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A GLANCE AT THE CATERPILLAR AND WASP.

Microscopic Views.-Vo. ).

A GLANCE AT THE CATERPILLAR AND WASP.

WELL

BY UNCLE GEORGE.

ELL, my young friends, I see you are punctual this bright afternoon, and by the little bottles, boxes, and hands full of flowers, and the bugs and vermin, I think you mean to improve the time, whatever it costs the poor insects."

"Yes, Uncle George, but I am not going to hurt my bugs, I am only going to destroy the one you want to examine, and I'll kill him carefully."

"That is right, Willie; what have you?"

"Oh, there are May-bugs, and flies, and wasps, and a fine old caterpillar that we were to find something about for Fanny to admire." "Ugh, I should'admire' to know what that could be; come, Cousin Willie, let him go, and look at my beautiful flowers."

'Ho, they are great flaunting things; we can see them with our eyes, 'way across the road."

"But the pollen, and the spiral tissues, and the globules of which they are composed, are wonderful and beautiful, and not so very large but the eyes would need some assistance."

"Willie laughs at my flowers; I suppose he means to see his crawling creatures without eyes. Well, I don't blame him, they look best so."

"If you please, Uncle George, we would like to see what can be found on Willie's worm to please Fanny, for it seems as if she had forgotten the spider."

"We will do so, Jennie, and since you are not of so weak nerves as she is, will you pass me a few hairs from the creature's back, with these tweezers?

Very good.

HAIRS OF THE CATERPILLAR-MAGNIFIED.

Now, Johnny, you are the smallest-look in."

"Oh-h, the thorn-bushes, and they've no leaves on them, and there's a turtle on one of the trees!"

"Well done; let me see a turtle in a thorn-bush."

"So you can, Willie, and a live turtle, too."

A GLANCE AT THE CATERPILLAR AND WASP.

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"Turtles! I see lightning-rods with the points all the way down. them; and there is something alive, sure enough. Why, Johnny, I thought you were dreaming."

"Johnny is as wide awake as any of us; but what can that be which he calls a turtle? Ah, I guess I know! the caterpillar's mother didn't comb his head before he went out."

"Yes, Fanny, you suggest the fact; that minute creature is a parasite that lives on the worm, as a louse lives on a dirty boy's head. He walks up those ragged spikes of Willie's lightning-rod as if he was quite bewildered. So much for the forest of thorn trees on the caterpillar's back, with the game that inhabits it. Now turn up the edge of the leaf to which he clings, and bring his foot carefully into the focus of the instrument. What have we there, Jennie ?"

"Oh, how beautiful! a hundred golden hooks fastened to the leaf, and all as clear and transparent as shell-work. I am sure Fanny will admire these, if she has any doubts about the beauty of the tall, thorny hairs."

"Indeed I do! who could believe a hateful worm had such glorious claws, and such a multitude of them-a long, oval ring, lined all round with them. How he clings to the leaf, so that no wind could shake him off!"

"Willie, see if you can count the claws on one side of his foot."

"One, two, three-ten-twenty-thirty -forty-five."

"Well, with the opposite row, how many are there on one foot-Johnny, you needn't stop to count your fingers-twice forty-five?" Ninety; and Jennie guessed a hundred."

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"Now pass him along gently, and look at his forward foot."

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Why! he has but one large claw on his fore-foot; how lonesome it looks after the others! What do you suppose is the reason, Uncle George, for the difference ?"

"I suppose the one strong claw on each side forward is more manageable than the many, to climb with, and is strong to drag himself up by; while the others give a better hold to fasten him to the leaf. This caterpillar, you see, has twenty feet, two single clawed, and eighteen with ninety claws each. How many claws, then, has the creature?"

"Sixteen hundred and twenty."

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A GLANCE AT THE CATERPILLAR AND WASP.

"Sixteen hundred and twenty-two!"

"Wrong, Willie. Right, Johnny. Now who is dreaming, my lad ?” "Oh, dear! I forget to add in his fore-legs, I was in such a hurry to get done first."

"Sure is better than quick, my good fellow, and sometimes it is quicker, you see."

"Yes, sir; I'll be careful next time, and not let little John get ahead of me."

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Johnny had the most legs, Willie, that's the way he beat you in the race."

"None of your mischief, Fanny. What shall we see next, Uncle George?"

"You may release your captive now. I have no dissecting knife fine enough to discover his internal arrangement, but the skillful Frenchman has done something here ready to our hands, by which we may see the arrangement of the worm's breathing apparatus."

"That! why, it looks wrinkled across like a goose's windpipe, and runs out into many branches, like the roots of a tree, the little ones branching off from the large ones, smaller and smaller, till I can hardly see them."

"And how does it seem to you, Jennie? Fanny's description is very just."

"I should call the central opening the throat of a large artery, and the veins seem to branch out, and run back with as many different lengths as there are veins; and every new branch is less than the one before it."

"You are both right, for, according to the naturalists, this arrangement serves for lungs and veins; or a kind of windpipe that branches out from the mouth, running back, and communicating with the surface along the sides of the worm. He has no blood, but respiration or breathing through these many tubes is to him what circulation of blood is to animals.

"Now, Willie, give your wasp a lamp-oil bath, and he will not suffer while we study him in piece-meal. There, that will do; you see he is dead instantly. I will now draw his sting with the tweezers. Without separating its sheath from the dagger, I will show it as you commonly see it.”

"How enormous, and yet how smooth and perfect! The fine needle we once looked at was very rough and blunt, but this is perfectly polished, though it seems an inch thick."

"So

you see, Jennie, how nature, the fine workmanship of God,

A GLANCE AT THE CATERPILLAR AND WASP.

surpasses the most patient and skillful art of man.

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Look very

closely, children, for I have been so fortunate as to discover a curious thing in connection with some wasp-stings."

"Oh, uncle, here it is now!"

"How do you know, Johnny? You are always finding something new."

"Don't I know queer things? What should you call that, Willie?" "I should call it an eight-legged pig, if there ever were such pigs." "And I should call it a crab with his great claws gone, only for those long, oh, very long white hairs, that seem to be his toes run to nothing."

"So much for Fanny; and what for you, Jennie ?"

"I should think one of Johnny's turtles had come from the thornwoods; but it is not like that, either; it is an insect with eight legs; the legs having three joints before uniting with the body, and at every joint, and at the extremity of each leg, are long, fine threads. The whole breadth of the creature is less than that of the sting itself, near the end. I think that is all I notice that is peculiar."

"That is the curiosity of which I spoke, and which Johnny's black eyes were first to detect. I have never read or heard of such a parasite connected with the wasp. Perhaps, if I send a drawing of it to our friend, 'The Student,' some one can tell us whether it is in the books of the learned or not. I have found six at the roots of one sting, and though by no means universally found in the wasp, they are quite common, and are no doubt a cause or effect of disease in the insect they feed on. I have noticed them in the later part of the season more particularly.

"I will now show you the indescribably beautiful arrangement about the mouth of the wasp, after which we will do justice to your flowers, girls."

THIS

THE AMERICAN CUCKOO.

HIS bird is not abundant everywhere in America, yet it is found in the South, and as far north as the New England States, and in Canada. Like other birds, it spends its winters in warm climates. In mild winters it may be seen in Louisiana, but in colder seasons

it

goes farther south. It may be seen as far north as the State of New York in May, but in some of the most northern States it does not usually make its appearance until June.

The American Cuckoo is about the size of the common robin, though somewhat longer. On the upper portions of its body the color is a light greenish brown, and white on the under parts. Its food consists chiefly of insects, such as caterpillars and butterflies, yet it feeds on berries and grapes in their season. This bird, unlike the cuckoo of Europe, builds its nest and hatches its own young. Its nest is flat, and composed of a few dry sticks and grass, formed much like that of the common dove. It is often fastened to a horizontal branch of a tree within reach of man. The eggs are of a bright green color, and four or five in number.

The notes of this bird may be represented by ko'-ko, ko'-ko, repeated eight or ten times with increasing rapidity. In some parts of the country it is called the "cow-bird," probably from the resemblance of its notes to the sounds uttered by the farmer (ko-ko-ko-ko-ko) when calling the cows. Among the Dutch farmers of Pennsylvania it is known by the name of "Rain Crow."

The cuckoo is a cowardly and shy bird; and though it may frequently be heard in an orchard, it is seldom that one can obtain a sight of it. It flies silently, in a straight line from one branch or tree