The Terns furnish abundant interest while flying. They seem always to be on the wing, and always hungry. Like the Gulls, they seize their food by darting upon it, tossing it into the air and catching it again, without alighting. They pick up from the surface of the water floating objects. They swim on the surface, rarely diving deep. They dart also upon fish from above, and "one plows the water in flight with a knifelike beak in hopes of running through a shoal of fishes." [Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff. CHICAGO COLORTYPE CO., CHIC. & NEW YORK. CASPIAN TERN. 1/3 Life-size. Copyright by Nature Study Pub. Co., 1898, Chicago.] THE FLOWERING ALMOND. BY EMILY C. THOMPSON. The Sweet, the Bitter, and the Flowering Almond are all of a kin and in this kinship many include also the Peach and the Nectarine. The Flowering Almond or the dwarf Almond is a shrub which early in the spring, in March or April, sends forth its fair rosy blossoms before its leaves are sprouted. The shrub seldom exceeds three feet in height. The leaves are like those of the willow, only darker and of a more shining green. It is really a native of Calmuck Tartary but now is used extensively in gardens because it blooms so early and can easily be cultivated in any dry soil. The Almond tree figures in history, mythology and poetry. In the Bible we find four references to it: Exodus 25:33, 34; 37:19, 20; Num. 17:8; Ecc. 12:5. In this connection it is interesting to note that Aaron's famous rod was the shoot of an Almond tree. Theophrastus mentions the Almond as flourishing in Greece. Cato also tells us that it was grown, but as a luxury, in Italy. The rest of its history is obscure and all we know about its cultivation in England is that it was introduced during the reign of Henry VIII. Virgil in the Georgics welcomes the Almond when covered with blossoms as the sign of a fruitful season.