to twelve inches in the male and a little
larger in the female. The upper parts are slaty gray and
the under parts are whitish. The wings underneath are
white and the tail is white at the tip. Cooper's hawk
is a much larger bird, but looks very much like the
sharp-shinned in coloring. The tail is rounded instead
of square. The pictures of these birds ought to be
sought, so that one may learn just how they look, for
the purpose of recognizing and killing them whenever
they are seen.
Sparrow Hawk. Our smallest hawk; bright reddish-
brown on crown, back, and tail; outer tail feathers white,
under parts of the body yellowish; some black bars,
usually, on head, neck, and breast. This hawk is almost
exclusively insectivorous, eating more grasshoppers than
most other birds put together, and feeding its nestlings
on the same diet.
2Q2 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
Marsh Hawk. One of the most valuable destroyers
of meadow mice and ground squirrels. This hawk differs
from most of its kind in that it is almost exclusively a
ground bird, flying low to beat up its prey, and even
nesting on the ground. Its young are fed on bits of the
same food as the adults eat, and on small insects. The
food of adult marsh hawks consists of field mice, shrews,
and moles, and such other small rodents as may be
found.
Adult Red-Tails (often called hen hawks) should
bear no such evil reputation. The stomachs of many birds
examined, show it to be a mouse eater, varying its diet
with the larger insects, small rodents, and reptiles.
The stomachs examined in winter contained poultry and
game birds in the ratio of fifty-four out of five hundred
sixty-two stomachs, nine per cent of the whole number
of birds examined.
Barn Owl. Probably the most valuable rat and mice
catcher in the United States. Its nestlings are fed at
night when mice are abroad and people are asleep.
Burrowing Owl. Adults eat, and feed their nest-
lings, grasshoppers, beetles, mice, frogs, snakes, lizards,
and crayfish.
Screech owls eat mice and many insect pests; feed
their young. the same sorts of food as they themselves eat.
As to the owls in general, if the boy or the man who
considers them a pest will go to the nests of these birds,
he will always find evidence on the ground below the
nest of the nature of the food of these birds. They
swallow their food whole and afterward eject through
the m6uth the indigestible portions, such as bones, hair,
or chitinized insect legs, though chitin yields more
readily to digestive fluids than do either bones or hair.
THE FOOD OF NESTLING BIRDS. 293
Mourning doves feed their young on seeds of
spurge, ragweed, sunflowers, pigeon grass, and corn, all
reduced to what is called pigeons' milk. One nestling
examined by Mr. Judd had seventy-five hundred sorrel
seeds in its crop.
Gallinaceous birds are not exclusively vegetarians
as adults, and their young, as far as they, have been
investigated, are fed largely on insect diet at first. Prairie
chickens and quails feed their young on cutworms, army
worms, chinch bugs, twelve-spot cucumber beetles, and
Rocky Mountain locusts. Mongolian pheasants, now
being introduced into some parts of the country, greedily
eat potato beetles, are bred for that purpose in some parts
of the Middle West. Whether they can be induced to
breed freely and naturally in this country remains to be
seen.
Cranes feed their nestlings on earthworms and
carabid beetles. One nestling two months old ate
seventeen-year cicadas, a quart of them a day, as long as
the mother crane's "find" held out.
Warblers eat, as adults, and feed their nestlings, the
smaller insects, such as leaf-eaters, both bugs and beetles,
and plant lice.
Baltimore Oriole. In an examination of one hundred
stomachs, thirty-four per cent of the food was cater-
pillars, the remainder mainly other insects, very little
being fruit, and that principally of the wild sorts, and no
trace of grapes. (John Burroughs accuses the bird of
being a grape-eater.)
Chickadees. Winter food of the adults consists of
insects' eggs, such as tent caterpillar and fall canker-worm
eggs, winter forms of plant and scale lice, and many com-
mon and injurious hibernating forest tree pests. Their
2Q4 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
visits should be encouraged as much as possible. To en-
courage a bird means to let it carefully alone, and see that
other people treat it in the same way. In unusually
severe weather, when snow covers the natural food supply
of birds, encouragement may mean providing the little
workers with artificial food to tide them over until their
natural food again offers. For flesh- and insect-eaters,
this might be accomplished by hanging meaty bones in
trees, as suggested by the National Humane Society.
Fastening netting about the meat might slow up the
carrying away of the meat by the larger birds and give
the little ones a better chance.
Nuthatches and brown creepers perform a service
difficult for man to do for himself. The eggs of many of
our insects are so small as to escape the closest search on
our part; but these tiny birds, chickadees, nuthatches,
and brown creepers, are well able to search them out;
and in the long cold winters require large quantities of
them to keep themselves going. If you see a grayish
shadow of a little bird, hustling up and down the tree
trunks, giving vent to a shrill, jerky note as it glides in
and out of the bark crevices, do not throw a stone at it.
Ten chances to one, it is one of these little birds getting its
hard-earned dinner, and thus ridding us of numerous pests.
Downy Woodpeckers. Feed their young on wood-
boring insects and their adult forms, also on plant lice,
scale and bark lice. In winter, the adults search tree
trunks for hibernating insects, borers, and insect eggs.
Hairy Woodpeckers. Seek more boring beetles and
fewer ants than does the downy ; otherwise the same as the
downy.
Flicker. Two stomachs examined contained three
thousand ants apiece. Some of the ants were the wood--
THE FOOD OF NESTLING BIRDS. 295
boring sorts, and the others were like the ants eaten by the
downies, the sorts that cultivate plant lice. Flickers
also eat borers, but they are much more largely ground
birds than are any others of the woodpeckers.
All Mr. Judd's observations showed clearly that,
except pigeons and doves, the birds examined fed their
young first on animal food, and changed the diet only
gradually, and this only when the parent birds were not
insect- or flesh-eaters. This is due not only to the fact of
the soft, lax walls of the* young bird's stomach, but also
to the other fact that animal food in general has a higher
nutritive value, and is more easily digested by the bird
than is vegetable food.
Professor Samuel Aughey gives some interesting
figures calculated to show vividly how much a bird may
really accomplish in the destruction of insects. He
says: " During an outbreak of the Rocky Mountain
locusts in the yo's I saw a long-billed marsh wren carry
thirty locusts to her nestlings in one hour. At this
rate for seven hours a day, a brood would consume
two hundred ten locusts per day. And the passerine
birds of the eastern half of Nebraska, allowing only
twenty broods to the square mile, would destroy daily.
162,771,000 of the pests. The average locust weighs
about fifteen grains, and is capable each day of consuming
its own weight of standing forage crops, corn and wheat.
The locusts, therefore, eaten by the nestlings would have
been able to destroy in one day 174,397 tons of crops,
which at $10 a ton, would have been worth $1743.97.
This case may serve as an illustration of the vast good
that is done every year by the destruction of insect pests
fed to nestling birds." (From Report of the Entomo-
logical Commission, 1900.)
CHAPTER XXV.
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND SPECIAL
FUNCTIONS.
As in nearly all vertebrates, the nervous system may
be divided into the cerebro-spinal and the sympathetic
system, with the brain as the front dilation of the nerve
axis. Beginning with the lowest vertebrate animals with
a nervous axis, the front end of the nerve cord is practically
without dilation, that is, there are practically no evident
lobes, such as characterize the human brain, for example.
In fishes, there are the characteristic lobes, front and rear
brain, and olfactory and optic lobes, but of nearly equal
size, the optic lob'es being somewhat the largest of the
four. In the reptilian brain the lobes are of more un-
equal size, owing to the encroachment of the front brain
upon the cavity occupied by the other lobes of the front
end of this nerve axis. In birds the front brain partly
.covers the olfactory and the optic lobes, and is relatively
larger than it is in reptiles. That is, the cerebral hemi-
spheres are larger than in any o'f the animals below the
birds. This relative proportion of the four lobes is one
of the bases of determining the place of an animal in the
scale of life. Of course, there must also enter the propor-
tion of gray matter to white, and the fineness of the matter
making up the nervous tract, as well as the comparative
size of the four lobes.
There are the familiar twelve pairs of cranial nerves,
and, as in man, the number of spinal nerves corresponds
296
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND SPECIAL FUNCTIONS. 297
with the number of vertebrae. The sympathetic system
is made up of a double cord, running on each side of the
vertebrae lengthwise.
Sight.
The sense of sight is amazingly developed in birds,
seemingly far beyond the power of vision in man, unless
it is aided by some faculty which does not come to the
aid of the sense in man. The function of accommoda-
tion is marvelously developed. You have seen a hawk
swoop down with a rush, and yet not fail to reach the
prey sought. Such rapidity of change in the function of
accommodation in the human eye would be a serious tax.
Humming birds fly with more rapidity of motion than
the human eye can follow, yet they avoid obstacles and
find the flower. You and I have considerable difficulty
in locating angleworms, even with diligent digging, before
we start off fishing; but a robin will sit on the tree bough,
apparently looking about him, and all at once will dart
down and complacently pull up a fine, fat worm. The
bald eagle up in the blue sees an osprey fishing, and is
thereby spared the trouble of getting a meal for himself.
The osprey 's dash out of the depths of the same aerial
ocean to the water surface, just beneath which a fish is
swimming, is even more wonderful.
Structurally, the eye consists of the corneal window,
the crystalline lens, the iris, the conjunctiva, and the cavity
filled by the aqueous humor. Two eyelids are present as in
man, and there is also a third, the nictitating membrane;
this third eyelid moves across the ball of the eye, at right
angles with the other lids, from the inner corner to the
outer. Owls, which do not see well in the daytime, sit
with this membrane across the eyeball. Threaten to hit
298 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
a hen or a duck, and you will see this nictitating mem-
brane glide across the eyeball.
Smell.
As to the sense of smell, there is no such acuteness of
this sense as is found among the insects. This is the
sense of which the human family, also, is possessed in a
smaller degree than are many of the animals below man.
Some of the birds seem to possess the sense in a greater
degree than does man; but in the majority of birds, the
sense seems developed to about the same degree as in
our own case.
The birds which have the keenest sense of smell are
the carrion-eating birds, vultures and buzzards. And
even these must be guided largely by the sense of sight in
finding their food. They would seem rather to sight their
food before they smell it. So far as their habits have been
observed, the birds are first seen circling high in the air
above the carcass, or they may be seen coming to earth
to observe whether some small animal they have sighted
is alive or dead. Though the animal may not have moved,
that sense is the sense through which the final judgment
is made in such a case; this seems undoubted. On the
side of the animal which is the object of the quest, the
conduct is even more puzzling. Being alive, it seems not
to fear the carrion bird, and does not run to cover ; but let
a hawk come near such an animal, and off it makes to the
nearest hiding place.
The black vulture, which is about as tame in some
of our southern towns as our own domestic fowls, probably
uses smell more than sight in locating its food, since so
much of its time is spent on the ground. That a substance
may be perceived as a smell it is necessary, at least in.
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND SPECIAL FUNCTIONS. 299
the animals that smell by means of a localized organ : first,
that the substance be capable of giving off minute portions
of itself which are so much lighter than air that they move
suspended in it, and are readily carried by currents of air.
It is supposed that aquatic animals do not smell as air-
inhabiting animals do; though it is possible that they
become sensible of odors by some other means, as by
solutions in water. The body membrane, underneath
which the branches of the olfactory nerve are spread, must
have its mucous surface soft and moist. These atoms of
the odor-bearing substance, striking this surface and being
moistened by its fluids, affect it in such a way as to bring
about the sensation of some particular thing, as violets,
roses, new-mown hay, fried potatoes, ploughed ground;
or to the vulture, carrion, its sense in this respect being
keener than the sense of man for the same odor.
As to the smelling organ of the bird, the nostrils open
externally upon the upper mandibles; and the nasal
chamber back of each nostril communicates with the
mouth, smell being connected with taste, as it is in the
human tribe. The olfactory nerve enters each nasal
chamber by a single opening ; and its branches are spread
under the membrane lining the chamber.
Hearing.
Birds rival man in their receptivity to musical har-
monies, and in the extent to which they are aroused by
musical vibrations of the atmosphere. Quickness and
accuracy of hearing are remarkable in the genus of birds
to which the mocking bird belongs. He will render
chance notes more accurately than can ninety-nine out of
a hundred human beings. Yet a bird's ear is structurally
very simple. There is usually no external ear, but some
300 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
ear coverts instead. The drum of the ear is very near the
surface of the head. In the middle ear, the complex
mechanism found in the human ear is reduced to a single
bone, the columella ; and the tympanic cavity is connected
with the mouth by a broad passageway, instead of the
slender Eustachian tube of the human ear. In the inner
ear, the cochlea is shorter and is not coiled tightly;
neither do the semicircular canals have the position of
these organs in the human ear. They lie in three separate
planes in the ear of the bird.
Taste.
The principal organ of taste is the tongue, which is
innervated by the glossopharyngeal nerve, whose branches
go to the back part of the mouth as well as to the tongue.
The sense is intimately connected with the sense of smell.
Touch.
The beak is the principal organ of touch, although
there is a distributed sense of touch, not localized but
distributed over the entire body, and having definite
connection with the down or feather covering.
Respiration.
The lungs of birds are not, as in mammals, hemmed
into a thoracic portion of the chest or thorax, but are
more like the lungs of reptiles. They begin at the apex
of the chest in front and extend backward in the upper
region of the thorax and the vertebrae as far as the kid-
neys. They are not lobed nor do they float free, but are
fixed in the upper portion of the dorsal cavity, and are
covered on the lower side with a membrane or pleura.
The air enters the nostrils, but does not, as in the human
animal, pass through the windpipe directly to the lungs.
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND SPECIAL FUNCTIONS. 301
When a bird breathes, it breathes all through its body, in
its many intermuscular spaces, and in many, if not most
of, its bones. In addition to these aerating chambers,
the pelicans and the cormorants have a remarkable system
of intercellular tubes just underneath the skin. This
remarkable pneumaticity makes it possible for the bird
to accomplish its wonderful flights, calling for huge car-
bon dioxid excretion, and immense oxygen supply.
From the lungs, there extend through the body of the
bird, chambers communicating with the intermuscular
cavities of the front thorax, the hind thorax, the wings,
the abdomen, the legs, and the subcutaneous regions,
when they are present, these forming the auxiliary
respiratory chambers.
Digestive System.
The modifications of the alimentary canal of birds
are somewhat similar to those of carnivorous and vegetable
feeders among the insects. The connection of the tract
with the blood circulation, and the manner and place of
oxygenation of the food current, more closely resembles
the arrangement in man, as birds have a definite circulat-
ory and respiratory system.
The entrance is through the mouth, which enlarges
into the gullet or esophagus. In many seed-eaters, this
gullet serves for the retention of large quantities of food
seeds until they can be digested. The seed-eaters are
among the most nervously organized of the birds, use up
the most food, consume the most oxygen, and must eat
voraciously to build up after this tissue exhaustion.
Pelicans have the gullet enormously enlarged to serve in
prehension of their food as well as its retention.
Below the gullet the canal is usually modified into a
302 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
crop, a side extension of the tube. In seed-eaters, this
extension is larger than it is in the flesh-eating birds, and is
an efficient division of the digestive tract. Here the food
is macerated and mixed with such digestive fluids, usually
saliva, as are discharged into this part of the tract. In
birds which feed their young by regurgitation, this crop
is the portion of the digestive tract from which the com-
minuted and partially prepared food is thrown back into
the mouth of the parent bird to be transferred to the
mouth of the nestling. Below this crop is the proven-
triculus, where the foods are peptonized if they are starchy ;
or the analysis of the proteids is begun here in the case
of the carnivorous birds. The food mass with the two
digestive fluids from above are then pushed forward into
the gizzard or muscular stomach. If the bird is gran-
ivorous or subsists upon a mixed diet of hard and soft
substances, the movement of the strong muscular walls
of the gizzard practically finish the comminution of the
foods into a soft yielding mass.
Very little absorbing of the food current takes place
up to this point, but from here on the lacteal absorbents
communicate with the lining walls of the canal, picking
up such parts as are ready for absorption, scantily at
first, but in the after-part of the canal, abundantly.
From the stomach, the food passes into the intestine,
which may or may not be modified into the three familiar
portions of the human intestine. At its upper end, the
food receives the digestive, chylifying fluids of the liver
and the pancreas. In the lower part of the intestine,
the food may be retained in lateral dilations of this large
intestine, called caeca. The lacteals communicate abund-
antly with these caeca, and increase enormously the
amount of prepared food which thus may be absorbed, by
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND SPECIAL FUNCTIONS. 303
reason of so large an increase of absorbing surface.
Such small part of the food mass as is not absorbed here,
passes out of the body by way of the rectum and the
anus.
Such prepared food as is gathered from the alimentary
canal by the lacteals and papillate absorbents of the lining
wall, by way of the lymphatic conductors, is emptied into
the thoracic duct and then thrown into the blood circu-
lation, to be oxygenated in the lungs, much as the same
process is accomplished in man.
ORDERS OF BIRDS (COUES).
Passeres, the perching, sparrow-like birds.
Picariae, birds of such nature as the cuckoos and the
humming-birds, very much unlike each other, but also
quite unlike the passerine birds, and really put into a class
together because they will not fit anywhere else.
Psittaci, parrot-like birds.
Raptores, the birds of prey.
Columbae, doves and their relatives.
Gallinae, the game birds.
Limicolae, the shore birds.
Herodiones, the herons and the stork-like birds.
Alectorides, the swamp or marsh birds.
Longipennes, the long- winged swimmers.
Lamellirostres, duck-like and goose-like birds.
Steganopodes, seashore birds with full- webbed feet.
Pygopodes, diving birds.
305
CHAPTER XXVI.
PASSERES.
Perchers Proper Altricial Birds.
This order includes about half of all the known birds.
Their range is from tropical to arctic regions. Practically
all the countries of the known world have their character-
istic Passeres, while there are some genera that are
practically common to all. This is
the order of the robins, the thrushes,
the catbirds, the sparrows, the crows,
and the jays.
The feet are perfectly adapted for
perching, first, by the strength and
position of the hind toe, and by the
fact that it can be placed opposite to
any one of the other toes, much as the
human thumb can be apposed to any
one of the fingers. (Fig. 107.) No one
of the front toes is capable of being
turned backward, and all the toes are
separate to their bases. With one
exception there are always four toes,
and the bird which makes this excep-
tion does not appear among our birds so it need not give
us any trouble. The passerine foot comes nearest to the
human hand in the range of its adaptability.
The Passeres were named by Cuvier in 1798; the
name is the plural of the Latin noun, passer, meaning a
sparrow. The group with its present limits was estab-
307
FIG. 107. Typical
passerine foot.
308 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
lished in 1829. The birds included represent the highest
type of physiological development among birds.
With respect to the respiratory system, birds rival
man, having a more complicated system than does the
human animal. Some of the animals below the birds are
cold-blooded; the blood of some of them is oxygenated
only periodically; of others, only a portion of the blood
is aerated. In those animals where the blood is oxygen-
ated continuously, the consumption of food is most
rapid, and the temperature is highest. The body tem-
perature of man is ninety-eight and forty-six hundredths ;
but for birds, body temperatures range from one hundred
four to one hundred ten. Literally, these are the hot-
blooded animals. In the Passeres, the highest range
of the temperature is reached. Nothing could convince
one more fully of these facts than one of these little,
nervous, frightened wild birds held in the hand. The
heart, pounding rapidly against the hand, seems about
to spill the life blood of the. tiny feathered creature, as
the result of the extreme nervous, tension under which it is
suffering. The Passeres consume the most oxygen and
live the fastest, that is, under the heaviest tax upon the
vital organs, of all the birds.
The order is divided into two sub-orders on the
basis of the degree of development of musical apparatus
in the throat. In one sub-order, the Oscines, the musical
apparatus reaches a more or less high degree of perfection.
Several pairs of additional muscles are used in the pro-
duction of the sounds made by the bird, giving to the birds
forming this sub-order a range of musical ability not
equalled by the other orders. In the second sub-order,
the Clamatores, literally the crying birds, the musical
apparatus is not so highly developed.
PASSERES.
309
In all the families of the order, there are nine or ten
primaries, and the secondaries are more than six.
The birds are all insectivorous or granivorous,
I
a,
S3
though some of the species ask fruit as a reward for
killing scores of insects. Yet it is notably the insect-
ivorous order. Other orders combine this food with
3IO FIELD ZOOLOGY.
other foods (Fig. 108); some do not eat insects at any
time ; and there are a few birds in this order which do not
accomplish the full amount of good which might be
expected of a passerine bird.
The English sparrow came to the United States in
1885, as an unwelcome visitor. He is quarrelsome and
often drives away our valuable birds; his wife is a dirty
and slatternly housekeeper; and when one of the tribe
has his feelings ruffled in the slightest degree, all his kin
within telegraphing distance assemble to do him justice.
Nevertheless he is not to be seized by the scruff of the
neck and thrown out bodily, for lie is learning a little bird
sense in his new environment, and is doing some good to
crops on his own account. Here is a list, up to present
date, of his accomplishments, American accomplish-
ments ; and whatever he does, his wife does ; for, although
she is possessed of considerable individuality, she follows
her husband's lead, as all dutiful wives should.
Nestlings. Insectivorous to fifty per cent, of their
diet; are fed on grasshoppers, spiders, caterpillars, weevils,
cabbage worms, white grubs, cutworms, ants.
Adults. -Insectivorous to one-tenth of their diet ; eat
the same insects as do the nestlings.
In their relations to winged ants, and the termites,
which closely resemble winged ants, the English sparrow,
aside from the flickers, the downies and the hairies, is
more beneficial than are most other birds. The writer
came across a stream of these termites going up the side
of a building that was being remodeled. And close on
them was a flock of English sparrows picking them off
with the utmost haste and diligence. Not a sound was
heard from the little birds except the soft whirring of
their wings when temporarily disturbed by the passersby.
PASSERES. 311
This occurred on a main thoroughfare of the town; but
the hungry sparrows returned to the feast again and
again, ridding the place of scores of these wood-boring
pests.
On the whole, this is the order of birds most beneficial
to man, coming closest to him in point of nervous organ-
ization, asking most of him in the way of protection, and
returning most to him in service. It is a fact running
through the animal kingdom, all the way up from the
amoeba to the most highly organized race of the human
tribe, that the animal high in nervous organization has
less effective means of defense physically. Hence there
should exist between man and these nervous little birds
the closest sympathy and a spirit of mutual helpfulness.
It is there, on the part of the passerine birds; and if man
would have an effective ally in his farming and crop-
raising generally, not to speak of his place of abode being
kept comfortably and normally free from noxious pests
of many kinds, he will cultivate in himself, if it is not
already there, a feeling of dependence upon these valuable
servant-friends, and will seek to protect them in every
way possible. A bird's life is not to be taken lightly; it is
of the same sort as yours, with the germs of many of the
same high sensibilities as you yourself possess.
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Odd Group Altricial.
This is a group of birds of highly diversified forms.
They are put together because they differ from all other
birds, rather than because they resemble each other.
The order includes all the birds below the Passeres, down
as far as the parrots and the birds of prey. The distinc-
tive characteristics cannot be
stated as they were for the
Passeres, because the birds
have no characteristics that
are common to all of them.
The order includes such widely
different birds as the wood-
peckers, the cuckoos, the
humming birds, and the night
hawks.
The
modified
plans of
hind toe
feet are variously
to serve as many
food-getting. The
is usually smaller
and weaker than the other
toes, and cannot be apposed
One or another of all the toes
can be turned in a direction opposite from the direction
of the toes in the passerine foot, and in various members
of the order one sees these various positions assumed
312
FIG. 109. Syndactyle foot of a
picarian bird.
to any of the other toes.
PICARI.E.
313
by the toes. The claw of the hind toe is smaller than the
claw of the middle toe; at least, it is not larger.
The wings, endlessly variable in form in the different
representatives, agree in having ten* primaries, of which
the first is rarely so reduced in length as to be called
spurious or even very short. An exception to this point
just stated occurs in the division of the woodpeckers,
Pici, where there are but nine developed primaries. The
greater wing coverts are at least half as long as the quills
that they cover. The number of rectrices is never more
than ten, occasionally there are eight.
The bill assumes some of the most extraordinary
shapes, but is never cered or hooked nor swollen at the
nostrils. The food habits of the Picarise are as various
as the families composing the order. The cuckoos are
insectivorous; the woodpeckers are almost exclusively
so, although the red-headed woodpecker does not object
to a fruit dessert after digging out a hundred or so grubs.
The whip-poor-wills are insectivorous, and their hunting
begins when the work of other birds ceases. The goat
suckers or night hawks, the swifts, and the humming
birds are also insectivorous. The trogons and the
toucans, tropical birds, are frugivorous, or fruit-eating.
The kingfishers have two branches : one of them insectiv-
orous, and the other carnivorous, that is, fish-eating. (Fig.
1 10.) The small Texas kingfisher fishes on dry land for the
numerous grasshoppers which are to be found in the grain
fields. The kingfisher nests are hollowed out in the steep,
perhaps rocky, bank of some canyon or stream side. The
burrow may be two or three feet deep and is dug out by
the bird.
Chapman says that woodpeckers are found every-
where in the world except on the two islands of Madagas-
314 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
car and Australia. They are surely very widely distrib-
uted in the United States; they are usually colored so
that they are easily recognized, and, with the possible ex-
ception of the yellow-bellied sapsucker, should be care-
fully protected. Much has been said previously of the
FIG. no. Belted Kingfisher (Galloway.} Photographed by J. W. Folsom.
beneficial food habits of the numerous tribe of woodpeckers ;
but too much cannot be said to impress their good qualities
on the mind of the general public. The downy and the
hairy woodpecker, even in our northern latitudes, stay
with us all winter, and work the year round, hunting
borers when the trees are not frozen; and joining the
nuthatches in their search for insect eggs in bark crevices
and out-of-the-way places, in the coldest weather.
PICARLE. 315
The humming birds are likely to nest together in
some tree or bush which is in blossom; woodpeckers are
rather more likely to nest solitarily ; and once in a while
one specially quarrelsome pair will dispossess another
weaker pair of woodpeckers and appropriate their nest.
The cuckoos of the New World, while closely related to
the cuckoo of Europe, have not the reputation for laying
their eggs in the nests of other birds, which is the usual
habit of the European bird, and only a very exceptional
thing with our cuckoos. This lazy habit of the European
cuckoo seems to have been bequeathed rather to our cow-
birds, near relatives of our blackbirds. Farther south,
along the Rio Grande river, are found the Savannah
blackbirds or Anis, and in Mexico, the groove-billed ani;
these birds look like a very slender blackbird, but their
bills are much stouter. The groove-bill has the black-
bird-like habit of associating in flocks, and feeding on
cattle ticks, which they pick off the cattle while the cattle
are grazing. The Savannah blackbirds are communistic
in their nesting habits; several birds uniting to make one
nest in which the several females lay their eggs.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PSITTACI.
Parrot-like Birds Altricial.
This is the order of the parrots, the lories, the ma-
caws, and the cockatoos, and is one of the most individ-
ualized of the groups ; that is, its members are easily recog-
nizable. They are social birds, nesting and feeding in
companies. The Carolina paroquet was in earlier times
a resident of the Gulf States and spread northward into
the states of the lower Mississippi, and has been found
as far north as Kansas, but is now nearly exterminated
in the northern part of its old range. We are informed
from old records that it extended as far north as the
Ohio river in 1861. Farther back, in 1780, Barton
recorded the fact of having seen a flock near Albany, New
York.
The birds of the order have highly colored plumage,
and most of the representatives show strongly contrasting
colors. (Fig. in.) The toes are zygodactyle by the turning
backward of the fourth toe. The bill is stout, short, and
more or less hooked ; and at its base a growth of skin covers
the horn of the beak, making what is called the cere. The
tongue is thick, fleshy, and somewhat prehensile, objects
being grasped between it and the upper mandible.
The upper mandible is more freely movable than in other
birds, being jointed to the front bones of the head in-
stead of being an extension of them. The bill is freely
used in climbing. The lower larynx is peculiarly con-
316
PSITTACI. 317
structed, being provided with three special pairs of
muscles.
As to their food habits, the birds may be called the
frugivorous raptores ; and in some respects, they resemble
monkeys among mammals. Parrots abound in all the
tropical countries. But the Indian and the Ethiopian
regions are poor in parrots, indeed the poorest; while
FIG. in. Zygodactyle foot of a parrot.
the Australasian region has the greatest number of them
and perhaps the most species. The parrots which are
generally put on sale in the United States are Mexican or
Cuban, or rarely South American parrots. In their
native haunts, they cannot talk, but are as silent as any
wild birds may be, even more so, for their few notes are
shrill or harsh, and not to be called singing in any degree;
nor do they give a hint of the capacity with which cultiva-
tion may endow them.
CHAPTER XXIX.
RAPTORES.
Birds of Prey Altricial.
These are the birds of prey, and comprise the eagles >
the vultures, the hawks, the falcons, the kites, the buzzards
and the owls.
The young are downy at birth, but must be long fed
and nourished in the nest; in some ways, they are even
more helpless than are some of the passerine birds. The
mother eagle has often a harder time to teach her eaglets
to fly than falls to the lot of the tiny humming bird
mother; occasionally, the eaglets must be pushed over
the side of the nest and compelled to use their wings.
In the typical families, the structure betokens strength
and activity, ferocity, and carnivorous food habits. But
in the smaller, weaker species the diet is mainly insectiv-
orous; other species feed upon reptiles and fish, but
the majority enjoy a flesh diet and capture their prey in
open warfare.
The wings are broad and ample, and the coverts are
long and numerous, covering about three-fourths of the
folded wing. The bill is cered like the bill of the parrots,
but the feet are not zygodactyle. The tail is variable in
form, but has twelve rectrices. The alimentary canal
varies within the order according to the families. Among
the owls, the alimentation is so regulated that indigestible
portions, such as hide, bones, or feathers, are formed into
pellets in the stomach and disgorged through the mouth.
318
RAPTORES. 319
The eagles, falcons, and the hawks capture their prey
on the wing by striking it with their enormously developed
talons, the most deadly weapons possessed by any birds,
and weapons to be feared by man. There are but eight
sorts of vultures in the western hemisphere, and only
two of these, the black and the turkey, are found in the
United States. The black buzzard is sometimes called the
carrion crow. The turkey buzzard is one of the land
scavengers, and one of the few birds whose services are
appreciated. Its life is protected by law in many of our
states, and the law is observed without protest; possibly
this is due partly to the fact that the flesh of the bird is
so strong and ill-flavored that it would never do for a
game bird. If the laws that do at present exist on the
statute books of the various states, looking toward the
partial protection of our game and insectivorous birds,
were enforced, crops would be safer, profits would be
larger, and men would be more nearly what their Creator
intended them to be.
The eagles fall into two groups: those eating freshly
killed food, and those whose food is putrefying flesh, or
prey not captured in open flight. The first are called
noble birds and the second, ignoble. Among our land
birds, the eagles have remarkable powers of flight. Some
of the buzzards are close rivals, seeming to mount equally
high, and perhaps they remain longer on the wing. In
South America, the place of the eagles is taken by the
condors, whose natural home is the Andean range.
CHAPTER XXX.
COLUMB.E.
Dove-like Birds Altricial.
The essential characteristic of this order is the
character of the bill. This is hard and horny throughout,
convex at the tip, and a little constricted a short distance
back of the tip. At the base of the bill, there is a mem-
brane which covers the nostrils, and which is soft and
elastic while the bird is alive, but contracts and shrinks
in mounted specimens. As one looks down upon the
bill from above, the feathers sweep across its base in a
softly convex line.
The toes are usually not webbed at base, but are
in some specimens slightly connected by webbing. The
hind toe is on a level with the other toes, as in the passerine
foot, and the tarsus is, in most of the birds, shorter than
the toes. It is either covered in front with scales of
regular shape, scutellate; or it is thickly feathered, or
covered by irregularly shaped scales, that is, reticulate.
The number of tail feathers is twelve or fourteen.
The habits of the birds are arboreal or tree inhabiting ;
though there are some ground pigeons. Most of the
Columbse are grain-eaters, and some of them are closely
related to the grouse. The fruit pigeons belong to the
Malay Peninsula, Australia, and the Polynesian group
of islands. They are monogamous in their domestic
habits, and both parents seem to share equally in the
nest-building, incubation, and care of the young. The
320
COLUMBvE. 321
pigeons, unlike all other birds, drink much as human
beings do, by a continuous draught, swallowing mean-
while, not by single sips, elevating the bill after each sip,
as other birds do.
As to the members of this order outside the pigeons
and the doves which are common to the United States:
in Cuba, there is the blue-headed pigeon, terrestrial not
arboreal in its habits. The Nicobar pigeon of New
Guinea has long, plume-like feathers covering the body
from the nape backward to the region of the secondaries.
The Australian pigeons are bronze-tailed, spend part of
their time in trees, and part of it on the ground. The
African pigeons are more brilliantly colored than our
American pigeons, combining green, black, copper,
purple, and red-brown as washes or solid blotches of color.
In all the countries where the columbine birds are known,
some of them are used for food.
The passenger pigeon is known in most countries.
It is like the gypsies among the human tribes, here,
there, and everywhere. It looks more like our mourning
dove than it does like our domestic pigeon, though it is
larger than the mourning dove and more brilliantly
colored. Formerly it was very abundant in the United
States. Their foraging for food became a serious matter;
and their nesting-places became a nuisance because of the
immense flocks with their disturbing noises and their
displacing of other more valuable birds. A bounty was
placed upon them ; and under its provisions their numbers
steadily decreased until now they are rare in any locality.
CHAPTER XXXI.
GALLING.
Game birds Praecocial.
This is the order of the true fowls, the quails, the
grouse, the guinea fowls, the domestic hens and turkeys,
the pheasants, the curassows, and the guans; the two
last-named not being known in the United States.
Mexico and the Rio Grande country are the home of the
guans.
The order shades into the ground doves of the
Columbae on the one hand, and into the plovers of the
Limicolae, on the other hand. Some of the gallinaceous
birds of the Old World are very unlike typical gallinaceous
birds. Hence it must appear that the order embraces
birds that are far apart as to outward appearance, but
are closely related structurally.
These are birds that for the most part have not been
able to endure great extremes of heat and cold; hence
their migrations have not been such that they are found
far north or far south of a given parallel; nor have their
most extensive migrations been north and south, but
rather east and west. They are also birds that have been
closely connected with the encroachments of man upon
new and unsettled territory ; as he has advanced into new
country, these birds have receded before him. The
prairie chicken is a bird which has suffered in this respect.
In northeastern and eastern United States, it was formerly
abundant; but is now exceedingly rare, having been
322
GALLING. 323
driven westward to the plains regions, where the game
season, during which it may be shot, is now carefully
regulated by law. According to the game law of 1908,
the time limits within which the prairie chicken may be
legally hunted are from September 15 to October 15;
for bob- whites, the limits are between November 15
and December 15. In addition, restrictions are imposed
as to the number of birds which may be killed by any
one hunter, and as to the purpose in killing them. Private
property owners may prohibit all hunting on their
premises; which prohibitions, by the way, are the most
effective game laws possible. The migrating quails of
the Old World make migrations across the Mediterranean
to nest in the European countries, returning as winter
approaches. The Australian quails of the genus Synoicus
measure from six and one-half to eight inches in length.
These are the smallest of the quail tribe, and make only
short migrations, keeping in large coveys. The birds
of the order are all terrestrial birds rather than arboreal,
like most of the Raptores. They seek their food on the
ground, seeds and berries, and therefore are not driven
to migration for food as are most of the birds that are
insectivorous in their food habits. As with all birds
notably seed-eaters, food is usually a matter of all-the-
year-round supply in any one locality with these birds;
and hence they have, in many cases, followed the grain-
raising farmer as he has settled in new localities, thus
following the westward tide of immigration.
As to characteristics, the hind toe is elevated, except
in some of the Old World species; the front toes are
commonly a little webbed; the claws are blunt and not
much curved; the tarsus is, in most of the birds, broadly
scutellate when not feathered. The bill is short, stout,
324 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
and convex, and not constricted anywhere from base to
tip. In the region of the nasal fossae, where the nostrils
open upon the upper mandible, the bill is usually soft,
but elsewhere it is horny.
All the birds of the order are social as to their own
kind. Some birds associate because of the food supply;
but these gallinaceous birds have the gregarious habit,
gathering in flocks because of common tendencies and
needs; and seeming to satisfy their desire by being in
company with others of their kind. The domestic birds
of the order are good illustrations of these facts. There
seems to exist a considerable degree of domesticity, or
house and home interest, such as we ourselves possess;
the manifest desire to live with one's own kind. Even
the occasional hen that "steals her nest," associates with
her kind except during the time she is sitting. And so
far as the latter fact is concerned, it may be said that at
this season isolation is the typical condition for all
animals, and especially so for the higher forms of life.
The young of gallinaceous birds are all praecocial
with a generous covering of down at birth, and soon are
able to find their own food; though the brood stays with
the mother for shelter and safety, just as the young of the
hen and the turkey are sheltered and instructed by their
mothers. Most of the birds of the order are polygamous,
the bob- whites forming an exception to this rule.
Throughout most of the order the irresponsibility of the
male in the care of the young is evident; but to this also
the bob- whites form an exception.
Among the bob-whites, the male bird even assists
in covering the eggs during the three weeks, usually
twenty-three days, of incubation. When the mother
bird is on the nest, the male usually does sentinel duty,
GALLING. 325
when he is not hunting his breakfast, dinner, and supper.
When the young are hatched, if the family is disturbed
the male usually flies or runs away from the place, taking
care to remain some time in sight ; while the mother bird,
having given the danger signal to her nestlings, flutters
off in the opposite direction, almost under the feet of the
pursuer, feigning lameness, yet striving to lead the
disturber farther and farther from the vicinity of the
helpless nestlings. She will eventually run or fly to
cover; and the disturber of her peace will be left without
trace or wing rustle to reveal the whereabouts of the birds
so lately visible.
Experiments were made by some of the early investi-
gators, and have been repeated by some later ones, testing
the intimacy of relationship, both in reversion and
adaptation, existing between bob-whites and domestic
chickens. Bob-whites' eggs were placed under a domestic
hen, and a bob- white was given a sitting of domestic
hens' eggs. Both mothers hatched their broods success-
fully. The chickens of the bob- white mother ran about
as young bob-whites do; their calls were those of the
domestic chicken, but the timidity and response to danger
signals, squatting and staying quiet until again sum-
moned, were clearly bob- white-like. Indeed it looked
very much as if the domestic chickens were not so far
removed after all from the behavior of their wild ancestors
before man came among them.
In the other case, it may be first said that young
bob-whites are usually readily tamed; and these young
birds yielded without difficulty to the hen mother, went
abroad by themselves for food, and came at her call.
The hen was confined in the coop, so as not to be able
to lead nor to be led away. The young bob-whites
326 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
remained with their strange mother until they were
nearly grown, sleeping under her wings nights; at this
time, they came as usual at her twilight call, instead
of going into the coop, they squatted down, bob- white
fashion, in a circle, tails toward the center, in front of
the coop. Soon after, the "call of the wild" overcame
the teaching of the hen mother, and off they went, to
return no more.
The wild turkey, ancestor of all the domestic turkeys,
is now a rare bird in any locality in North America. It
has been, hunted so persistently that it is nearly exter-
minated. It is not much of a credit to the human race,
that many animals smaller than man can hope to maintain
their existence only by migrating to regions where man
cannot follow them.
The plumage colors of the gallinaceous birds are such
that they usually are safer in hiding than they are in
flight. Many of the birds are ground birds, but even
those frequenting trees are equally effectively concealed
by their mottled plumage. All the members of the
order are somewhat omnivorous, able to subsist on
seeds, but securing, whenever possible, insects and green
vegetation; and some also relish an occasional meal of
flesh. Who has not seen a domestic hen's evident relish
of the flesh of a mouse or a mole which some fortunate
chance had put in her way?
CHAPTER XXXII.
Shore Birds Praecocial.
This is the order of the snipes, the plovers, the
phalaropes, the sandpipers, the woodcocks, and the
curlews. The birds are, on the whole, rather shy, small
in size, and the body is rounded or depressed. They are
ground birds, living in open places by the water's edge.
The head is completely feathered and the plumage is of
nearly uniform coloration, at least not with decided
contrasts of colors. The primaries are graduated in
length from the first to the tenth; the secondaries also
are of uneven length, lengthening from the outside inward;
this makes the wing show two decided points when the
bird is flying. The tail is, in most of the birds, quite
short, and has from twelve the usual number up to
twenty-six rectrices.
The legs are, in some of the birds, enormously
lengthened, are short in only a few genera, and are usually
quite slender. The hind toe is, in all the birds, short ; and
in some of them it is absent altogether. (Fig. 112.) The
bill of the different birds varies in length and shape ; but in
nearly all of them it is slender and contracted from the
front of the head; it is usually as long as the head, and
in some of the representatives it is much longer than
the head. For most of its length the bill is covered with
a softish skin; and in one or two of the different families
327
328
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
of birds it is soft and sensitive to the very tip, being
provided with nerves and bloodvessels.
This sensitiveness of the bill reaches its extreme
development among birds as a whole, in the woodcock
of the Limicolae. Here the upper mandible is soft and
flexible, cartilaginous rather than horny, and may be
moved upon the lower mandible up, down, around, and
sidewise, with motions surpris-
i n g i n their freedom. When
one has had the rare privilege
of watching one of these sober-
visaged, grandfatherly birds
about his hourly task of digging
worms, he will understand the
meaning of this. The bird
buries its bill up to the head in
fa e SQ f t mud> and cannot US e
any other sense than that of
contact for knowing when it reaches the worm ; sight is
impossible under the circumstances. This seems true for
others of the Limicolae. The snipes, the sandpipers,
and some of the plovers are guided less by the sense of
sight in finding their food than are the birds of most
other orders; and their bills are less horny, more carti-
laginous, and better fitted structurally to serve as sensory
organs. This characteristic of finding their food by
contact as well as by sight, is shared by the duck tribe,
who spoon up much of their food from the pond or the
river bed, taking their food "unsight, unseen." In
the division to which the snipes and the woodcocks
belong, the eyes are set so far back as to be just over the
ear openings. The plovers have the eye more nearly
in a median position.
FIG.
. Semi-palmatedfootof
LIMICOL^E. 329
As the name of the order indicates limus, mud;
colere, to inhabit or dwell these birds are mud-dwellers,
ground-feeders, and therefore they all, that is the North
American sorts, build their nests on the ground. With
the birds that nest near the sea margin, the nest may be
simply a depression in the beach and, possibly, formed
by the foot and body movements of the bird preparatory
to the depositing of the eggs. The birds that nest along
the inland water courses bestow a little more care on their
nests; they are still hollows in the ground, generally
pretty well concealed by being placed at the foot of a
tree or some grass clump. Most of the birds line these
rude nests with grasses, dead leaves, and mosses, some-
times loosely laid in, sometimes with intent of weaving.
The familiar little spotted sandpiper may actually con-
struct a nest, roughly weave it, out of hay and mosses.
The green sandpiper, properly an Old World bird, has
been noted only twice on the Western Hemisphere; this
is the only one of the North American Limicolae known
to nest in trees ; where it has been found, this bird nested
in trees, in old nests previously used, and presumably
nests of other birds.
The long-billed curlews and Bartram's sandpipers
build their nests on the prairies at the foot of grassy
hummocks or clumps, often far from water; while the
other shore birds are true to the typical traits of the
order, and nest along rivers, streams, and ponds.
The food of the limicolan birds consists of insects,
worms, snails, and other soft-bodied animals picked up
from the ground surface or probed for in the soft mud
along the ponds or rivers.
Chapman records the woodcocks, the phalaropes,
many of the plovers and sandpipers, and the jack curlew
330 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
as nesting freely in the eastern states. Avocets, wood-
cocks, Bartram's sandpipers, the little spotted sand-
piper a bird of very common occurrence everywhere
long-billed curlews, killdeers, and the mountain plovers
nest as far south as Kansas in the Missouri valley, and
from there breed northward through the northwestern
states into northern latitudes as far as Labrador and
Nova Scotia.
These birds of the sea- shore and the inland water
courses winter from our northern states southward into
Mexico, some of them going as far as Brazil. The
phalaropes, sea plovers as they are sometimes called,
winter to the south of our shores in southern Atlantic
or Gulf waters, preferring to spend the time of their
winter sojourn on islands rather than on the continent
shores.
Like all birds not resident in any given locality, the
migratory Limicolae visit the states in our middle latitudes
twice a year, once in May, when they go to their breeding-
grounds north, and again in August or September, when
the cold weather of the North drives them south to their
winter homes.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
HERODIONES.
Herons and Storks Altricial Birds.
This is the order of the herons, the storks, the ibises,
and the bitterns. Many of them are birds of large size,
among the tallest of birds that have a keeled breast-bone.
The neck is in most of the birds bent in U- shape. A part,
sometimes all, of the head may be naked, and in some
of the species a part of the neck is bare also. The toes
of the birds are, for the most part, long and slender and
are never fully webbed. The bill is long and slender in
comparison with the rest of the body, and is wedge-shaped
with cutting edges. It is always longer than the head.
The tail of the birds of the order has twelve rectrices.
The Herodiones are all of them more or less depend-
ent upon water courses for food, shelter, and nesting needs ;
hence they are to be found along the inland lakes and
rivers. Most of the birds are shy, fearful of man, and so
seek those water courses that are heavily fringed with
trees and undergrowth, whose turns and secluded wind-
ings furnish the degree of retirement that renders them
comfortable.
The young are hatched naked and helpless, and are
fed and cared for in the nest. The food of -the adults
consists of fish, reptiles, or other soft, small animals, as
snails and aquatic worms, which the bird spears as it
stands in wait, or as it stalks stealthily along through the
grasses and reeds of swamp or wooded water course.
332 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
Most of the herons are sociable birds, nesting and
feeding in large companies. In the United States their
breeding-grounds range from Florida through Louisiana,
South Carolina, and Texas. They nest also in the West
Indies. Herons are peculiar in that they choose to perch
and nest in trees, in spite of their long legs and neck,
and feet adapted for walking. The night heron builds
its nest in trees sometimes as high as thirty feet from the
ground. The green heron, or fly-up- the-creek as it is
sometimes called, will sometimes manifest enough socia-
bility toward the human family to build its nest in some
orchard tree not too far from its water haunts. The
herons seem always hungry; they have two interesting
peculiarities patient, motionless watchfulness for some-
thing to eat, and an insatiable appetite; and the two fit
well together.
The bitterns are solitary rather than sociable birds,
preferring to hunt and fly alone; even the birds when
paired, prefer to nest apart from their own kind, and not
in company with any other birds. Herons and egrets
often nest in one immense family, but not so the bitterns.
Some of the bitterns place their nests in water grasses
or rushes, some in bushes or trees, but always seek
concealment.
The American egret ranges from Florida to Patagonia.
It is one of the most beautiful and at the same time one
of the most harmless of birds. For food, it asks nothing
except such fishes and snails as the swampy marshes and
lakes of its haunts may afford. And yet it has been one
of the most persecuted of birds. During the nesting
season, the male bird puts on an exquisite growth of long
white plumes covering its slender body from nape to tail
tip and is often hunted to the death for the sake of these
HERODIONES. 333
plumes. The home-making instincts and the instincts
for the rearing of young are among the finest instinct:
of which the tribes of animals are capable; and yet the
beautiful outward expression of these instincts in the
egret have proved its death warrant; it must give up its
life, its mate, its young, to adorn someone's head. This
is worse than the Indian brave who makes his war head-
dress of eagles' feathers; his cruelty is to be excused on the
ground of his being a savage.
The white-faced glossy ibis winters from Mexico
on southward, and in company with egrets and herons
breeds in our Southwest, from Texas and the Rio Grande
country on through Arizona and New Mexico. All these
birds, in spite of their long legs and necks, have extensive
powers of flight. On the wing their long legs trail out
behind them, balancing the weight of the head in front.
The storks are natives of the Old World. The Jabiru,
or American stork, native to Central and South America,
is said to have the same habits as the European stork.
The Maribou stork of Africa, the carrion-eating stork of
the Deccan, the black and green and purple stork of China,
are among the Old-World storks. The fish-, frog-, and
snake-eating storks of Africa are famous in song and
story. The maguari stork is found in Argentina. Thus
it seems that the storks of the order are quite well dis-
tributed in the countries of the world.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
ALECTORIDES.
Swamp Birds. (Paludicolae of some Systematists.)
Praecocial Birds.
This order is otherwise called the Paludicolas from
palus, swamp; and colere, to inhabit. It includes cranes,
rails, gallinules, and coots. The birds of the order fall
into two types, the crane type and the rail type. The
first resemble the herons more than they do the birds
of their own order; and the second, while they are very
unlike the cranes in body contour, show by their structure
that they are closely related to them.
The cranes are all large birds with extremely long
legs and necks, and short tails. The head is partly
naked. The bill equals or exceeds the head in length, is
straight, slender, wedge-shaped, and strong, and is
contracted opposite the nostrils. The nostrils are near
the middle of the bill and are broadly open. The tibiae
are naked for an unusual distance, and the toes are short
in comparison with the size of the bird and its legs.
Cranes are found everywhere except in Polynesia
and South America. North America has two of the few
species, Australia has one, Africa has four, and Asia the
others. They are gregarious, gathering in large flocks.
The cranes living in the northern hemisphere migrate
northward at the breeding season. The young of the
cranes are praecocial. The nests are rude affairs, raised
334
ALECTORIDES. 335
only a few inches above the bog surface. The eggs are
few in number, two or three, with rough, warty shells.
The birds of the rail type are small, or of medium
size, have compressed bodies, and their heads are com-
pletely feathered. The body is so much compressed as
to appear wedge-shaped when viewed from the front;
this is of extreme advantage to the birds when threading
their way through the thick matted grasses of the swamps
which they inhabit in search of food, or in flight from
some enemy. The thin body itself seems to part the
reeds and grasses, propelled forward by the strong legs.
The phrase, "as thin as a rail," is not always given its
proper relationship to these thin- bodied birds.
The necks and legs of the rails are not unusually
long, but the toes are extremely long, and this fact
makes it easy for the birds to run over the surface of
the wet, oozy ground of their marshes. The birds are
shy and retiring, and have a way of skulking along
among the reeds and rushes where they hunt their prey.
The king rail, the largest of his kind, has a rather comical
way of stepping loftily along, lifting his short legs with
their enormous toes very high and bobbing his short tail
jerkily at every step. When the rails are pursued they
seek safety first by running or hiding, and when really
flushed they rise feebly and vaguely at first. An observer
of them at this time would hardly think that they could
make the long flights that they do make every year, and
for which they are famous. Their cries are loud and
harsh, and they scream piteously when they are caught.
The food of the cranes consists of frogs, snakes, lizards,
and field mice. Rails eat crabs, snails and other small
mollusks, also grubs, worms, and insects, as well as the
seeds and tender shoots of plants.
336
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
The eggs of the rails are many in number and are
placed in nests built of reeds and rushes, sticks and
grasses, placed upon the ground. Their young are
generally black-downy at birth, no matter what the adult
color may be.
The cranes as a family, breed in the north, some of
them going as far as Manitoba and the Alaska country;
they winter in Mexico
and the Gulf States.
Rails and gallinules and
coots are more varied in
their range, some of the
rails migrating as far
north as Labrador to
raise their -young/ Coots
may go even into Green-
land, though they are
much more nearly aqua-
tic in their habits than
are the rails; their feet
reveal this fact. (Fig.
113.) Coots also breed
in the southern and middle part of their range, which ex-
tends from Alaska to southern Mexico. The gallinules
have a more southern range on the whole, breeding
as far north as Massachusetts, spreading inland to the
Mississippi, and going south to the Gulf States and
well down into Mexico.
FIG. 113. Lobate foot of a coot.
CHAPTER XXXV.
LAMELLIROSTRES.
Duck-like and Geese-like birds Praecocial Birds.
This is the order of the swans, the flamingoes, the
ducks, and the geese. The bill of all the New- World
ducks and geese is lamellate with a membranous covering,
at least the greater part of the bill has such a covering;
the edges of the bill are denticulate in the grass-eaters
and sharp-toothed in the fish-eating sorts. The feet
are palmate, three of the toes being joined by webbings;
the hind toe is elevated, rarely absent. The wings are of
medium size and spread, and the tail is, in most of the
birds, short and many- feathered. The legs are near
the center of equilibrium, and the body is held nearly
or quite horizontal in walking. The young of all the
birds are praecocial, and many of the birds are polyg-
amous, though this is true of the domestic sorts much
more than of the wild birds.
Of these birds, the ducks are world- wide in distri-
bution, and they naturally fall into five sub-orders : the
Mergansers or fish ducks; the pond or river ducks; the
bay or sea ducks; the geese; and the swans. These
differences are based upon structural characteristics
quite as much as upon the places of habitation ; but these
structural differences are rather the apparent reasons for
the birds' choice of these haunts ; the lines are not hard and
fast, however, for there are some sorts of all the kinds
22 337
338 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
that may be found occasionally out of their natural
haunts.
Taking the order as a whole, the diet is vegetable
rather than animal; the ducks that are notably flesh-
eaters, eat also the sea weeds of the coast regions, and
the mergansers on our inland lakes do not despise water
plants as a variation of their fish diet. The fresh- water
ducks and also the flamingoes eat water plants freely.
The bill, in both river and bay ducks, has a series of
gutters on either side of the inner surface of the upper
mandible, which serve as strainers. Both secure their
food by dabbling up from the pond or river bottom
small mollusks, crustaceans, and seeds of water plants
along with the mud ; and the mud they get rid of by forc-
ing it along with the water, out of the mouth through
these strainers. Geese are more terrestrial in habits
than are the ducks, and often visit land to procure grass,
corn, or other grains. Among the ducks, the sexes are
usually of quite different plumage; among the geese the
differences are less noticeable, while the sexes are alike
in the swans. Among the flamingoes, the immature
birds are white, while the older birds only have the
characteristic plumage. The American red flamingo
inhabits Cuba and the Bahamas, and is seen on the
Florida Keys rarely. Its adult plumage is scarlet, with
the primaries and the secondaries of the wings black.
The swans have extremely long necks, are more at
home on the water than on the land; they inhabit tem-
perate regions both in Europe and in the United States,
breeding from there northward and wintering from our
southern border on south into Mexico. But two sorts
are known in the United States, the whistling and the
trumpeter swan. The whistler is the smaller of these
LAMELLIROSTRES. 339
two, measuring less than five feet in length; it breeds in
the Arctic regions and winters much further south.
The trumpeter nests in some parts of our northern border
states, as Dakota, and from there northward. The
nests of the whistler are ready-made grassy depressions;
but the trumpeter constructs a nest out of feathers and
down, intermingled with hay. Both these huge birds
are seen in the Mississippi valley as they fly to and from
their nesting grounds.
The Lamellirostres are migratory birds, as a. whole,
with the exceptions of the domestic chickens and geese
and turkeys; and this is a case where man has been
instrumental in bringing about an artificial condition.
Cases are on record where some of these migratory wild
birds have been detained in captivity till they have been
induced to breed there; the young birds have appeared
contented until some band of their wild relatives has
appeared on the scene, and then the captive birds mani-
fested their desire to be out and away. But the remote
generations of these birds, reared year after year, have
finally seemed to lose the wild instinct.
The flight of the wild ducks and geese is the most
characteristic thing in the spring and fall skies, with
their regular V-shaped formations, shifting and changing
to suit the layers of air through which they are flying,
but never losing the characteristic form. So regular
are their habits of migration that they have become
weather prophets of no mean order. After a hard
winter, everyone will remember the first thrill of spring at
the sound of the honk, honk, overhead.
The eider, which .is decidedly a bird of the high
latitudes, is valued for the down with which the mother
lines her nest; it is plucked from her own bre.ast, and the
340 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
plucking of it goes on as the incubation progresses; if
need be, the male bird contributes to the downy covering
of the six to ten precious eggs. In the northern countries
of Europe, Norway, Iceland, and Lapland, the inhabitants
make the down a considerable article of commerce; and
this is an illustration of the possible enhancement of the
value of a bird by the kindly treatment of it. In all
the countries where the eider down industry is carried
on, the eiders are protected by law from being hunted or
disturbed in any way. As a natural consequence, they
have grown to be almost tame, nesting in large companies
and occupying almost every available space; and the
birds will permit the approach of man with very little
protesting. The taking of the down from the nests is
always done kindly, and the bird has learned not to fear
greatly.
Mr. Beebe, in his journeys through the marshes
round about Guadalajara, speaks of the notable difference
in the behavior of the myriad birds startled by the hoof-
beats of his horse from the lake surface to fly a short
distance and then return quietly to the feeding-grounds;
and the surprised, terror-stricken flight of a flock of
mallards or teal from among the decoys of some northern
lake. It has been said that the home-making instincts
are among the finer instincts which animals possess; and
it is to these very instincts among the wild birds that the
usual trap methods of the modern hunter appeal. The
wooden decoys placed among the reedy washes of the
lake, on the migratory track of these wild birds, are gaily
painted semblances of these birds in nuptial plumage.
Migrations occur at the time when life for the wild fowl is
at its fullest tide; and at that time, home and a nestful
of young are all the wild bird cares to live for.
LAMELLIROSTRES. 341
The migrations of these birds, as a whole, cover the
entire American continent from Greenland to the Argen-
tine country. Some species are truly Arctic; some
species are migratory from south to north; and two of
the tree ducks live chiefly within the tropics. The
last-named species are found from Texas and the Rio
FIG. 114. Wood Duck (Galloway}. Photographed by Dr. J. W. Folsom.
Grande country southward during the spring and summer.
They nest in trees; this is an unusual habit with the
birds of this order. The buffle-head builds its nest in
trees; the foxes are fond of the flesh on its plump little
body; hence the bird tries to protect itself by nesting in
stumps or trees. The widgeon or baldpate builds often
far from water on the grassy upland. The American
merganser, or fish duck, nests in some hole in a tree or in a
342 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
hollow which it makes in some cliff side. The wood duck
chooses some old nest built by an owl, a woodpecker, or a
squirrel; or it may build its own nest but never on the
ground, nor necessarily near the water. And part of the
duties of the mother duck is to see that the ducklings
reach water, carrying them in her bill as far as it may be
necessary. (Fig. 114.) Her mate, who has been very de-
voted up to this time, will not ' ' raise a finger " to help ; only
when the fat little ducklings are fairly launched for their
first swim, does he appear, and even then his chief aim
seems to be to look handsome. He remains on guard,
however, during the whole period of incubation, not
feeding the sitting bird, indeed, but doing sentinel duty,
warning of danger, and singing to her in duck language,
often and long at a time.
The mallard is the ancestor of our common domestic
duck ; and in the wild state, the mallards are monogamous ;
it is believed that the birds pair for life. In their southern
haunts during our winter, the birds go in pairs, and
assemble in pairs at the feeding-grounds. But with
domestication, and the easier, sheltered life, came the
degeneracy of polygamy; hence in our poultry- yards,
we see the flocks of ducks.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
STEGANOPODES.
Totipalmate Sea Birds Altricial Birds.
This is the order of the gannets, the pelicans, the
cormorants, the darters, and the frigate birds. Of the
order, only the cormorants and the pelicans occur with
enough frequency within the limits of the United States
to merit discussion here. In 1880, a frigate bird was
captured in central Kansas, but this was a straggler from
some band which may have come a little way inland from
Gulf waters, and by storms or some strange chance, have
been drawn out of its course. Perhaps this shows us
how the entrance of birds into new regions is begun.
The frigate birds are, so far as we know them to-day,
strictly maritime .birds. This is in the same line with
the surprise which one of the groove-billed anis of the
Rio Grande country and Mexico gave Kansas in the
spring of 1902, when it appeared, half starved and cer-
tainly lost, in a hay field, where it fell exhausted.
This is the only order of birds in which the feet are
totipalmate; that is, all four of the toes are joined by a
webbing. To make this possible, the hind toe is turned a
little to one side. (Fig. 115.) The legs are set even farther
back than the legs of the Lamellirostres, which fact makes
the birds even more ungainly on the land. All of the birds
have a gular pouch, and with the pelicans this is used
as a dip net to catch fishes. The brown pelicans swoop
down from on the wing to catch the fish; but the white
pelicans swim along with their curious fish basket held
343
344
FIELD ZOOLOGY.
with its edge just below the water surface and filling with
fish as the birds push through the water. In both cases,
after the birds have caught the fish, they lift the head,
contract the gular pouch, letting the water run out of the
corners of the mouth, throw up the fish so as to let it drop
back tail first down the throat. (Fig. 1 1 6.) Their young are
, FIG. 115. Totipalmate foot of a pelican.
fed on the same diet, only the fish are smaller. Pelicans can
be kept in confinement, and take to it not unkindly; but
they must be provided with fish, and this would not be
an unwelcome task provided it came in the spring-time
and the attendant were a small boy. The tongue of the
pelicans is extremely small, a mere knob of a tongue as in
the kingfishers.
All of the Steganopodes, although some of them are
extremely large, are especially light on the wing. The
STEGANOPODES.
345
frigate birds are perhaps unsurpassed in their command
of the wings in flight, although the albatrosses and the
FIG. 116. Pelican (Galloway). Photographed by J. W. Folsom.
petrels excel them in the ability to stay away from
land for a longer time. Frigate birds are frequently seen
hundreds of miles out to sea. This lightness of wing is
attained by the extraordinary system of air tubes under-
346 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
neath the skin, and the unusually large air cavities in the
long bones of the wings and the legs ; these are hollow for
their entire length, being solid only at the ends where
they enlarge to provide for attachment of muscles. If
one presses the skin of a pelican in the pectoral or the
ventral region, there is heard a crackling sound as the air
is driven in and out of these enormously developed
pneumatic reinforcements of the respiratory system.
The young of the order are altricial ; the eggs are very
few, in most species of the birds only one, plain colored
and coated with a chalky- white substance. North
America has ten species of cormorants, four of which
nest within the United States; the Florida and the
Mexican nesting in Florida and the Rio Grande country,
respectively. Of the other two, the white crested and
the common, the former nests in the northwest, Oregon;
and the latter in the marshes of Iowa, Wisconsin, and
some of the inland lakes. Pelicans build nests on the
ground or in low bushes, cormorants on rock ledges or in
crevices of some rocky cliff, or in bushes; frigate birds
in low, thick bushes by the water's edge. The nests of
the last are made of sea weeds, mud, small stones, sticks,
bark, and grasses, usually placed on the ground by the
water's edge or on islands. The white pelican spends its
winters in our southern states along the Atlantic, in the
Gulf states, and in Mexico.
The cormorants are social birds, often nesting in
immense colonies, their nesting grounds are exceedingly
offensive, owing to their uncleanly habits in using excre-
mentitious matter for a partial covering for the eggs.
The decomposition of this matter serves to raise the nest
temperature sufficiently high for incubation while the
bird is away from home.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
LONGIPENNES.
Long -winged Swimmers Altricial.
These are the long- winged swimmers; gulls, terns,
petrels, and albatrosses, the wings, in many of the birds,
reaching far back of the tip of the tail. The hind toe is
elevated, very small, or absent, according to the repre-
sentative bird of the order
under examination, but there
are but two webbings. (Fig.
117.) These are all sea birds,
excellent swimmers, and
equally skillful on the wing.
Gulls are often seen inland
as well as along the sea-coast
though most species are truly
marine or nearly so. Their
distribution is nearly world-
wide. As to their habits, gulls
may be classed as oceanic, or
inland lake or river gulls.
Bonaparte's gull, migrating, FlG II7 ._p a imate foot of a tern,
may be found in localities
reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; though it
usually nests north of our northern boundary. Franklin's
gull is inclined to nest inland. The inland water gulls,
wintering, as many of them do, in Mexico, in coming
north to Minnesota and Wisconsin, or to Manitoba for
the nesting season, have been led, at least a few of them,
347
348 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
to try a home in the interior states, and so may occasion-
ally be found nesting as far from large water bodies as
in Iowa and Kansas, the smaller lakes and ponds supply-
ing their needs.
Terns, as a rule, nest on the fringing islands and in
the marshes and lagoons from Greenland to Mexico,
according to the species. The common tern, sometimes
called the summer gull and the sea swallow, nests along
many of the northern inland lakes as well as along the
coasts. The ocean terns seldom fly far from land, and
usually hollow out a depression in the sand for their
nests. The petrels nest on the island-fringed coast of
Maine, and from there northward. They come from
their southern winter quarters in May. The nest may be
a burrow in the sand or under a rock. These birds are
small; they are often called sea swallows. During the
incubating season, one bird sits on the nest during the
day while the other bird is away feeding; during the
night, it is thought the order is reversed.
The food of gulls consists of fish, young birds. that
may have died, the flesh of seals when it is obtainable,
whale blubber, sea urchins, crabs, rabbits, and the eggs of
cormorants, murres, and other sea birds. The ocean
gulls fly far from land, and their long continued flight
without return to land reminds one of the flight of the
dragon flies over the surface of their miniature ocean.
These are the birds that follow outgoing ships, and are
rewarded by many a meal of refuse thrown overboard
from the ship's galley. They are largely fish-eaters, but
are also effective scavengers of the ocean. They have
various nesting habits, building their nests of grass or
sticks, sometimes placing it in trees, sometimes on
stumps, and even on the ground.
LONGIPENNES. 349
And these are also birds that, along with many other
birds of beautiful plumage, are persecuted because of
their fatal beauty. Recently there appeared in the
New York Tribune, this, which ought to live in the
memory of every child, and ought to arrest the attention
of everyone: "The smaller gulls and sea swallows are
shot for their wings, and the fowlers, in their haste, do not
stop to kill any wounded birds; they merely wrench off
the wings, and throw the wounded birds back into the
water to die in agony. 'And,' says an eye witness, 'when
wounded birds are being torn asunder, they cry and
scream like a child.'" And this is at the demand of
woman, at once the tenderest and the cruel est of God's
created beings!
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
PYGOPODES.
Diving Birds Praecocial and Altricial Birds.
This is the order of the loons, the grebes, the auks,
and the puffins. The first two are birds well known in the
United States; the auks are arctic birds, and the puffins
are mainly so, although the common puffin nests along
our Atlantic coast from Maine northward, and the tufted
puffin on our Pacific coast islands from Behring Sea
down as far as the latitude of San Francisco. These
birds have the most highly developed natatorial powers
in the whole range of birds. The grebes swim and dive
with perfect ease, and are also very skillful on the wing,
though they do not use the wings in swimming, this,
according to the observation of careful investigators,
being done with the feet. The legs of all the birds of
the order are set so far back that the birds, when on
land, stand with the body nearly upright ; the whole tarsus
may then rest on the ground and the tail may be used for
a prop.
All the different sorts of puffins are shy birds nesting
on islands in almost inaccessible crevices in cliffs, except
the common puffin, which nests on the ground. But
even in the latter case, the ground burrows are usually
located on some lonely island or little-frequented shore
where flying is the surest method of travel. The auks
are both coast and island nesting as to their habits; and,
since their inclinations lead them to frequent lonely
350
PYGOPODES. 351
islands and rock-bound coasts accessible only in the face
of great difficulty, they are not always so fearful of man
as they should be for their own safety. With the excep-
tion of the razor-billed auk, the birds of this family are all
inhabitants of the Pacific continental coasts and islands.
The razor- billed auk nests on the Labrador coast, and
on the North Atlantic and Polar sea islands. The Great
Auk is one of the birds that has disappeared from the
face of the earth within the memory of men now living,
and its disappearance has been due to the fact of the
diminutive wings. The shortness of its wings must have
been a decided disadvantage to the birds in the case
of combats with enemies among their bird neighbors,
as well as a serious handicap in case of an attack made by
man. During storms, also, the inability to use the
wings must have resulted in the death of many of the
birds. All the living auks have wings, and indications
show that the ancestors of the Great Auk had useful
wings; hence it is supposed that this bird lost the use
of its wings through generations of disuse. The length of
this bird was nearly three feet, thirty inches, and the
length of its wing was just six inches, a wing-spread
totally incapable of supporting the body of the bird free
from the earth. This is the heavy penalty which nature
always imposes. The Bible puts it "He that will not
work shall not eat"; and this law runs through the whole
kingdom of life a power unused becomes finally impos-
sible. Among the body members, an organ unused
degenerates in structure till it is incapable of fulfilling its
function. This is one of the most serious lessons that
the living being has to learn.
The loons are all northern birds, though the yellow-
billed loon, the largest of them all, is the only one that
35 2 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
may be called strictly arctic. The great northern diver
is the most common loon in the United States. It nests
m the states along our northern border on islands in the
lakes and rivers. The parallel of forty-two degrees was
Jrmerly spoken of as its southern breeding limit, but of
later years it has been found considerably south of this
line. Not only is it found in the Adirondack region in
Mjchigan, and in Maine, but it also comes as far south as
Nebraska.
The birds of the order are all excellent swimmers but
the loons and the grebes excel the others. A loon is so
nearly instantaneous in its response to a stimulus that a
bullet fired at hunter's range strikes the water after the
bird has left the spot where the bullet enters the water
This expertness is shared by all the grebes, and as they
sink below the water surface, hardly a ripple is left to tell
where they sank. Both loons and grebes are capable
swimming extraordinary distances under water The
plumage of the birds is kept well oiled, and the oil naturally
at the base of the feathers is so abundant that no amount
of diving or swimming under water can unfit the birds
for a further plunge.
The grebes are much more generally distributed
over the continent than are any other birds of the order
The western grebe ranges over the whole western part
of the United States from the Rio Grande country on
the south to the Red River of the North, breeding in
many of the inland lakes and streams. The pied-billed
grebe, which has a black band around its bill midway of
its yellowish-gray length, is another grebe of very wide
distribution. It ranges from the provinces of British
America to Chili and the Argentine country, spreading
Atlantic-wise to the West Indies and the Bermudas
PYGOPODES. 353
The horned and the American eared grebe are a little
more restricted in their range, being more western and
less southern; the eared grebe coming no further south
than Texas, and from there into British America; while
the Horned Grebe comes no further south than along our
northern boundary, with occasionally a visitor wandering
down into northwestern Illinois. The western grebe, the
pied-bill, and the dab chick smallest of our grebes
spend the winter far to the south of their nesting grounds,
many of them wintering on Mexican waters, where they
enjoy much more freedom from their enemies than can
be found in the United States.
These grebes, especially the western, which is the
largest of its tribe, are among the birds whose fatal endow-
ment is beauty, many of them being killed annually for the
beautiful silky plumage of the breast. Men who make
it their business to kill these birds, make swift, s cruel
work of it. The body is not cold before the warm skin
with its silky feathers is stripped from the breast which
may have so lately covered a nestful of eggs or tender
young.
Ever since man came among the animals of the earth,
he has been the greatest agent of slaughter of the whole
list. In his early days, he, of course, had to contend for
the mastery with animals much stronger than himself
it was kill or be killed then, and no one of us could have
blamed him then. But in these days he has so far
forgotten his old bravery and honor of bearing himself
among his kind, as to pursue to the death only the animals
smaller and weaker than himself. The sportsman who
cracks away at wooden pigeons to test his skill is the
better man of the two.
The nest of the grebes is simply a mass of decaying
2 3
354 FIELD ZOOLOGY.
vegetation, pulled up from the river bottom, and fastened
like a tiny raft to the stems of reeds and rushes in shallow
water. Upon leaving the nest in the morning, the
mother grebe has the curious habit of pulling up from
the bottom of the nest some of the grasses and decaying
leaves to cover the eggs. During the day, the warmth
of the sun's heat on the wet weeds serves to keep the
eggs warm until the close of day. When surprised, the
mother bird slips off the nest leaving the eggs unpro-
tected. She simply hides and seems to make no effort to
defend her home. The food of the whole order is mainly
fish. The young loons and the grebes are praecocial, and
early have somewhat the same skill as the adults in
diving and swimming. The auks and the puffins are
altricial, and anyone who has tried to enter a puffin's
nest knows that the puffin is well able to defend her nest
from all intruders.
This is the lowest order of birds; that is, these birds
are farthest removed from the passerine birds as regards
nervous organization, functional excellence in many lines
instead of one line, and in closeness of relationship to
man, both physiologically and economically. All these
characteristics the passerine birds possess in the highest
degree, and the Pygopodes in the lowest degree. It is
also true that these birds come nearest to suggesting
reptilian characteristics. Hesperornis, the early Cre-
tacean bird of the United States, had the general build
of the loons of this order. This shows the continuity of
the processes by which the Creator has brought gradually
into existence the different types of bird life, from the
ancient Archaeopteryx, more like reptile than bird;
through Hesperornis, loon in build but incapable of
flying ; Ichthyornis with some features of the modern bird ;
PYGOPODES. 355
to the earliest bird suggesting the passerine type; until
to-day we have the birds of the present age, with such
differently developed characteristics as to warrant our
grouping them in the thirteen orders Pygopodes, or
diving birds; Steganopodes, or fully- web-footed birds;
Lamellirostres, or duck-like birds; Longipennes, or long-
winged swimmers; Alectorides, swamp and marsh birds;
Herodiones, heron-like birds; Limicolae, shore birds;
Gallinse, game birds ; Columbae, doves and their relatives ;
Rap tores, birds of prey ; Picarian birds ; and the Passeres,
crown and consummation of development among the
tribes of birds.
INDEX.
Abdomen, 3
Acarina, 234
Alectorides, 334
Alimentation:
birds, 301
insects, 24
Altricial birds, 281
Ametamorphosis, 33, 40
Anis, 315, 343
Anopheles, 193, 197, 201
Ant lion, 225
Ants, 164
artificial nest, 143
feeding habits, 165
forming of community, 165
honey-gathering, 166
individuals in community,
165
industries, 166
life duration, 168
mother of community, 165
nests, 140
sense of smell, i 56
study of, 140
Aphis lion, 221, 222
Aptera, 43
Arthropoda, 231, 238, 252
Arachnida, 238
Assassin bug, 117
Auk, the great, 351
the razor-billed, 351
Aves, 2, 252
Back-swimmer, 99, 112
Baldpate, 341
Baltimore oriole, 74, 137, 259,
293
Bark lice, 118
Barn swallows, 97, 256
Bats, 200
Bee flies, 201, 204
Bee jelly, 160
Bees and water, 164
Bees, bumble, 143, 161
Bees, honey, 155
colony founding, i 57
feeding of larvae, 157
royal larvas, 160
sense powers, 155
study of, 139
swarming, 160
significance of, 162
Beetles, 67
habitats, 59, 60, 62, 67
Beneficial flies, 188
Bembecidae, 169
Bill of a bird, 262
Biology defined, i
Birds, 252
affection among, 282
alimentation, 301
ancient, 253
choice of a mate, 273
classification as to residence,
278
economic value of, 255, 259,
278, 287
encouragement of, 73, . 74,
278, 294
feeding of young, 288
migrations, 274
nervous system, 296
nest-making, 284
notions of cleanliness, 285
physical features, 262
relationships, 253
respiration, 300
Birds of prey, 318
Bitterns, 331, 332
Blackbirds, 74, 97, 137, 256, 284,
289, 291
Blister beetles, 69, 77
metamorphosis, 77
Bluebirds, 97, 137, 256
Blue jays, 74, 97, 137, 257, 284
Bobolink, 277
Bobwhites, 74, 97, 115, 118, 281,
324, 325 (see Quails)
Book lice, 44
357
358
INDEX.
Borers, 59
bird enemies, 74
Bot flies, 184, 1 88
Box elder bug, 40
Brain, lobes of, 296
biological significance of, 3 1
296
Brown creeper, 118, 257, 294
Brown thrasher, 289
Bufflehead, 341
Bugs, 107
Bumble bee, 143, 161
Butcher bird, 97, 309
Buzzards, 319
Cabbage worm, 101, 109, 137
Caddis flies, 45, 221
Calico back, 101, 118
Camponotidae, 166
Carpenter ant, 165
Carpet beetles, 73
Carrion beetles, 60, 69
Carrion crow, 319
Carrion flies, 178
Catbird, 137, 256, 289
Caterpillar musculation, 38
Caterpillars, 120, 132, 137, 257
Centipeds, 2, 232
Checker beetles, 69
Chickadee, 118, 137, 293
Chinch bug, 113
bird enemies, 115, 118
disease of, 115
development of, 114
history of, 113
natural enemies, 114
range, 113
Chippy, 137
Chitin, 5
Chordata, 3
Cicada, 102, 118, 170
Cicada killer, 170
Circulation of blood,
birds, 303
insects, 23
Clamatores, 308
Classification of insects, 42
Clear- winged moths, 125
Click beetles :
bird enemies, 74
Cockroach tiger, 238
Codling moth, 7 i
Coelenterata, 2
Coleoptera, 43, 67
characteristics, 65
life history, 77
mouth-parts, 76
value of the order, 68
Coloration of birds, 271
Color sense:
bees, 1 1
flies, 1 1
Collecting boxes, 53
Collection box, 55
Columbas, 320
Complete metamorphosis, 33, 39
Cooper's hawk, 291
Cormorants, 285, 343, 348
Corrodentia, 44
Cosmopolitan, the, 138
Crabs, 238, 348
Cranes, 118, 334, 336
Crayfish, 238
Cricket-like grasshoppers, 90
Crickets, 81
bird enemies, 97
Crow, 97, 137, 259
Crustaceans, 2, 238
Crystalline lens of eye, 8
Cuckoos, 74, 97, 137, 256, 315
289, 313
Cucumber beetle :
bird enemies, 74
Culex, 193, 197, 198, 201
Curculios, 71
Curlew, 327, 329
Cuticle, 5
Cutworm, 70, 73, 137, 290, 293
Daddy longlegs, 235
Darters, 343
Damsel bug, 113
Damsel flies, 207
Dermal light sense, 10
Dermestidae, 7
Development, 32, 281
Digger wasp, 168, 171
Dipnet, 50
Diptera, 183
characteristics, 181
compound eyes, 186
divisions of, 187
feeding habits, 178, 184
metamorphosis, 186
Diving beetles, 63, 69
Diving birds, 350
INDEX.
359
Dobsons, 223, 224
Doves:
domestic, 320
mourning, 321
Downy woodpecker, 74, 118,
257 2 94
Dragon flies, 200, 207, 209
characteristics, 207
development, 209, 211
distribution, 212
feeding habits, 208
nymph, 211
sight, 208
life duration, 211
Drone bees, 156, 159, 161, 163
Ducks, 337
domestic, 97, 338, 342
wild, 339, 340, 341
Dung beetles, 69
Eagles, 318, 319
Ear:
bird, 299
locust, 17, 1 8
mosquito, 18
Earwigs, 44
Echinodermata, 2
Egg, insect, 32
Egret, 332
hunting of, 332
Eider duch, 339
Electric light bug, 1 1 2
Elm -leaf beetle :
bird enemies, 73
life history, 73
Elytra, 67
English sparrow, 74, 137, 284,
290, 310
Entomology, 42
Ephemerida, 2 1 3
characteristics, 213
immature respiration, 213
metamorphosis, 214
reasons for persistence, 213
Eriocephalas, 129
Eumenida?, 174
Euplexoptera, 44
Eye:
compound, 7
development of, 9, 10
lack of, 7
number of facets, 7
of bird, 297
Eye:
of grasshopper, 6
simple, 9, 10
False rear horses, 225
Feet of birds, 264
Filed work :
bees, ants, wasps, 139
beetles, 59
'butterflies, 119
birds, 249
flies, 176
grasshoppers, 79
bugs, 98
insects in general, 46
Fireflies, 63, 69
Fish duck, 337
Fishes, 2, 200, 260, 296
Fleas, 226
Flickers, 74, 294
Flies, 183
setting for collection, 179
Flower beetle, 62, 69, 76
Flower bug, 114, 116
Flower fly, 178, 201, 202
Flycatchers, 257
Flying spiders, 243
Food of nestling birds, 287
Fowls, domestic, 74, 97, 342
Frenatae, 130
Frigate bird, 343
Function of accommodation:
in birds, 297
Gall flies, 149, 153, 154, 234
Gall-forming insects, 234
Gallinae, 322
characteristics, 323
Galls, 153, 155, 234
Gannets, 343
Geese, wild, 337, 339
Giant waterbug, 100
Gnats, 184, 188, 257
Golden-eye, 222
Goldfish, 200
Goshawk, 258, 291
Grasshopper, 3, 87
bird enemies, 97
insect enemies, 82, 201
Grass stem flies, 192
Grebes, 264, 350
hunting of, 3 53
3 6
INDEX.
Grebes, nests, 3 53
range, 352
Grosbeaks, 292
Ground beetles, 69, 71
Grubs, 73
bird enemies, 74
Gulls, 347, 348
Gypsy moth, 70, 137
Hairy woodpecker, 74, 118, '257,
2 94
Halteres, 184
Hand lens, 51
Handmaid moth, larva, 134
Harmful flies, 188, 204
Harvestmen, 235
Hawks, 258
marsh, 137, 164, 258, 292
night, 97, 313
red-tail, 137, 258, 292
sparrow, 97, 258, 291
Hearing :
birds, 299
insects, 17
Heart :
insects, 23
Hemiptera, 107
beak of, 99, 108
beneficial, 109, 112, 114,117
characteristics, 105
development, 109
divisions of order, 107
food habits, 108, 109
harmful sorts, 1 1 8
setting for collection, 104
Hepialidae, 129
Herodiones, 331
Herons, 332
Hesperornis, 254, 354
Hessian fly, 191
development, 191
measures against, 192
natural enemies, 192
Hippelates, 192
Homing instinct, n, 13, 139,
Honey, 157
Honey ants, 166
Honeybees, 155
House fly, 188, 190
measures against, 190
metamorphosis, 190
House wren, 97, 118, 137
Horse fly, 184, 188
Humming bird, 312, 315
Hunter, the Fiery, 70
Hypermetamorphosis, 34
Hymenoptera, 43, 149
characteristics, 147
subordination of males, 1 554
168, 173
metamorphosis, i 54
mouth-parts, 153
ovipositor, 154
sense powers, 156
wing action, 152
Ibis, white-faced glossy, 333
Ichneumon flies, 149, 150
Ichthyornis, 256, 354
Incubation, 281
Incomplete metamorphosis, 40
Industries of the hive, 162
Insect net, 49
Insects, 2, 238
Isoptera, 44
Jigger fleas, 226
Jointer spiders, 235
characteristics, 235
palpi, 236
Jugatae, 129
June bug, 59, 74, 78
bird enemies, 74
Katydids, 87, 91
bird enemies, 97
Key to families of spiders, 246
Killing bottle, 51
Kingbird, 74, 97, 291
Kingfisher, 313
King rail, 335
Kissing bug," 117
Labels, 56
Labium, 4, 6
Labrum, 2, 6
Lace-wing, 221, 222
Ladybird, 69
Lamellirostres, 337
characteristics, 337
divisions, 337
food, 338
migrations, 339
INDEX.
3 6l
Larvae, 34, 41
Leaf bugs, in, 113
Leaf chafers:
bird enemies, 73
Lepidoptera, 125
biological relationships, 130
characteristics, 123
distribution, 138
larval food-getting, 132
metamorphosis, 131
mouth-parts, 126
primitive lepidopters, 129
setting for collection, 122
value of order, 132
wing action, 29
Light, dermal sense, 10
effect on animals, 102
Limicolae, 327
bill, 327
characteristics, 327
food, 329
migrations, 330
nesting habits, 329
Linnaeus, 42
Lizards, 259
Lobstera, 238
Locust, setting for collection, 82
Longipennes, 347
characteristics, 347
food, 348
Loons, 351
Lubbock, 141
Luna moth, 134
Mallard, 342
Mallophaga, 44
Mandibles, 4
Marsh hawk, 256, 292
May beetle, 59, 73
bird enemies, 73, 74
May flies, 213
Maxillae, 4
Meadow lark, 118, 137
Merganser, 337
Measuring worm, 135
Metamorphosis, 33
Metazoa, i
Midas flies, 201
Migrations of birds, 274
directions within United
States, 274
guiding sense, 279
mode of travel, 274, 279
significance of, 274
Millipeds, 231
Minnows, 200
Mites, 144, 234
Mocking bird, 289
Mollusca, 2
Monarch butterfly, 135
Monogamy among birds, 280
Mosaic sight, 8
Mosquitoes, 176, 193
development, 194
hibernation, 199
immature respiration, 195
malarial sort, 198
natural enemies, 200
preventive measures, 176,
201
scales on wings, 197
sex distinctions, 198
economic sorts, 193
Moths, 125
Mourning dove, 321
Mouth-parts:
bees, ants, wasps, 1 53
beetles, 76
bugs, 99, 108, 126
dragon flies, 209
fleas, 226
flies, 184
grasshoppers, 4, 87
May flies, 213
moths and butterflies, 126
Neuroptera, 221
spiders, 23 i
stone flies, 217
Mud-daubers, 168
Muscles of grasshopper, 2, 3
Myriapoda, 231, 238
Naphtha, 55
Nectar, 158, 164
Nictitating membrane, 297
Negro bugs, 113
Nervous system:
birds, 296
insects, 28
Nesting season of birds, 280, 287
Nestling birds, food of, 287
Nest-making of birds, 284
Neuroptera, 43, 221
characteristics, 212
development, 213
feeding habits, 213
relationships, 212
value of the order, 2 1 5
362
INDEX.
Nuthatches, 294
Odonata, 207
Optic nerve, 8
Orders of birds, 305.
of insects, 57
Orientation, 279
Orioles, 137, 257, 293
Orthoptera, 43, 87
characteristics, 85
bird enemies, 97
metamorphosis, 87
mouth-parts, 87
Oscines, 308
Ostrich, 266, 282
Owls, 258
barn, 292
screech, 99, 137, 292
Palpi, 5
Parasitism, 149, 150
Paroquet, Carolina, 316
Parrots, 316
Passenger pigeon, 321
Passeres, 307, 355
biological position, 308, 311
characteristics, 307
economic value, 311
Pelicans, 301, 343
Pen-marked sphinx, 133
Phalangina, 235
Pheasant, Mongolian, 74, 293
Phoebe, 74
Physopoda, 44
Picarias, 312
Pici, 313
Pigeon horntail, 1 50
Pigeons, 320
Pillbug, 238
Pink eye, 192
Plecoptera, 217
adult characteristics, 217
development, 217
feeding habits, 218
nymphal characteristics, 217
Plovers, 327
Plumage of birds, 271
Pollen gathering by bees, 163
Polygamy among birds, 280, 342
Pomace flies, 193
Potato beetle, 73, 78
bird enemies, 74
Praecocial birds, 281
Prairie chickens, 74, 97, n8, 322
Prairie squirrels, 2 59
Praying mantids, 14, 82, 94
Primaries, 270
Primitive ground sense, 10
Propolis, 164
Protective colors:
birds, 272, 327
insects, 12, 79
Protozoa, i
Psittaci, 316
Puffins, 350
Pupa, 33, 36
Pygopodes, 3
Quail
experiment,
and chicken
3 2 5
uails (see Bobwhites)
ueen cells of honey bees, i 59
Rails, 334
Raptores, 318
Reading glass, 50
Recognition colors:
insects, 7
Rectrices, 268
Red-tailed hawk, 258, 292
Regal moth, 134
Respiration :
birds, 300
insects, 20
rate of, 23, 308
River fluke, 290
Roaches, 92
development, 94
food habits, 94
foreign and native, 93
Robber flies, 203
Robins, 74, 97, 137, 256, 267
Rose-breasted grosbeak, 74, 290
Rose chafers, 73
Rove beetles, 62, 69
Sandpipers, 327
spotted, 329
Sawflies, 149, 154
Scale insects, 103, no
bird enemies, 118
Scales, 125
Sclerites, 3, 6
Screech owl, 97, 137, 292
Scorpions, 236
INDEX.
363
Searcher, the, 70
Secondaries, 270
Sharp-shinned hawk, 291
Shield-backed bugs, 113
Shield-backed grasshoppers, 90
Shrimps, 238
Shore birds, 327
Silkworm moth, 133
Simple body type, 5, 28
Siphonaptera, 226
characteristics, 226
development, 227
parasitism, 226
relation to bubonic plague,
229
Skeleton of insects, 5
Skunk, 260
Smell, sense of:
birds, 298
insects, 1 1, 299
Smelling organs:
birds, 299
insects, 12
Snails, 290, 329, 331
Snake flies, 221
Snakes, value of, 68
Snipes, 327
Soldier beetle, 69
Soldier bug, 117
Soldier fly, 188, 203
Solpugida, 235
Song sparrow, 271
Sparrow, English, 74, 137, 290,
310
Sparrow hawk, 97, 256, 291
Sparrows, 74, 97, 118, 137, 256,
290
Special senses, 7, 296
Species, 272
Sphecina, 168, 171
Sphinx moth, 133
Spiders, 2, 238
characteristics, 238
development, 244
food habits, 240
mouth-parts, 239
non-sociability, 240
poison glands, 239
respiration, 239
sense of, 240, 242
spinning habit, 242
spinning organs, 244
Spider wasps, 168
Spiracular system of insects, 2 1
Squash bug, 41, 101, 118
bird enemies, 61
Stable flies, 189
Steganopodes, 343
Sticklebacks, 200
Stink bugs, 117
Stone flies, 2 1 7
Storks, 331
Stridulation, 89
Struggle for existence, 132
Sunfish, 200
Swallow, barn, 97, 256
Swallow-tail, black, 135
Swan, 337, 339
Swarming of bees, 160
Sympathetic system:
birds, 297
insects, 29
Tachina flies, 201
Tail of bird, 267
Tarantula killer, 170
Taste :
birds, 300
insects, 16
Tent caterpillars, 134, 137
Termites, 44
Terns, 347
Thalessa, big, i 50 .
Thorax, 2
Thread-legged bug, 113
Tread-waisted wasp, 168
Thrips, 44
Thysanura, 44
Ticks, 2, 234
Tiger beetle larva, 60
Toads, 259
Tobacco worm:
adult, 37
egg, 34
larva, 35, 133
pupa, 36
Touch:
birds, 300
insects, 13
man, 14, 15
Towhee, 74, 97, 290
Trap-door spider, 241
Tree cricket, 80
Tree duck, 341
Trichoptera, 44
Tumble bugs, 60"
Turkey, wild, 326
364 INDEX.
Vanessa cardui, 138 Water scavengers, 61, 69
Vespina, 168, 172 Water scorpions, 112
Vireo, 137, 256 Water striders, 98
Vital processes: Wax-making of bees, 163
birds, 300 Webs of spiders, 242
insects, 20 Weevils, 73
Vulture, black, 259, 319 bird enemies, 74
Whip-poor-wills, 257
Whip-tailed scorpion, 237
Walking sticks, 51,95 Whirligigs, 63
Warblers, 137, 256, 293 White ants, 44
Wasp flies, 188, 203 White grubs, 59, 73, 74
Wasps, 163 Wing of bird, 268
community life, 173 comparison, 269
industries, 173, 174 Winter birds, value of, 278
nests, 172, 174 Wire worms, 74
paper-making, 175 Woodcock, 328
sense powers, 172 Wood duck, 282
social, 172 Woodpeckers, 74, 118, 2^7, 294,
solitary, 168 3 1 3, 342
study of, 144
Water boatman, 99 Zoology defined, i
IMPORTANT EDUCATIONAL BOOKS
Biology, Botany, Bacteriology, Chemistry, Physics,
Physical Education, Anatomy, Embryology,
Histology, Physiology
P. BLAKISTON'S SON & CO., Publishers
Books on Science and Medicine
1012 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
BIOLOGY.
ENTOMOLOGY: With Special Reference to Its Biologic and Economic Aspects.
By JUSTUS W. POLSOM, Sc.D. 5 Plates, 1 Colored ; 300 other Illustra-
tions. Octavo ; 485 pages. Cloth, $2.00 net.
TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY. Second Edition. By T. W. GALLOWAY, A.M.,
PH.D. 240 Illustrations. Octavo; xii + 481 pages. Cloth, $2.00 net.
A LABORATORY TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY. Loose-leaf System. By
THEO. H. SCHEFFEK, A.M. Second Edition. Octavo. Adjustable Cloth
Covers, $0.75 net.
NERVOUS SYSTEM OF VERTEBRATES. By JOHN BLACK JOHNSTON, PH.D.
180 Illustrations. Octavo; 370 pages. Cloth, $3.00 net.
BOTANY.
PLANT ANATOMY from the Stand-point of the Development and Functions
of the Tissues, and Handbook of Microtechnic. By WM. C. STEVENS, M.S.
136 Illus. 8vo; 349 pages. Cloth, $2.00 net.
VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY, An Introduction to. By J. REYNOLDS GREEN,
Sc.D., P.R.S. Second Edition. Revised. 182 Illustrations. Octavo;
459 pages. Cloth, $3.00 net.
ORGANIC MATERIA MEDICA AND PHARMACOGNOSY. An introduction to
the Study of the Vegetable Kingdom and the Vegetable and Animal
Drugs. Comprising the Botanical and Physical Characteristics, Source,
Constituents, Pharmocopoeial Preparations ; Insects Injurious to Drugs,
and Pharmacal Botany. By L. E. SAYEE, B.S., Pn.M. With Sections
on Histology and Microtechnic by WILLIAM C. STEVENS. Third Edition.
Revised. 377 Illustrations, the majority of which are from Original
Drawings. 8vo ; 675 pages. Cloth, $5.00 net.
MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE PHILIPPINES. By T. H. PAEDO DE TAVERA.
Translated and Revised by JEROME B. THOMAS, JB., A.B., M.D. 12mo;
268 pages. Cloth, $2.00 net.
BACTERIOLOGY.
BACTERIA IN MILK AND ITS PRODUCTS. By H. W. CONN, PH.D. 43
Illustrations. 12mo; 306 pages. Cloth, $1.25 net.
AGRICULTURAL BACTERIOLOGY. Including a Study of Bacteria as Re-
lating to Agriculture, with Special Reference to the Bacteria in Soil,
in the Dairy, in Food Products, in Domestic Animals, and in Sewage.
Second Edition. By H. W. CONN, PH.D. 64 Illustrations. 12mo; x +
331 pages. Cloth, $2.00 net.
PRACTICAL BACTERIOLOGY, BLOOD WORK AND ANIMAL PARASIT-
OLOGY; Including Bacteriological Keys, Zoological Tables and Explanatory
Clinical Notes. By E. R. STITT, A.B., Pn.G., M.D. With 86 Illustra-
tions. 12mo ; xi + 294 pages. Flexible Cloth, $1.50 net.
IMPORTANT EDUCATIONAL BOOKS
A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY: With Special Attention to Bacterial Poi-
sons and Immunity. By HERBERT WILLIAMS,, M.D. Revised by B. MEADE
BOLTON, M.D. Fifth Edition. Ill Illustrations. 12mo: 466 pages.
Cloth, $2.00 net.
BACTERIOLOGY AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH. By GEORGE NEWMAN, M.D.,
F.R.S.E., D.P.H. Third Edition. 31 Full-page Plates and 48 other
Illustrations. Octavo. Cloth, $5.00 net.
COMPEND OF BACTERIOLOGY, INCLUDING ANIMAL PARASITES. By R.
L. PITFIELD, M.D. 4 Plates containing 56 Figures, and 80 other Illus-
trations. 12mo; 232 pages. Cloth, $1.00; interleaved for the addition
of noteSj $1.25 net.
INFECTIOUS AND PARASITIC DISEASES, An Introduction to. By MILLARD
LANGFELD, A.B., M.D., with an introduction by LEWELLYS F. BARKER,
M.D., of Johns Hopkins University. 33 Illustrations. 12mo ; 260 pages.
Cloth, $1.25 net.
CHEMISTRY.
A LABORATORY GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS.
Based upon the Application of the Theory of Electrolytic Dissociation
and the Law of Mass Action. By E. H. S. BAILEY, PH.D., and HAMIL-
TON P. CADY, PH.D. Fifth Edition. Illustrated. 8vo ; 278 pages.
Cloth, $1.25 net.
THE PRINCIPLES OF QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS. From the Standpoint of
the Theory of Electrolytic Dissociation and the Law of Mass Action.
By DR. WILHELM BOTTGER. Translated by WILLIAM G. SMEATON, A.B.
Illustrated. Octavo ; 300 pages. Cloth, $2.00 net.
FOOD ANALYSIS. Illustrated. Select Methods in Food Analysis. By
HENRY LEFFMANN, M.D., Professor of Chemistry in the Woman's Medi-
cal College of Pennsylvania and in the Wagner Free Institute of Science ;
Philadelphia ; and WILLIAM BEAM, A.M. Second Edition, Revised.
With many Tables, 1 Plate and 54 other Illustrations. 12mo : iv + 396
pages. Cloth, $2.50 net.
THE DETECTION OF POISONS AND STRONG DRUGS. A Laboratory
Guide. Including the Quantitative Estimation of Medicinal Principles
in Certain Materials. By DR. WILHELM AUTENREITH, University of
Freiberg, Baden. Authorized Translation from the Third German Edi-
tion by WILLIAM H. WARREN, A.M., PH.D. (Harv.), Professor of Chem-
istry, Medical Department, Washington University, St Louis. Illus-
trated. 12mo ; xii + 222 pages. Cloth, $1.50 net.
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. Adapted for Use in the Labora-
tories of Colleges and Schools. By FRANK CLOWES, Sc.D., and ,T. BER-
NARD COLEMAN, A.R.C.Sc. Eighth Edition. 12mo ; xxv + 565 pages.
133 Illustrations. Cloth, $3.50 net.
A TEXT-BOOK OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. By HENRY LEFFMANN, A.M.,
M.D., and CHARLES H. LA WALL, Pn.G. 12mo. Cloth $1.00 net.
PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. By JOHN HARPER LONG, M.S., Sc.D. Sec-
ond Edition, Revised. Illustrated. 8vo ; viii + 396 pages. Cloth, $2.50.
ELEMENTARY ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, QUALITATIVE AND VOLU-
METRIC. By JOHN H. LONG, M.S., Sc.D. Third Edition. 10 Illustra-
tions. 12mo; x + 297 pages. Cloth, $1.25 net.
ELEMENTS OF GENERAL CHEMISTRY, WITH EXPERIMENTS. By JOHN
H. LONG, M.S., ScD. Fourth Edition, Revised. 33 Illustrations 12mo-
x + 443 pages. Cloth, $1.50 net.
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY: Carbon Compounds. By PROF. VICTOR VON RICHTER.
Translated by EDGAR F. SMITH. M.A., PH.D., Sc.D. Revised and En-
larged. Illustrated. 12mo. Two Volumes Aliphatic Series, and Car-
bocyclic and Heterocyclic Series, Each, Cloth, $3.00 net.
IMPORTANT EDUCATIONAL BOOKS
INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. By PROF. VICTOK VON RICHTEK. Translated by
EDGAR F. SMITH, M.A., PH.D., Sc.D. Fifth Edition. Colored Spectra
Plate and 68 other Illustrations. 8vo ; 430 pages. Cloth, $1.75 net.
QUALITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF INORGANIC SUBSTANCES.
With Explanatory Notes. By OLIN FREEMAN TOWER, PH.D. Octavo.
Cloth, $1.00 net.
ELECTRO-ANALYSIS. By EDGAR F. SMITH, M.A., PH.D., Sc.D. 4th Edition,
Revised and Enlarged. 42 Illustrations. 8vo ; 346 pages. Flexible
Leather, $2.50 net.
EXPERIMENTS ARRANGED FOR STUDENTS IN GENERAL CHEMISTRY.
By EDGAR F. SMITH, M.A., PH.D., Sc.D., and DR. H. F. KELLER. Fifth
Revised Edition. 40 Illustrations. Cloth, $0.60 net.
VOLUMETRIC, ANALYSIS. Second Edition. By VIRGIL COBLENTZ, PH.D.,
and ANTON VORISEK, PH.D. Illustrated. Octavo, viii + 234 pages.
Cloth, $1.75 net.
PRACTICAL PSYSIOXOGICAL CHEMISTRY. A Laboratory Hand-book, de-
signed for use in Courses in Practical Physiological Chemistry in Schools
of Medicine and Science. By P. B. HAWK, M.S., PH.D. 2 Plates of
Absorption Spectra in Colors. 4 other Colored Plates and 126 Text
Figures of which 12 are in Colors. Second Edition Revised and En-
larged. Octavo. Cloth, $2.50 net.
EXPERIMENTAL CHEMISTRY. A Text-book of (with Descriptive Notes),
for Students of General INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. By EDWIN LEE.
Illustrated. 12mo; 433 pages. Cloth, $1.50 net.
A SYSTEMATIC HAND-BOOK OF VOLUMETRIC ANALYSIS. For the Quan-
titative Estimation of Chemical Substances by Measure, Applied to
Liquids, Solids and Gases. Adapted to the Requirements of Pure Chemi-
cal Research, Pathological Chemistry, Pharmacy, Metallurgy, Photog-
raphy, etc., and for the Valuation of Substances Used in Commerce,
Agriculture and the Arts. By FRANCIS SUTTON, F.C.S., Ninth Edition.
121 Illustrations. 8vo ; 617 pages. Cloth, $5.00 net.
PHYSICS.
TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSICS. Second Revised Edition. Edited by A. WILMER
DUFF, A.M., Sc.D. Small Octavo. Mechanics. By A. WILMER DUFF,
Sc.D. Heat. By KARL E. GUTHE, PH.D. Sound. By WILLIAM HAL-
LOCK, PH.D. Light and Wave Theory. By E. PERCIVAL LEWIS, PH.D.
Electricity and Magnetism. By ARTHUR W. GOODSPEED, PH.D. Electro-
magnetic Induction. By ALBERT P. CARMAN, Sc.D. Conduction of Elec-
tricity Through Gases and Radio-activity. By R. K. MCCLUNG, Sc.D.
525 Illustrations, xi + 698 pages. Cloth, $2.75 net.
A TEXT-BOOK, WITH EXPERIMENTS, ON CONDUCTION OF ELECTRICITY
THROUGH GASES AND RADIO-ACTIVITY. By R. K. .McCLUXG, M.A.,
D.SC. 78 Illustrations. Octavo, xvi + 245 pages. Cloth, $1.50 net.
THE RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE. By WILLIAM
CECIL D. WHETHAM, M.A., F.R.S. 10 Full-page Plates, including frontis-
piece and portraits of Kelvin, Gibhs, Van't Hoff and Thomson, and 33
Text Figures. 12mo ; 344 pages. Cloth, $2.00 net.
A TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. By ARTHUR W. EWELL, PH.D.
102 Illustrations. Small Octavo, ix + 370 pages. Cloth $2.25 net.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION BY MUSCULAR EXERCISE. By LUTHEE HALSEY
GULICK, M.D. Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $0.75 net.
LATERAL CURVATURE OF THE SPINE, AND ROUND SHOULDERS, THEIR
CAUSE, PREVENTION AND TREATMENT BY GYMNASTIC 'EXER-
CISES. By ROBERT W. LOVETT, M.D. 154 Illustrations. 8vo. Cloth
$1.75 net.
IMPORTANT EDUCATIONAL BOOKS
ANATOMY, EMBRYOLOGY, HISTOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY.
MAMMALIAN ANATOMY: With Special Reference to the Anatomy of the
Cat. Second Edition. By ALVIN DAVISON, A.M., PH.D. With a Glos-
sary and 114 Illustrations. 12mo ; xiii + 246 pages. Cloth, $1.50 net.
COMPEND OF HISTOLOGY. Specially Adapted for the Use of Medical Stu-
dents and Physicians. By H. E. RADASCH, M.D. Second Revised Edi-
tion. With 127 Handsome Illustrations. 12mo; xv + 350 pages. Cloth,
$1.00 ; interleaved for the addition of notes, $1.25.
ANATOMICAL NOMENCLATURE. With Special Reference to the Basle An-
atomical Nomenclature [BNA], By LBWELLYS F. BARKER, M.D., of Johns
Hopkins University. Vocabularies in English and Latin. Two Colored
and other Illustrations. Octavo. Cloth, $1.00 net.
HUMAN ANATOMY. Edited by HENRY MORRIS, M.A., M.B., and J. PLAY-
FAIR MCMURRICH, A.M., PH.D. Fourth Edition, Rewritten, Revised and
Enlarged. 1025 Illustrations ; 319 in Colors. One Octavo Volume.
Cloth, $6.00 net. (Or in 5 Parts, as follows: Part I. Morphogenesis
Osteology Articulation. Cloth, $1.50 net. Part II. Muscles Organs
of Circulation Lymphatics. Cloth, $2.00 net. Part III. Nervous Sys-
tem Organs of Special Sense. Cloth, $1.50 net. Part IV. Organs 'of
Digestion Organs of Voice and Respiration Urinary and Reproductive
Organs The Ductless Glands The Skin and Mammary Gland. Cloth,
$1.50 net. Part V. Surgical and Topographical Anatomy. Cloth, $1.00
net.
ANATOMY FOR NURSES. By ELIZABETH R. BUNDY, M.D. With 191 Illus-
trations, 34 in Colors. 12mo ; 252 pages. Cloth, $1.75 net.
ANATOMY OF THE BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD, with Special Reference to
Mechanism and Function. By HARRIS E. SANTEE, M.D., PH.D., Profes-
sor of Anatomy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Uni-
versity of Illinois. Fourth Edition. Rewritten and Enlarged. 128
Illustrations of which 33 are in colors. Octavo ; 453 pages. Cloth, $4.00.
A LABORATORY GUIDE FOR HISTOLOGY. Outlines for the Study of His-
tology and Microscopic Anatomy. By IRVING HARDESTY, A.B., PH.D.
With a Chapter on Laboratory Drawing by ADELEBERT WATTS LEE, M.D.
30 Illustrations, 2 in Color. Octavo. Cloth, $1.50 net.
TEXT-BOOK OF HISTOLOGY. Arranged upon an Embryological Basis. By
DR. FREDERIC T. LEWIS, of Harvard Medical School. By Dr. PHILIPP
STOHR. Sixth American Edition, Revised. 450 Illustrations, 45 in
Colors. 8vo; 434 pages. Cloth, $3.00 net.
TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. Illustrated. Third Edition. Especially
adapted for the use of Students. By A. P. BRUBAKER, M.D. With an
Appendix giving a brief account of some essential forms of apparatus
suited to those who have not large laboratory opportunities. 3 Colored
Plates and 383 other Illustrations. Octavo ; 752 pages. Cloth, $3.00 net.
OUTLINES OF PHYSIOLOGY. By EDWARD GROVES JONES, M.D. Revised by
R. G. STEPHENS. 2d Edition. 107 Illus. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50 net.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BODY. A Manual of Human Embry-
ology. By J. PLAYFAIR MCMURRICH, A.M., PH.D., Professor of Anatomy,
University of Toronto, Formerly Professor of Anatomy, University of
Michigan ; Editor of Morris' " Text-Book of Anatomy." Third Edition,
Revised. 277 Illustrations. Octavo; 528 pages. Cloth, $3.00 net.
EMBRYOLOGY. A Laboratory Text-Book of Embryology. By CHARLES S.
MINOT, S.D., LL.D., Professor of Histology and Human Embryology,
Harvard Medical School. With 218 Illustrations. Cloth, $4.50 net.
Prices given in this List are strictly net. Any book will be sent to any
address, transportation prepaid by us, upon receipt of the amount advertised.
Catalogues of works on Biology, Chemistry, Medicine, etc., free upon applica-
tion.