covers. The under pair are thinner and are laid in plaits like a fan. The wing-covers are as polished as the body and quite as successful in shedding dirt.

The legs are armed with long spines which are very noticeable and might prove to be a disadvantage in accumulating filth; but they are polished also; and too, this insect spends much time at its toilet.

Cockroaches run "like a streak", children say; so speedily, indeed, do they go that they escape our notice, although we may be looking directly at them. This celerity in vanishing, saves many a cockroach from being crushed by an avenging foot.

When making its toilet, the cockroach
draws its long antenna through its jaws as
if it were a whiplash, beginning at the base
and finishing at the tip. It cleans each leg
by beginning near the body and so stroking
downward the long spines which seem to shut
against the leg. It nibbles its feet. clean to
the very claws, and
scrubs its head vigor-

ously with the front
femur.

The

ness.

cockroach's

Egg-case of cockroach.

eggs are laid in a mass enclosed in a podshaped covering, which is waterproof and polished and protects its contents from dampWhen the cockroaches, or the croton bugs, as the small introduced species of cockroach is called, once become established in a house, the only way to get rid of them is to fumigate the kitchen with carbon bisulphide which is a dangerous performance and should be done only by an expert.

LESSON LXXXIII

THE COCKROACH

Leading thought-The cockroach is adapted for living in crevices, and although its haunts may be anything but clean, the cockroach keeps itself quite clean. The American species live in fields and woods and under stones and sticks and only occasionally venture into dwellings. The species that infest our kitchens and water-pipes are European.

Method-Place a cockroach in a vial with bread, potato or sorne other food, cork the vial, and pass it around so that the children may observe the prisoner at their leisure.

Observations-1. What is the general shape of the cockroach? Why is this an advantage? What is the texture of its covering? Why is this an advantage?

2. Describe the antennæ and the way they are used. Note the two little pairs of feelers at the mouth. If possible, see how they are used when the cockroach is inspecting something to eat. Can you see whether its mouth is fitted for biting, lapping or sucking its food?

3. Note the eyes. Are they as large and prominent as those of the bees or butterflies?

4.

Has this cockroach wings? If so, how many and what are they like? Note two little organs at the end of the body? These are the cerci, like those of the crickets.

5. Describe the general appearance of the cockroach's legs, and tell what you think about its ability as a runner.

6. Note how the cockroach cleans itself and how completely and carefully this act is performed. Have you ever seen cockroach's eggs? If so, describe them.

How can you get rid of cockroaches if they invade your kitchen?

LESSON LXXXIV

HOW TO MAKE AN AQUARIUM

HE schoolroom aquarium may be a very simple affair and still be effective. Almost any glass receptacle will do, glass being chosen because of its transparency, so that the life within may be observed. Tumblers, jelly tumblers, fruit jars, butter jars, candy jars and battery jars are all available for aquaria. The tumblers are especially recommended for observing the habits of aquatic insects.

To make an aquarium:

or more in depth.

I. Place in the jar a layer of sand an inch

2. In this sand plant the water plants which you find growing under water in a pond or stream; the plants most available are Water-weed, Bladderwort, Water Starwort, Watercress, Stoneworts, Frog-spittle or Water-silk.

3. Place on top a layer of small stones or gravel; this is to hold the plants in place.

4. Tip the jar a little and pour in very gently at one side water taken from a pond or stream. Fill the jar to within two or three inches of the top; if it be a jelly tumbler, fill to within an inch of the top.

Place it in a window which does not get too direct sunlight. A north window is the best place; if there is no north window to the school room, place it far enough at one side of some other window so that it will not receive too much sunlight.

7. To get living creatures for the aquarium use a dip-net, which is made like a shallow, insect net.

8. Dip deep into the edges of the pond and be sure to bring up some of the leaves and mud, for it is in these that the little water animals live. 9. As fast as dipped up, these should be placed in a pail of water, so that they may be carried to the schoolroom.

IO. 10. In introducing the water animals into the aquarium it is well to put but a few in each jar.

The care of the aquarium-Care should be taken to preserve the plant life in the aquarium, as the plants are necessary to the life of the animals. They not only supply the food, but they give off oxygen which the animals

need for breathing, and they also take up from the water the poisonous carbonic acid gas given off from the bodies of the animals.

I. The aquarium should be kept where there is a free circulation of air.

2. If necessary to cover the aquarium to prevent the insects, like the water boatmen and water beetles, from escaping, tie over it a bit of mosquito netting, or lay upon the top a little square of wire netting used for window screens.

3. The temperature should be kept rather cool; it is better that the water of the aquarium should not be warmer than 50 deg. Fahrenheit, but this is not always possible in the schoolroom.

4. If any insects or animals die in the aquarium they should be removed at once, as the decomposing bodies render the water foul.

5. To feed the animals that live upon other animals take a bit of raw beef, tie a string to it and drop it in, leaving the free end of the string outside of the jar. After it has been in one day, pull it out; for if it remains longe: it will make the water foul.

6. As the water evaporates it should be replaced with water from the pond.

References-The Fresh Water Aquarium, Eggeling and Ehrenberg; Insect Life, Comstock; The Brook Book, Miller; Nature Study and Life, Hodge The Home Aquarium, How to Care for It, Eugene Smith.

THE DRAGON-FLIES AND DAMSEL-FLIES

Teacher's Story

POND without dragon-flies darting above it, or without the exquisitely iridescent damsel-flies clinging to the leaves of its border would be a lonely place indeed. As one watches these beautiful insects, one wonders at the absurd errors which have crept into popular credence about them. Who could be so silly as to believe that they could sew up ears or that they could bring dead snakes to life! The queer names of these insects illustrate the prejudices of the ignorant devil's darning needles, snake doctors, snake feeders, etc. Despite all this slander, the dragon-flies remain not only entirely harmless to man, but in reality are his friends and allies in waging war against flies and mosquitoes; they are especially valuable in battling mosquitoes since the nymphs, or young, of the dragon-fly, take the wrigglers in the water, and the adults, on swiftest wings, take the mosquitoes while hovering over ponds laying their eggs.

The poets have been lavish in their attention to these interesting insects and have paid them delightful tributes. Riley says:

"Till the dragon fly, in light gauzy armor burnished bright,
Came tilting down the waters in a wild, bewildered flight."

While Tennyson drew inspiration for one of his most beautiful poems from the two stages of dragon-fly life. But perhaps Lowell in that exquisite poem, "The Fountain of Youth," gives us the perfect descri tion of these insects:

In summer-noon flushes
When all the wood hushes,
Blue dragon-flies knitting
To and fro in the sun,
With sidelong jerk flitting,
Sink down on the rushes,

And, motionless sitting,
Hear it bubble and run,
Hear its low inward singing
With level wings swinging
On green tasselled rushes,
To dream in the sun.

It is while we, ourselves, are dreaming in the sun by the margin of some pond, that these swift children of the air seem but a natural part of the dream. Yet if we

waken to note them more closely, we find many things very real to interest us. First, they are truly children of the sun, and if some cloud throws its shadow on the waters for some moments, the dragon-flies disappear as if they wore the invisible cloak of the fairy tale. Only a few of the common species fly alike in shade and sunshine, and early and late. The best known of these is

the big, green skimmer, which does not care so much for ponds, but darts over fields and even dashes into our houses, now and then. Probably it is this species which has started all of the dragon-fly slander, for it is full of curiosity, and will hold itself on wings whirring too rapidly to even make a blur, while it examines our faces or inspects the pictures or furniture or other objects which attract it.

Another thing we may note when dreaming by the pond is that the larger species of dragon-flies keep to the higher regions above the water, while the smaller species and the damsel-flies flit near its surface. Well may the smaller species keep below their fierce kindred, otherwise they would surely be utilized to sate their hunger, for these insects are well named dragons, and dragons do not stop to inquire whether their victims are relatives or not. It is when they are resting, that the dragon and damsel-flies reveal their most noticeable differences. The dragon-fly extends both wings as if in flight while it basks in the sun or rests in the shadow. There is a big, white-bodied species called the whitetail which slants its wings forward and down when it rests; but the damsel-flies fold their wings together over the back when resting. The damselflies have more brilliantly colored bodies than do the dragon-flies, many of them being iridescent. green or coppery; they are more slender and delicate in form. The damsel-fly has eyes which are so placed on the sides of the head as to make it look like a cross on the front of the body fastened to the slender neck, and with an eye at the tip of each arm. There are very many species of dragon and damsel-flies but they all have the same general habits.

The dragon-fly nymphs are the ogres of the pond or stream. To anyone unused to them and their ways in the aquarium, there is a surprise in store, so ferocious are they in their attacks upon creatures twice