Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets: Being a selection, with revision, from the teachers' leaflets, home nature-study lessons, junior naturalist monthlies and other publications from the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1896-1904New York State College of Agriculture
History
Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets: Being a selection, with revision, from the teachers' leaflets, home nature-study lessons, junior naturalist monthlies and other publications from the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1896-1904
New York State College of Agriculture
Natural history; Nature study
Have you ever turned over stones or broken off pieces of an old stump in
the woods or along the bank of a stream? If so, you may have seen
salamanders ("lizards") making their escape as quickly as possible. If
you can get a few for your terrarium you will learn to like them, for
they are harmless and have very interesting ways. Do not catch them by
their tails as they try to get away, or you may find that you have
captured the tails but lost the salamanders.
[Illustration: _Fig. 343. Woolly-bear, natural size._]
Let the excursion in search of these little fellows be one of the
jolliest of the year. You will find them in moist places and should
therefore, carry a box containing damp moss to put them in. I would
suggest that you take two boxes along, one for the smaller salamanders,
the other for their larger brothers. Why? I will tell you.
It happened this summer that a party of little folks went out with me on
a salamander hunt. We found three kinds: the _Spotted Salamander_, which
is black with yellow spots on each side of the back; the _Red-back
Salamander_, which usually has a reddish brown band along the back; and
a black one covered with whitish spots. This black one with whitish
spots was named "Freckles" by one of our number, a much more attractive
name than his own, which is _Pleth'-o-don glu-ti-no'-sus_.
We placed the three in a box, and as I closed it the large spotted
salamander seemed very well satisfied (no wonder!), while the other two
raised their heads in a most appealing way. I was firm, however, and
made them prisoners, feeling sure that they would be comfortable in the
nice large terrarium.
When morning came we opened the box, for we were ready to put our little
neighbors into their new home. What was our surprise to find the spotted
salamander alone! As to countenance he was well content; as to sides he
was much bulged out. Poor little "Freckles" and poor little Red Back! I
wish I had listened to your appeal!
[Illustration: _Fig. 344. Isabella tiger moths, male and female. The red
and black woolly-bear is the larva or caterpillar of this moth. The
smaller moth is the male._]
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY.
1. A terrarium is "an inclosed bit of earth on which things may live and
grow." Do not think that it is necessary to have one as well made at
first as that in the illustration. (Fig. 341.) Uncle John will be well
pleased to know that you have made some arrangement for having
outdoor-folk live in the schoolroom. Any such home will be a terrarium.
2. Every one can have grasshoppers for study. How many different kinds
can you find? Do all have the feelers or antennæ the same length?
Observe the growth of the wings in the nymph, as the young grasshopper
is called. In the grown-up ones notice that the narrow wing is on the
outside and the pretty ones underneath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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