Nature Books

FOREWORD "And in the lion or the frog—In all the life of moor or fen—In ass and peacock, stork and dog,He read similitudes of men." More and more science is being taught in a new way. More and more men are beginning to discard the lumber of the brain's workshop to get at real facts, real conclusions. Laboratories, experiments, tables, classifications are all very vital and all very... more...

Preface. I have been called upon to write illustrative sketches to a series of engravings, designed by an eminent artist. In performing my part of the work I have thrown the Mammalia into twenty-four groups—corresponding more or less to the picture designs—and have dwelt chiefly on the geographical distribution of the animals. The Cetaceae and Vespertilionidae are properly omitted. In the groups... more...

BABY BIRDS. "Ears have they, but they hear not," may be said of all the world. Tragedies and comedies go on continually before us which we neither see nor hear; cries of distress and prattle of infants, songs of love and screams of war, alike fall upon deaf ears, while we calmly discuss the last book or the news from Borriboo-lah-Gha, as completely oblivious as if all this stirring life did not... more...

THE DISOBEDIENT WOODPECKER ONG, long ago, at the beginning of things, they say that the Lord made the world smooth and round like an apple. There were no hills nor mountains: nor were there any hollows or valleys to hold the seas and rivers, fountains and pools, which the world of men would need. It must, indeed, have been a stupid and ugly earth in those days, with no chance for swimming or sailing,... more...

CHAPTER I The Greatest Cataclysm in American History THE UNCONTROLLABLE FORCES OF NATURE—THE DEVASTATION OF OMAHA—THE TERROR OF THE FLOOD—A VIVID PICTURE OF THE FLOOD—THE TRAGEDY OF DEATH AND SUFFERING—THE SYMPATHY OF NATIONS—THE COURAGE OF THE STRICKEN—MEN THAT SHOWED THEMSELVES HEROES. Man is still the plaything of Nature. He boasts loudly of conquering it; the earth gives a little... more...

OUR PETS. This is Pol-ly's own cat, Top-sy. She looks ve-ry prim and quiet; but if you play with her, you will find she is a ve-ry mer-ry lit-tle cat. She will jump up-on the ta-ble at break-fast, and run off with Pol-ly's toast; and if mam-ma be wri-ting a let-ter, Top-sy will steal soft-ly a-long the arm of the so-fa, and rub her paw o-ver the last word mam-ma has writ-ten, and make a great... more...

DETERMINING THE AGE OF CATTLE BY THE TEETH. The age of cattle can be approximated closely by the appearance, development, and subsequent wear of their second incisor teeth. Cattle have eight incisor teeth, all in the lower jaw. In the calf at birth two or more of the temporary or first incisor teeth are present. With the first month the entire eight incisors have appeared.Fig.1.—Internal face of... more...

The naturalists of yesterday and the naturalists of to-day. — The study of animals, plants, rocks, and of natural objects generally, was formerly called “natural history”; but this term is tending to disappear from our vocabulary and to give place to the term “natural sciences.” What is the reason of this change, and to what does it correspond? for it is rare for a word to be modified in... more...

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CHAPTER ONE HOW OUR FIRST ANCESTORS LIVED Before these fields were shorn and tilledFull to the brim our rivers flowed;The melody of waters filledThe fresh and boundless woods;And torrents dashed, and rivulets play'd,The fountains spouted in the shade. William Cullen Bryant,quoted in American Forestry, XIV. 520 The earth is our home. It is a great treasure house filled with the most wonderful... more...