# St. Nicholas/Volume 32/Number 3/Nature and Science/We Want to Know

Often Mistaken for a Humming-bird.
Most Common Humming-bird Moth
daytime, on the phlox and verbenas, They never light on the flowers, but keep their wings going like a humming bird.
Yours truly, Yours t‍Morris H. Merritt.
Several sphinx-moths, from their habit of hovering over flowers with wings in rapid motion, are frequently mistaken for humming-birds. Perhaps the variety most entitled to the name humming-bird moth is the Hemaris thysbe or “clear-wing” sphinx. The accompanying illustration shows the specimen sent with this letter.
Do Fish Sleep?
Ossining, N. Y.
Dear St. Nicholas: I have an aquarium which I keep in my room. Several times when I have gone to bed, upon lighting my gas I have noticed that for a few moments the fish lie perfectly still almost on the bottom, with the fins under their gills and their tails rigid on the bottom. What I wish to know is, if they are asleep or only dazed by the sudden light.
Your faithful reader, Yours t‍John T. Gouray (age 14).
This question has been asked a great many times, but has never been exactly settled by any scientific investigation. What is probably true is that while fishes do not have a distinct period of unconsciousness, sharply defined, as in the higher animals, their resting on the bottom serves the same purpose as sleep. Perhaps we may say that fishes are sleepy at some times and at other times they are wide awake, I suggest that your correspondent investigate this matter more fully for himself. He may be able to tell something which the naturalists do not know.
Leland‍David Starr Jordan, President. Leland Stanford Junior University.
Queer Growth from a Hickory-nut
Albany, Mo.
Dear St. Nicholas: This peculiar specimen we chanced to come across in a secluded and not used cellar. The rats had carried the hickory-nuts in the cellar, and had, I believe, eaten the greater part of the nut. I don’t know what made the hair, and I became real interested to find out. We found almost a quart of nuts with this apparent hair growing from them. Can you tell me what this is and the cause for it? Your interested friend,, Opal Cranor.
This very interesting growth is a fungus known scientifically as Phycomyces nitens, It belongs to the fungi which are known as the mucors or bread molds. You can easily obtain mucor by putting a piece of bread or other starchy substance in a moist place. This Phy-
The Fungus Growths from the Hickory Nuts.
Experimenting with Hornets.
Monroe, N. Y.
Piece of nest and hornets. (Photographed from specimen sent by Master Mikington
the day. A few days later we smoked them out and got the tree on fire inside. While putting it out I got some nests, pupre, larva, and live hornets, which I put in a box. The hornets fed the larvæ, and I watched them, and in a short time several hatched out and a good many are ready ta come out.
When I got the hornets, I put on gloves, and to tame them I put them under a glass with some nest, and in a short time they were quite tame. When I want to handle them, I take them by the wings; but this I very seldom do. I inclose two hornets, also a piece of nest.
Please tell me something about hornets.
Your interested reader,ge 9‍ N. Caldwell Millington (age 9).
These Vespos, for such we name the hornets, as well as the “yellow-jacket” wasps, are dangerous, and the ease with which you handled them is remarkable. You were aided somewhat by the season of the year. In the autumn they are not so fierce as in the summer, but become quite sluggish. Usually, however, they regain activity when brought into a warm room.
“He Walked Instead of Hopping”
A Toad that Walked.
Canton, N. Y.
Dear St. Nicholas: In the warm summer evenings I used to go down on the sidewalk and catch toads and bring them up on to the front porch. One of them we named “Uncle Jeary.” He walked instead of hopping. He did not like to jump off the front porch. He walked up and down the front porch, hunting for a low place to jump off. All the other toads jumped off without hesitation. After a while he went down one of the porch steps and looked off to see whether it was low enough to jump off. He thought it was not low enough, so he jumped down to the next step, and there waited. He was very large. I found him every evening in the same place for along time. Why did he walk instead of hop? Was it because he was old ?
Mary Merrill Foster (age 10).
I have also observed that a large bullfrog kept for several weeks in my vivarium seemed to dislike to jump, perhaps because it required less effort to walk than to jump. The smaller
“He went down one of the porch steps and looked off.”
Your letter points out a marked characteristic of the toad (and I may add that the same was true of my big frog)—its caution. Young frogs and smaller species of frogs seem to have but little, if any, caution. They jump recklessly, often alighting many feet below their starling-point, Common turtles also lack caution. They will crawl off anything, even if it be an upper veranda-floor, without taking forethought as to their probable landing-place. They seem to trust to luck in this respect.
(Purpura lapillus.)
Some Cape Ann Shells
Gloucester, Mass.
Dear St. Nicholas: Just after a storm at low tide is the best time to collect shells on the bench. Then, if at any time, the rare shells are found. On the beaches of Cape Ann one may collect{{img float |file=St Nicholas-32-1-377-3.jpg |width=90px |align=right |cap=Shell of a Periwinkle (Littorina litmea.)
between twenty-five and thirty different specimens in an afternoon.
Among the most common sea-shells are the Mya arcane, called the common clam, which is found in great abundance on the mud flats, and the Purpura lapillus and Littorina litorea, found in large quantities clinging to the rocks at low water.
Those that are rarely found are the Pandora trilineata, which is a small, pearly shell, and the Thracia conradi, Remarkable Flat Shell (Pandora tilineata.) having a very beautiful shell, both bivalves.
At low water the Soleo ensis (or razor-clam) is seen alive just above the sand; but it is not an easy matter to catch it, for at the slightest disturbance it will instantly disappear, leaving behind nothing but the smooth sand.
All shell animals are very sensitive Little Boat-shell (Crepidula.)to noise, quickly closing their shells if they hear any sound. It is almost impossible to remove a shell from the rock to which it is clinging without injuring it. Not only do shells live on the rocks, but they are found beneath stones, among seaweed, and burying in sand and wad. By using a dredge one may get live specimens of shells found in fragments Shell of Common Marine Snail (Polynices heros.) only upon the beach. Very few large shells are found about Cape Ann, while a great many are so small that they can hardly be seen.
One hundred and eight different specimens, including only about ten known fresh-water and land shells, have been collected on Cap Ann.
When an animal outgrows his shell he enlarges the same by building it out with a fluid with which nature has provided him. Shells are divided into two classes: those which consist of one part, The Razor-shell (Solen ensis.) often assuming a spiral shape, called the Gastereopoda, and those consisting of two parts, called the Acephala.
The shells belonging to the Gastereopoda are much more abundant than those belonging to the Acephala, but as a rule they are usually smaller. The Crepidula plana has a very queer habit of living within the shell of a natica, and is rarely found clinging to a rock, while the Crepidula fornicata is never found within a shell, but always on a rock.
Marjorie C. Newell.
A liberal supply of the specimens collected on the beach was sent to the editor of the Nature and Science department. The accompanying illustrations show a few of the many kinds.
This letter shows that the writer is a true nature-lover. She evidently has the ability to see things, a desire to collect and to know more about them, and an appreciation of the beautiful.
Will some of our young folks please write to us about fresh-water and land shells they have seen?