Various

“ And this is the beautiful work left for us to do, to make the world acquainted with the lives of our little brothers in feathers.
For this work are needed, patience that knows no fatigue, accuracy of observation, enthusiasm that scorns such trifles as wet feet, torn garments, insect bites and stings, burning sun or blistering wind, and above all—lacking which all else is useless—truthfulness that will report correctly, without exaggeration or coloring. To one possessing these qualities a whole world of delight is open. ”

“ We are better fitted for the service which it is our privilege to render to the world by the touch of the bird life. Our horizon is broadened beyond the self-interest, the egoistic, to the altruistic conception of life. We cannot live in the presence of these creatures so full of life without being spurred to more earnest effort ourselves. When we fail to see in the world of nature about us what it is our privilege to see we are losing that much of life. ”

“ If the insect is heavy enough the weight of its body pushes down the keel, but the contained style is anchored, so that it seems to dart out, and strikes the insect's body, first with the stigma at the tip, and then glancing along rubs its side against the body of the insect. The insect flies away with pollen rubbed upon its body, and when it goes through the same performance at another flower, the new stigma strikes it first and gets some of the pollen, and then some more pollen is smeared on, and so the pollen is carried from one flower to the stigma of another flower. ”

“ The old historians state that the Greek poet Aeschylus lost his life through an eagle's mistaking his bald head for a rock and dropping a tortoise upon it in order to break the shell of his amphibious prey, but which broke, instead, the poet's skull. That an eagle, proverbially the keenest-sighted of created things, should mistake a man's head for a stone is absurd beyond the necessity of comment. ”

“ This is a field of inquiry as fascinating as it is fresh and unexplored. Nothing but the greed of collecting and the passion for classifying, could so long have blinded men to the charm of studying life instead of death, the individual instead of the skin. ”

“ A fish is a cold-blooded animal; that is, his temperature is nearly the same as that of the water in which he lives. His circulation is sluggish and his appetite is a variable quantity. He has the capacity to take in large quantities of food at one meal and properly assimilate it; on the other hand he is able to fast for weeks at a time. He has his own notions about eating, and it is quite impossible to induce him to change them, and all this has considerable influence on his rate of growth. It is out of the question to expect him to grow when he is fasting ”

“ Bid adieu to your friends, and go alone, for the temple of Nature can never be entered in crowds, nor even in pairs. Turn your steps to the best place you know of; an old orchard, a grove with underbrush near a house, a ravine, a swamp, or the edge of woods. ”

“ To one who would know fishes, any one of these species is more desirable than gold fish. The study of fishes in an aquarium, such as the one possessed by Mr. Ford, is extremely interesting. They will teach you much about their habits, besides giving you many lessons showing their ability to change color and adapt themselves to their surroundings.
The Blind Fishes, which inhabit caves in this country, are very interesting. They have lost their color, if they ever had any, being white. In many the eyes have become so degenerated as to be entirely of no service when the fish is in the light. ”

“ One of the most remarkable cases of insect-pollination is that shown by the ordinary Yucca, which is pollinated by a small moth, the plant and the moth being very dependent upon one another. The flowers of Yucca occur in very large prominent clusters, and hang like bells. In each bell-shaped flower there are six hanging stamens, and a central ovary ribbed lengthwise like a melon. At the tip of the ovary is a funnel-shaped opening, which is the stigma. During the day the moth hides quietly in the recesses of the flower, but at dusk she becomes very active. ”

“ In the Rocky Mountains there are none of these fishes, and many minnows there grow to a length of two feet or more. The only enemy of importance they have is the trout, but the minnow finds a more congenial climate in the larger bodies of water, too warm for the trout. The struggle for existence has been a severe one, [Pg 86] especially so in our streams where species of fish are the more numerous. It has greatly limited the growth of most species beyond an average size, and is in many places responsible for the fact that often a species may become dwarfed in certain bodies of water. ”

“ It is in the tropics and among the many species of corals that we find the most highly-colored fishes.
Many fishes have the power to change their color, and this they can do in a very short time. The flounders are a peculiar family, the young when born are symmetrical. Early in life they take on the habit of their parents and lie on one side, the eye on the underside disdains to look downwards and so begins to move toward the other side. The bones of the head suit themselves to this change and soon our flounder has both eyes on the same side of the head. ”

“ About four hundred years ago a lady, who claimed to be the heir of the Byzantine Emperor, married Ivan III., Czar of Russia, who, therefore, assumed the Greek arms, which may possibly be restored again to Constantinople by Russian arms.
The United States chose for her emblem the same imperial and triumphant bird. Some have considered it as not altogether an appropriate device for our republican government. Students of natural history have observed that the eagle is mean and cowardly. He lives, moreover, a life of rapine, plundering birds that are bolder and more industrious than himself. ”

“ His description recorded, proceed to note his manners; whether quiet or restless, whether he jerks his tail, or his head; walks or hops. See what he is doing; picking up insects, digging them from bark or ground, seeking them among flowers or leaves, or whether he is eating seeds from the grass or weeds. Sit there as long as that bird is in sight, and note down everything he does, even his calls and his song as it sounds to you. ”

“ Instead of the old wasteful method, insects were called in to act as agents of the transfer. By securing an animate agent there is a definiteness in the pollination and a saving in pollen production which is quite in contrast with the wind method. It must not be supposed that all flowers have learned to use insects with equal skill, for many of them may be said to be clumsy in their arrangements. On the other hand, certain families have reached a high degree of organization in this regard, and arrange for insect visits with a skill and completeness of organization which is astonishing. ”

“ We know that the rate of growth is in no way uniform, as is the case with our warm-blooded animals. We also know that among fishes there is no uniform adult size, as there is in case of warm-blooded animals (birds and mammals) . In general, we cannot speak of a fish as being full-grown; at the same time there seems to be a limit of size for each species in each body of water, beyond which only a few go. The Chinook salmon we mentioned reach an average weight of twenty to thirty pounds, although individuals are occasionally taken of forty, sixty or even one hundred pounds weight. ”

“ After depositing several eggs, she runs to the apex of the ovary and begins to crowd the mass of pollen she has collected into the funnel-like stigma. These actions are repeated several times, until many eggs are deposited and repeated pollination has been effected. As a result of all this, the flower is pollinated and seeds are formed, which develop abundant nourishment for the moth larvae, whose eggs had been laid in the ovule. Just how the insect learned that this behavior on her part would secure food for her young is hard to imagine. ”

“ I have no doubt that many of those from the small lakes of one-half pound were as old as the large ones taken from the Salmon river.
Fish eat and grow very irregularly. The average size of individuals, which we would ordinarily call adults, for some species, is different in different bodies of water. Their growth is influenced largely by the size and depth of the body of water in which they live, also by its temperature and the amount of suitable food it contains. The value or extent of each of these influences is imperfectly understood.
The forms of fishes are very numerous. ”

“ In the other set the stamens, having shed their pollen, are turned back behind the flower, while the style has straightened up, and the mature stigma holds the same position that the anthers did the day before. An insect, in visiting such a group, therefore, may fly straight towards a flower whose stamens are projecting and shedding, and its body will be dusted with the pollen. If it now flies to a flower which is a little older, whose stamens are out of the way, but whose style is projecting, its body carrying the pollen will strike the stigma. ”

“ If they did eat on this journey there would not, I believe, be enough animal and plant life in the Columbia to furnish each salmon with more than one meal. Now many of them make the journey against a strong current for more than one thousand miles, and reach an elevation of about eight thousand feet above the sea. When they leave the ocean they are in excellent condition, by the time they have reached their journey's end they are thin and haggard, their vitality is so reduced that soon after spawning they die—literally die of starvation. ”

“ We owe our fruits largely to the birds. This statement anyone may prove by simple experiment. First drive the birds from your garden because you think they are eating the buds and blossoms, instead of the insects which sting the buds. You will be rewarded with a scanty and stunted fruit crop. Next conclude that you won't get fruit anyway, and so let the birds do as they please. You will be pretty sure to harvest a fairly good crop at least. Lastly, encourage the birds to visit your garden and orchard in their northward passage, as well as during the summer season. ”

“ The fish here has an advantage over the warm-blooded animals, for he does not need to generate heat to keep his body at a constant temperature. The amount of food often eaten at one time is quite remarkable. I remember once of taking nearly one pound of sunfish from the stomach of a Large-mouthed Black Bass. This does not indicate that a bass must eat such meals three times each day, it only shows his capacity to make use of a large quantity of food when it is abundant and his stomach feels the need of it. A trout is a good feeder ”

“ Their eggs hatch during the winter. By the next winter the young salmon are from four to five inches in length, and by the following fall or early winter they go to the sea, having reached an average length of about ten inches. After leaving the fresh water, which only afforded them a scant subsistence for nearly two years, the generous ocean gives them plenty of sea room and an abundance of food, which in a few years prepares them to repeat the long journey of their parents. We are, in case of most fishes, ignorant of their life histories, as we are of the salmon's. ”

“ Recognizing a bird on sight or hearing, knowing his nest and eggs, when he arrives in the spring, and when he departs in the fall, does not by any means imply that one is acquainted with the bird himself. ”

“ Many eminent authorities believe that both the banana and the plantain, with the numerous varieties of each, are the same species.
The banana plant is herbaceous and dies down to the ground after fruiting. The true stem is underground and perennial, sending up new shoots each season, which grow rapidly and in a few months bear ripened fruit.
The stalk that bears the flowers grows to a height of from fifteen to twenty feet and is surrounded by the sheathing bases of the leaves. The flower cluster or spike is terminal and from two to four feet in length and nodding. ”

“ The flowers have a conspicuous pouch in which the nectar is secreted, and a flap overhangs the opening of the pouch. Behind the flap are the two pollen masses, between which is the stigmatic surface. A bee crowds itself away into the pouch and becomes imprisoned, and may frequently be found buzzing about uneasily. The nectar is in the bottom of the pouch, and after feeding the bee moves toward the opening overhung by the flap, and rubs itself against the stigma and then against the anthers, receiving the pollen on its back. ”

“ The woodpeckers are after the insect which is destroying the tree, not after the life of the tree.
Space would fail us to speak of the debt we owe to all the birds. There are the scavenger water-birds—gulls, terns and the like—the scavenger land birds—the vultures—the ducks, geese and swans, who check the encroachments of vegetable life upon our streams, ponds and lakes; the herons, cranes, rails, coots, gallinules and shore-birds, which feed upon the water and mud-inhabiting insects and other small animals; the sparrows and grouse, which destroy vast quantities of the seeds of harmful plants. ”

“ The fish disdains to outgrow his surroundings; he may feel his importance, and consider himself in many ways superior to the other fishes in the pond with him, but he will not permit himself to grow to such a size as to make the question of securing a living a difficult or irksome one.
Fishes spawn but once each year, and the time and length of the spawning season is not the same for all species. With some species the season is short, while with others it may extend through three or more months. ”

“ The stalk that bears the heavy bunch of fruit, occasionally weighing as much as eighty pounds, may be easily cut down by a single stroke of a scythe or a machete.
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Under cultivation the fruit seldom produces perfect seeds, but if developed in a state of nature it is said that they will mature and that many varieties are produced.
The banana is frequently used in coffee plantations to make the necessary shade for the young coffee plants and at the same time it yields an income while the planter is waiting for the production of the coffee berry. ”

“ In order to secure visits from insects, so that pollination may be effected, flowers have been compelled to do several things. In the first place, they must provide an attractive food. This has taken two prominent forms, namely, nectar and pollen. There are insects, such as butterflies, which are not only attracted by the nectar, but whose mouth parts have only been adapted for sucking up a liquid. ”