Half Hours With The Lower Animals - free ebook by Charles Frederick Holder

CHARLES FREDERICK HOLDER

Copyright, 1905, by CHARLES F. HOLDER. Entered at Stationers' Hall, London. LOWER ANIMALS. W. P. 2...

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PREFACE

At the present day education is not complete without definite courses of nature study. We are living in an age of strenuous business life and activity, where the best equipped students along the various lines secure the best positions. Time was when zoölogy, botany, and kindred nature studies were classed with music and the so-called dead languages, and were taken up as incidentals or were employed in "mind training"; but to-day there are a thousand branches of trade and commerce which require k

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I. INHABITANTS OF A DROP OF WATER

The most unobserving stroller through the forest or by the seashore can not fail to be impressed by the abundance and variety of animal life; yet the forms visible to the naked eye really constitute but a fraction of the vast horde which makes up what we call life. In the year 1901 a strange phenomenon appeared off the coast of southern California. The ocean assumed a reddish muddy hue which was traced for four hundred miles up the coast and from one to twenty miles offshore; hence, at a conserv

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II. THE SPONGES

Fig. 13. —Living sponges. Almost every day, for several years, I devoted one or more hours to the pastime of floating or drifting over a part of the great coral reef which constitutes the most westward portion of Florida where it reaches out in the direction of Yucatan. The islands composing the group are the Tortugas Keys, and are just above water; indeed some disappeared when a particularly heavy hurricane came, and in the center of the island upon which I lived, the water at very high tide ap

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III. THE JELLYFISHES

Fig. 19. —A jellyfish ( Pelagia ). Among the most beautiful and fragile of all animals are the singular forms which we call jellyfishes (Fig. 19). They are so delicate that we can not lift them, and in many instances they have ninety-five per cent of water in their composition. They would almost seem to be purely ornamental did we not know that they fill an important niche in the hall of nature, constituting almost the sole food of many whales. The jellyfishes are found in all waters, salt and e

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IV. THE SEA ANEMONES

In the last century many of the animals of the ocean were considered plants, and the sea anemones, which appear to open and shut like flowers, were described and painted in verse and prose as the flowers in the gardens of the sea. The sea anemone, common in almost every rocky pool, and found everywhere from the rocks bare at low tide to the greater depths, certainly has a very flowerlike appearance, some of them resembling a flower without a stem. Petals branch out on every side. Some are large,

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V. THE CORALS

The real gardens of the sea, the "Gulfs enchanted where the siren sings and coral reefs lie bare," are in the tropics, where the great coral reefs extend for miles in countless shapes, forming branches, heads, fans, and many forms which never fail to delight the eye of the observer. For many years I lived upon a coral key or island in the center of a coral reef. The key was half a mile in circuit, and was made up of coral sand, or sand composed of ground coral and shells. It was just above the s

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VI. THE STONE LILIES

A number of years ago I took a number of walking trips over that section of New York state known as the Catskill Mountain region. The start was made at the mouth of Catskill Creek, which was followed up into the mountains until we came to a peculiar light, slate-colored rock. This rock, where the stream had washed the earth away, was dotted with little disks (Fig. 44), which being harder than the rock itself had been weathering, and stood out in high relief. A mile or two from the river the rock

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VII. THE STARS OF THE SEA

Fig. 47. —Basket starfish. Fig. 48. —Lower surface of starfish ( Goniaster ), showing suckerlike feet; a slow mover. Beneath almost every rock along the New England coast, and under the branch coral in the tropics, we may find a typical star-shaped animal, and by dredging offshore, thousands are brought up, even from very deep water, showing that the stars of the sea are almost as plentiful as they appear in the sky above. These starfishes are of all shapes, kinds, and colors. Some are a foot or

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VIII. OCEAN HEDGEHOGS

( The Echini ) Fig. 51. —Sea urchins burrowing in the rocks. On the Florida Reef and off the rocky shores of California one of the most conspicuous among the rock-living animals is the black, long-spined Echinus. In the water it looks like a huge pincushion (Fig. 51) filled with black pins, points outward, and every crack and crevice is filled with them. When found on the beach, despoiled of their spines, they resemble bleached shells, and are then known in Florida as sea eggs (Fig. 52). The lon

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IX. THE SEA CUCUMBERS

Fig. 58. —Sea cucumber, showing its breathing organs. Once, when poling my boat over the great coral reef of the outer Florida Keys I came upon a little plot of seaweed in shallow water which was so covered with huge sea cucumbers (Fig. 58) that it would have been an easy matter to fill the boat. They were from six to twelve inches in length, two or three inches across, and bore a striking resemblance to actual cucumbers. In color they were brown, and when lifted from the water they slowly moved

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X. THE WORMS

Few groups of animals differ so much in general appearance as the worms. Some resemble miniature snakes; others are flat, some are like needles, one lives in a cell; another stays in the tissue of some animal, while certain others infest the soil. Almost everywhere, on land and in the sea, under nearly all conditions, we shall find these remarkable creatures, which may be briefly described as animals having a head, tail, and upper and lower surfaces, and made up of a great many rings, or segment

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XI. THE TWO-VALVED SHELLS

Fig. 79. —The oyster: A , muscle; B , mantle; C , gills; D , labial palpi; E , hinge; F , mouth; G , liver and stomach; H , heart. The beautiful objects which we know as shells, and which form ornaments in many a home far distant from the sea, are the coverings of a group of animals called mollusks. They are found in all seas, many upon land, and in fresh-water streams, and are among the most attractive of all natural objects, so much so that many persons devote their entire lives to their colle

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XII. THE UNIVALVES

Fig. 94. —Group of shells: 1, Cymbium; 2, Cerithium; 3, Voluta; 4, Cardium; 5, Phorus; 6, Murex; 7, Vermetus; 8, Trochus; 9, Pholas; 10, Turritella. The shells which have been noticed in the preceding chapter belonged literally to the stay-at-homes of the family. They rarely wander far, and many, as we have seen, never leave the place which the young shell first selected as its home. What are known as the univalves, the mollusks with one shell, or perhaps no shell at all, are the reverse of this

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XIII. THE CUTTLEFISHES

In the great libraries of the country will be found books dating back to the last two centuries, many of which contain cuts and descriptions of frightful animals resembling huge spiders, called krakens, or devilfishes. They are represented climbing over ships, and hauling them down. One is described as so huge that the crew of a vessel landed upon it, not discovering that it was not an island until they had built a fire, when the supposed island, really a kraken, sank beneath them. These are tal

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XIV. THE CRUSTACEANS

Among all the animals few are more interesting and whimsical than the crabs and lobsters. They have jointed legs, feelers and claws in pairs, living in a shell which they cast like an overcoat when they outgrow it, and have bodies which are made up of hard, tough, limy rings or segments (Fig. 128). The crustaceans are found in all waters, fresh and salt, and on land. They abound in the greatest variety, and range in size from specimens almost invisible to the naked eye to forms with a radial spr

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XV. FROM BARNACLES TO LOBSTERS

Fig. 135. —Goose barnacles. In strolling along the shore one may often find pieces of wood washed in by the combing waves, which are covered with white and blue-tinted objects, resembling dates (Fig. 135). They have long, fleshy stems, and appear to have a number of plates or shells, and are by many considered shells. Other floating matter will be found covered with small white objects (Fig. 136), and many of the rocks alongshore are so completely encrusted by them that the surface of the rock i

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XVI. THE CRABS

Of all the crustaceans, the crabs are the most singular and certainly the most intelligent. Rapid in movement, good swimmers, alert, garbed in extraordinary colors, often in stolen homes, they attract attention at once and are the harlequins and clowns of the animal kingdom. The crabs are distinguished from the rest of the group principally by their very short tails. Their bodies are round, elongated, or oval. They are found almost everywhere, from the deep sea, where they occupy shells and some

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XVII. LUMINOUS CRABS

One of the interesting experiences of Nordenskiöld in the Arctic Ocean was wading through the sludge, as the soft snow water along the beach is called, and seeing each footprint turn into a mass of light, caused by the phosphorescence of a small crustacean called Metridia. The light was bluish white, of great intensity, and although at times the cold was so severe that mercury would freeze, yet everywhere this marvelous light blazed. Even drops and splashes of the water seemed to be molten metal

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XVIII. THE INSECTS

Among the best-known and attractive members of the lower animal kingdom are the insects, represented by the gorgeous butterflies, the iridescent beetles, the fierce spiders, and many others. The crustaceans may almost be called the insects of the ocean, as in general appearance they closely resemble these animals; but the real insects are higher forms. Fig. 154. —Parts of a typical insect. The skeleton (Fig. 154) of an insect is divided into three distinct parts instead of two. The head is disti

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XIX. LOWER FORMS OF INSECTS

In the previous chapter we have by the aid of illustrations glanced at the structure of insects, and noted some of the features which distinguished them from the crabs. Now we may take up some of the more important and interesting groups and observe how Nature has adapted them to their peculiar surroundings, and for the various offices they fill in the world. Fig. 163. —The Peripatus. In examining the various families of insects it is interesting to note that many produce certain results or acco

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XX. THE SPIDERS

A little insect half as large as a grain of corn, finds itself on a limb high above ground and is desirous of reaching another, five feet away. It is not a jumper, at least it could not hope to cover this distance; neither has it wings. But it has a marvelous silk-manufacturing apparatus, known as spinnerets (Fig. 169), and elevating its abdomen it reels off a thread which the wind carries across the chasm where it lodges. Across the single cord the spider runs, the act being suggestive of the i

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XXI. SOME SIX-LEGGED INSECTS

One of the great divisions into which the insects are divided relates to their possession of six legs (Fig. 180). This includes a marvelous array of creatures. Among them we find the singular little glacier flea (Fig. 181) and the springtail, a prodigious jumper (Fig. 182). The latter is found in damp places, and when touched will release a forked spring which is held in place by a hook, and this sends the insect flying into the air like an acrobat. These humble little creatures present a strang

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XXII. SOME MIMICS

All insects have a continual struggle for life. They constitute the food of many birds, and very few of the young escape these watchful creatures and attain mature life. To enable the insects to escape, nature has given many a strange protective garb, which is called mimicry or a protective resemblance. Sometimes it is color, an insect mimicking a leaf in color; or again, the insect imitates a twig or leaf in shape, and so escapes attention. We find examples of this in many families, but particu

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XXIII. THE GRASSHOPPERS AND LOCUSTS

These forms may be considered the musicians of the insect world. None of the insects can produce vocal sounds, that is, they have no voice, but they have certain appliances which enable them to produce sounds which can be heard a long distance. On hot days in summer is heard the constant and shrill zee-zeeing of the locust, while countless varieties lend their aid in producing a volume of sound. Fig. 195. —A grasshopper. The "instruments" in the locust are (Fig. 196) minute teeth, arranged along

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XXIV. THE BEETLES

The beetles (Fig. 199) are insects having their fore wings thickened to constitute sheaths or covers for the lower pair, used in flight. Their mouths are adapted for biting, and they pass through a complete metamorphosis. There are about ninety thousand species, ranging from minute creatures to huge, lumbering goliaths. When walking the beetle presents a trim appearance, enveloped in a gleaming armor of the highest polish, and often ablaze with metallic tints, but when it flies the elytra, or wi

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XXV. THE BUGS

Fig. 208. —Chinch bug, egg and various stages of the young. The bugs are easily recognized. They have the mouth parts arranged as a sucking beak or proboscis. The chinch bug (Fig. 208), the squash bug (Fig. 209), the seventeen-year cicada, or locust (Fig. 210), and the bean aphis (Fig. 211) are well-known examples. They represent a group dreaded for many reasons; many are parasites on man and beast, while many others destroy crops of various kinds. Fig. 209. —Squash bug. In nearly all fresh-wate

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XXVI. FLIES AND MOSQUITOES

Fig. 217. —A fly, natural size and magnified. The flies and mosquitoes are among the greatest pests and dangers to man. Both are conveyers of disease, and the former, as an agent of destruction, deposits its eggs in meat of all kinds, making it impossible to keep meat in some countries. On the other hand, it should be remembered that the flies are valuable scavengers, hastening the destruction of dead matter which might contaminate the air. Fig. 218. —Tongue of a fly. Fig. 219. —Eyes of a fly. T

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XXVII. THE BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS

Of all the insects the butterflies (Fig. 229) are the most beautiful. Nature has arrayed them in coats of many colors. Every tint and every possible shade of color, including metallic, is found among them. In some of the South American forests they are of gigantic size, a blaze of iridescent blue, as though formed of the most delicate flakes of that beautiful mineral labradorite. Fig. 229. —A butterfly. The butterflies add to the beauty of nature. Among the trees they congregate, forming dashes

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XXVIII. THE ANTS

If the question should be propounded which next to man is the most intelligent of animals, the reply might be, the ants; for after a careful study of all the ways and habits of these small insects, it will be very evident that the lives of many are conducted with more method than the lowest human lives. The ants belong to the great group called Hymenoptera—insects with membranelike wings, including the gall flies, bees, and wasps. Ants are found everywhere. Long lines are seen marching along, so

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XXIX. THE BEES AND WASPS

In almost every flower bed in the garden we shall find the bees, examples of tireless energy, storing up honey for their young in such vast quantities that the surplus forms a valuable food supply for man as well. The nests of bees are systematically robbed of their stores, and for this purpose the insects are supplied with artificial nests or hives, in which they deposit their honey, entirely for the benefit of mankind. Here we see a singular limitation placed upon intelligence. The intelligenc

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