Bugler

“ The bigger and stronger he is, the bigger his family is, for he has a number of wives and they all live together in a herd or band of which Bugler is lord and master. He is ready and eager to fight for them, and terrible battles take place when another disputes his leadership. ”

“ When the snows of winter come, many families get together and form great bands. Then they move down from the mountains in search of shelter and food. When a winter is very bad, many starve to death, for man has fenced in and made into farms much of the land where the elk once found ample food for winter.
“But big as is Bugler the Elk, there is a cousin who is bigger, the biggest of all the Deer family. It is Flathorns the Moose. As you must guess by his name he is a member of the flat-horned branch of the family. His antlers spread widely and are flattened instead of being round. ”

“ As for the unfortunate buglers, who, most of them, were general musicians, and would play upon anything that was wanted, these, without the least regard to their previous fatigues, which had been even greater than those of the beaters, were placed upon barrels, or carts, or stumps of trees, fiddling and clarionetting for the bare life, while men and women tore in wild polska round them. ”

“ Buckley's friends eat "all kinds of beasts, fish, fowl, reptile, and creeping thing." They have no notion of mechanical appliance, and a rude dam that Buckley makes astonishes them greatly. Their arms are spears, clubs, and flint-headed tomahawks, and they spear their fish and dig out their wombats. No genius among them has ever invented a net or a snare. They keep count of time by chalk-marks on the arm. They paint themselves for battle or feast. They bury their dead in mounds, or suspend them in trees. They eat their enemies, having previously grilled them between heated stones. ”

“ Then he told of that deadly battle in the grass.
"But these webs might have been the work of another spider," said the attorney.
"It matters not," Trove insisted, "for the webs were spun at least twelve hours before the crime. One of them contains the body of a red butterfly with starred wings. We cut the wings that day, and Miss Vaughn put them in a book she was reading."
Paul brought the wings, which exactly fitted the tiny torso of the butterfly. They could discern the footprints, one of which had broken the ant's road, while another was completely covered by the butterfly snare. ”

“ Not even a hawk itself can produce the consternation among a flock of sparrows that the harsh, rasping voice of the butcherbird creates, for escape they well know to be difficult before the small ogre swoops down upon his victim, and carries it off to impale it on a thorn or frozen twig, there to devour it later piecemeal. Every shrike thus either impales or else hangs up, as a butcher does his meat, more little birds of many kinds, field-mice, grasshoppers, and other large insects than it can hope to devour in a week of bloody orgies. ”

“ He rarely gets beyond a few rather insipid notes, before he sees a grasshopper or some other defenseless creature which he needs in his collection, and which he proceeds to capture and impale on the thorn of a sprout in his favorite orange tree. The butcher bird does now and then capture a small bird and add it to this collection, but I am convinced that he is not so bad a sinner, after all. Most of his prey is insects. Looking at my own butterfly collection I have almost a fellow feeling for him. ”

“ Bulger was in high glee for he had already made up his mind that there was sport ahead for him.
In less than an hour, with him to point out their hiding places and to unearth them, I had captured a hundred moles. Returning to the overseer’s lodge, with his help I cut off the nails of each mole’s fore feet close to the flesh and then gave orders to have the lot carried back to the grain fields and released. Turning my attention now to the meadow-mice, I realized at once that to get rid of pest number two would be the most difficult task of all. ”

“ Buggs, tho’ nasty to us, are so cleanly to themselves, that they quit their places of Harbour to come out and dung, and their Excrements leave a Mark or Stain like that of a Fly, but somewhat blacker; and wherever you see such Marks, if on Wood, look for the nearest Crevise, Knot, or Streak; if on Walls, for the nearest Crack or Hole; if on Furniture, for the nearest Seam, Lace, Tape, or Fold, and there assuredly are the Vermin, and there apply the Remedy.
In Winter-time, few, if any, are to be found by day-light in the Furniture of a Bed; but in the Wood-work, Wainscot, or Walls only. ”

“ Swifts, swallows, and flycatchers have developed phenomenal mastery over the air, so prey upon flying insects. Mynas, hoopoes, “blue jays,” magpie-robins, and others feed upon the hexapod hosts that crawl on the ground. Not a few birds confine their attention to the creeping things that inhabit the bark of trees. Such are the wryneck, the tree-creeper, and the woodpecker. Of these the woodpecker is chief. A mighty insect hunter is he, one who tracks down his quarry and drags him out of his lair. ”

“ And I have seen, and do assert, they do bite in the cold as well as hot Seasons: but as our Blood is not so apt to inflame in Winter as in Summer, their Bites make but little Impression, and are consequently the less regarded.
The second and most prevailing Error is, That Buggs bite some Persons, and not others: When in Reality they bite every Human Body that comes in their way; and this I will undertake plainly to demonstrate by Reason. ”

“ Small flocks of these birds accompany most, of the large antelopes, the buffaloes, and the rhinoceroses in South Africa, and run all over the creatures' bodies, picking off flies and insects. When an enemy approaches, the "buffel pikkers" sit in line with heads raised on the back of the animal they are attending, like sparrows on a roof ridge, and signal the alarm. The plumage is close, uniform, and compact, giving the bird an appearance of being covered with polished satin rather than with feathers. ”

“ The young have the same general appearance and habits as the adults, but they lack wings. This suborder includes many common kinds, such as the water bugs, the water striders (these seldom develop wings even in the adult stage) , the ambush bugs, and the lace bugs, as well as the stink bugs and the chinch bugs. The chief 49 pest of this group is the chinch bug, Blissus leucopterus (Say) , fig. 45. Other pests include many kinds of plant bugs, of which Lygus lineolaris (Beauvois) is shown in fig. 46. The bed bugs, another group never developing functional wings, also belong in this suborder. ”

“ Rose-bugs are also eaten greedily by domesticated fowls; and when they become exhausted and fall to the ground, or when they are about to lay their eggs, they are destroyed by moles, insects, and other animals, which lie in wait to seize them. Dr. Green informs us that a species of dragon-fly, or devil’s needle, devours them. He also says that an insect, which he calls the enemy of the cut-worm, probably the larva of a Carabus, or predaceous ground-beetle, preys on the grubs of the common dor-bug. ”

“ With the mocker in the groves is the Southern butcher bird. Just as at first glimpse I am apt to mistake one bird for the other, so when I find a mocking bird’s nest I am not sure but it is a{203} butcher bird’s till I have looked it over a bit. The butcher bird’s eggs are a little less blue of ground color and have some smaller lavender spots mingled with the cinnamon brown. The nests are lined more often with grasses than with seed pappus. Outwardly they look the same and seem to be built in similar places. The butcher bird is as friendly with man as is the mocker. ”

“ Bingley has the following marvelous story of the supposed rapacity of the Stag-beetle, which, it has been remarked, if not gravely stated by the reverend editor of the Animal Biography, as related to him by one of his own intimate and intelligent friends, might have been supposed by the general reader to have been borrowed from the Travels of the veracious Munchausen. “An intimate and intelligent friend of the editor informed him that he had often found several heads of these insects together, all perfectly alive, while the abdomens were gone, and the trunks and heads were left together. ”

“ Buckton, “is to grow as fast as possible,” and with a view to this end the rostrum or beak, with its enclosed sucking or pumping apparatus, is fully developed from the very commencement, “often, indeed, to such an abnormal extent that it forms an awkward appendage, trailing behind the body whilst walking.” [43] The insect does not, however, walk much, but, settling itself down on the twig or stem where, perhaps, it first saw the light, pierces the bark with the instrument thus provided for it, and commences to suck up the sap into its mouth. ”

“ Processes vary among the 7,000 or more known species of this cosmopolitan family.
Not all of this great family are dung beetles, however, or scarablike. Here belong the May bugs and June beetles that come blundering around lighted country residences in the evenings; and it is their fat white grubs that, hatched from eggs buried in the ground, devour the roots of the grass and other plants, spoiling the lawns and strawberry beds. The robin is their most effective enemy. Among the [Pg 124] lesser genera are those of the rose bugs, hated pests of the horticulturist and fruit grower. ”

“ It is described and figured in "Harris's Treatise on Insects." Closely allied, though generally wingless, is that enemy of our peace, the bed-bug. It has a small somewhat triangular head, orbicular thorax, and large, round, flattened abdomen. It is generally wingless, having only two small wing-pads instead. The eggs are oval, white; the young escape by pushing off a lid at one end of the shell. ”

“ She has strong little wings, and really seems like a tiny bird." "Well," continued Papa, "when I was very small, I often caught the dear little things, and firmly believed they understood when I said: 'Lady bug fly away home.' When one flew from my hand, I followed, watched her going home and found where she laid her eggs. She always selects a rosebush or honeysuckle or a hop vine, because they are more likely than others to have plant lice upon them. Lady bug's eggs are a bright yellow, small, flat and oval; when they are hatched out, the babies find their food all ready for them. ”

“ The tibia shuts into a groove in the femur, and thus the bug is able to seize and hold its prey.
It clasps its victim in its arms, as it were, and calmly proceeds to suck out its blood.
In some species of the giant water bugs the female does not leave her eggs in the pond to take care of themselves; she puts them on the back of her mate, who is obliged to carry all of his progeny about with him until they relieve him by hatching out and swimming off to see life for themselves. [Pg 127]
Little Mrs. Shore Bug
May says she wants to hear more about bugs. ”

“ A great brown butcher bird lived in a thorn bush not far away. This horrid creature lived on mice and little birds, and like the witch of the fairy tale, hung his victims on the thorns till he was ready to eat them.
One day the children thought the canaries would like to be out of doors, and hung the cage in a pine tree. An hour later that butcher bird had reached in through the bars of the cage and bitten the heads off the whole canary family save one little one. He had been in the nest out of reach. ”

“ Having shewn that they not only live in Winter, but asserted that to be the best Season for their total Destruction, I must further observe, that few People caring to trouble themselves about Buggs but when they themselves are troubled by them, [31] having confin’d the Attempts for their Destruction chiefly to the Breeding-Season, has been the sole Reason why the best Efforts for their Destruction have fail’d. ”

“ Other naturalists have been more fortunate, and we may take it as an established fact that even the smaller Indian species of butcher-birds sometimes impale their victims on thorns. The existence of such larders is easily accounted for. When the little butcher captures a victim so large that it has to be torn to pieces before consumption, he has to find some method of fixing it while tearing it up. He is not heavy enough to pin it to the ground with his talons, as a raptorial bird does, so must perforce utilise the fork of a tree or a large thorn. ”

“ To him those unwinking jewels of eyes had no menace. He hovered an instant about two feet above them. In that instant, like a flash of light, the long, pale neck and straight yellow beak shot out; and the butterfly [71] was caught neatly. Twisting his head shoreward, without shifting his feet, the heron struck the glowing velvet wings of the insect sharply on the sand. Then, having swallowed the morsel leisurely, he drew his head down again between his shoulders, and resumed his moveless waiting. ”

“ Wild Buggs are watchful and cunning, and tho’ timorous of us, yet in fight one with another, are very fierce; I having often seen some (that I brought up from a day old, always inur’d to Light and Company) fight as eagerly as Dogs or Cocks, and sometimes one or both have died on the Spot. From those so brought up tame, I made the greatest Discoveries.
They are hot in Nature, generate often, and shoot their Spawn all at once, and then leave it, as Fish do. ”

“ The process of devouring a beetle is more interesting than pleasant to watch, for though the strong jaws move quickly the insect passes but slowly down the throat; its still undevoured limbs twitch long after much of the body is no more. Bingley noticed this habit of pouching food in a small bat, to which he had given a flesh-fly: "The animal, raising itself higher than usual on its fore-legs, bent its head with great dexterity under its belly, and forced the insect into its month, by thrusting it, from side to side, against that part of the membrane which extended betwixt the two hind-legs." ”