If you wish to catch night moths, take some brown sugar and boil it to a thick syrup. Put in it some peppermint, or rose water, or vanilla, to make it smell nice. Soak some white rags in it. Then lay the rags in a bowl. Put plenty of pins on your sleeve. Have some boxes to put the moths in, and some ether to kill them. You should have your _net_ also. You know a net to catch insects is a bag of lace, or fine netting, sewed on a hoop with a handle. You need a short handle in the night-moth net. Go to a clump of trees, and pin the sugared rags on the trunks. When you have pinned on all you wish, turn about, and go to the trees where you put the rags. Have your lantern also. You will see dozens of moths feasting on the sugar in the rags. You can catch as many as you like, and put them in your boxes. LESSON XXVIII. THE BIRD. [Illustration: ON THE WING.] A bird is an animal which comes from an egg, wears feathers, and is built for flying. Even the few birds which run, and do not fly, are all built on the general plan of flyers. An egg was described in lesson seven of this book. All of you have seen plenty of eggs. The eggs of birds are usually hatched by the mother-bird sitting upon them for a certain number of days, or weeks, and keeping them warm with her body. Some few birds, as the ostrich, hide their eggs in the sand to be hatched by sun heat. One or two other kinds of birds hide their eggs in earth or leaves. I shall tell you of only a few things about the bird’s body. I wish to tell you just enough about birds to interest you, so that you will try to learn more about them. The first thing for you to notice about the body of the bird is, that it is built for lightness. The bones are thin, and most of them are hollow. Your bones, and the bones of four-legged animals, are either solid, or hollow and filled in the centre with marrow. But the bird’s bones are made to give it the greatest possible size, with the least possible weight. Not only are the bird’s bones hollow, but it is able to send warm air from its lungs through them. Thus they not only do not weigh the bird down, but really help to keep it up in the air. The bird has more bones in its neck than men or beasts have. The bird’s neck is long, and bends easily. Its head and neck divide the air before it as it flies. Even birds which look short-necked have really more bones in the back of the neck than you have. They owe the short look to the feathers. The body of the bird is built on the _boat plan_. It is an air-boat. Its breast-bone serves as a keel. It is placed low down, and is large and sharp. In very strong, flying birds, as the eagle, this keel is very large. To this are fastened the many strong muscles which move the wings. The few birds which do not fly, as the ostrich and penguin, have the breast-bone flattened or “raft-shape.”