Part 38 (1/2)
”He had an old bait-net of thin, rotten stuff That a minner could bite his way through; But he never went fis.h.i.+n'--at least, in the way That fishermen gen'ally do; But he carried that bait-net wherever he went; The handle was j'inted in two.
”And the bottles and boxes that chap fetched along!
Why, a doctor would never want more; If they held pills and physic, he'd got full enough To fit out a medicine-store.
And he'd got heaps of pins, dreffle lengthy and slim, Allers droppin' about on the floor.
”Well, true as I live, that old feller just spent His hull days in loafin' about And pickin' up hoppers and roaches and flies-- Not to use for his bait to ketch trout, But to kill and stick pins in and squint at and all.
He was crazy 's a coot, th' ain't no doubt.
”He'd see a poor miller a-flyin' along,-- The commonest, every-day kind,-- And he'd waddle on arter it, fat as he was, And foller up softly behind, Till he'd flop that-air bait-net right over its head, And I'd laugh till nigh out of my mind.
”Why, he'd lay on the ground for an hour at a stretch And scratch in the dirt like a hen; He'd sc.r.a.pe all the bark off the bushes and trees, And turn the stones over; and then He'd peek under logs, or he'd pry into holes.
I'm glad there ain't no more sech men.
”My wife see a box in his bedroom, one day, Jest swarmin' with live caterpillars; He fed 'em on leaves off of all kinds of trees-- The ellums and birches and willers; And he'd got piles of boxes, chock-full to the top With crickets and bees and moth-millers.
”I asked him, one time, what his business might be.
Of course, I fust made some apology.
He tried to explain, but such awful big words!
Sorto' forren, outlandish, and collegey.
'S near's I can tell, 'stead of enterin' a trade, He was tryin' to jest enter _mology_.
”And Hannah, my wife, says she's heerd o' sech things; She guesses his brain warn't so meller.
There's a thing they call Nat'ral Histerry, she says, And, whatever the folks there may tell her, Till it's settled she's wrong she'll jest hold that-air man Was a Nat'ral Histerrical feller.”
ANNIE TRUMBULL SLOSSON.
MIMICRY
Protective mimicry as it occurs in animals may be the simulation in form or color, or both, of natural objects, or it may be the simulation of the form and color of another animal, which for some reason enjoys immunity from the attacks of species which ordinarily prey upon its kind. Of course this mimicry is unconscious and is the result of a slow process of development which has, no doubt, gone on for ages.
Remarkable instances of mimicry, in which things are simulated, are found in the insect world. The ”walking-sticks,” as they are called, creatures which resemble the twigs of trees; the ”leaf-insects,” in which the foliage of plants is apparently reproduced in animate forms; the ”leaf-b.u.t.terfly” of India, in which the form and the color and even the venation of leaves are reproduced, are ill.u.s.trations of mimicry which are familiar to all who have given any attention to the subject.
Repulsive objects are frequently mimicked. A spider has been lately described from the Indo-Malayan region, which, as it rests upon the leaves, exactly resembles a patch of bird-lime. The resemblance is so exact as to deceive the most sagacious, and the discovery of the creature was due to the fact that the naturalist who happened to see it observed, to his surprise, that what he was positive was a ma.s.s of ordure was actually in motion. A similar case of mimicry is observable among some of the small acontiid moths of North America. One of these is pure white, with the tips of the fore wings dark greenish-brown. It sits on the upper side of leaves, with its fore wings folded over, or rolled about the hind wings, and in this att.i.tude it so nearly approximates in appearance the ordure of a sparrow as to have often deceived me when collecting.
FAMILY III. LYCaeNIDae
(THE BLUES, THE COPPERS, THE HAIR-STREAKS)
SUBFAMILY LYCaeNINae
”Mark, while he moves amid the sunny beam, O'er his soft wings the varying l.u.s.ters gleam.