Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-05-04

iur of the animals, the feathers of tn
fowls, the husks Of the maize why ar,
they thicker some seasons than others
what is the value of the unknown ouan.
tity here? :? Does it indicate severe win.
ter approaching Only observations OK.
tending over series of years could de.
termine the point. How much patient
observation it takes to settle many of the
facts in the lives of the birds, animals
and insects. Gilbert White was all his
life trying to determine whether or not
swallows passed the winter in n torpid
state in the mud at the bottom of ponds
and marshes, and he died ignorant of the
truth that they do not. Do honey-bees
inlure the grape and other fruits by pune
turing the skin for the juice? Tie most
patient watching by many skilled eyes all
over the country has not yet settled the
point. For my own part, lam convinced
that they do not. The honey-bee is not
the rough-and-ready freebooter that the
wasp md bumble-bee are she has some
what of feminine timidity, and leaves the
irst rude assaults to them. l knew the
honey-bee was very fond of the locust
blossoms, and that the trees hummed like
hive i'll the height of their Towering,
but did not know that the bumble-bee
was the sapper and miner that went ahead
IN this enterprise, till one day l placed
myself amid the foliage of n locust and
saw him savagely bite through the shank
OF the flower and extract the nectar, fol-
lowed by honey bee that in every in
stance searched for this opening and
probod long and carefully for the leav-
iings OF his burly purveyor. The bumble-
pee rifles the dicentra and the columbine
OF their treasures in the same manner,
namely, by Sitting their pockets from the
outside, and the honey-beo CLEANS after
him. taking the small change ho leaves.
Speaking of the honey reminds me
that the subtle and sleight- -of-hand man.
ner in which it fills its baskets with pol
len and propolis is Characteristic of much
OF natures doings See tine bee going
from flower to flower with the golden pel-
let's on its thighs, slowly and mysterio
ly increasing in size If the miller were !
to take the toll of the grist he grinds by
gathering the particles of flour from his !
coat and hat. as he moved rapidly about, |
or catching them i'll his pockets, he would |
be dong pretty nearly what the bee does |
Ihe little miller dusts itself with the pol |
len OF the flower. and then while ON the |
wing brushes it off with the fine brush on |
certain OF lts feet and by some jugglery |
or other, catches it in its pollen basket |
One needs to look long and intently to see |
through the trick. l have seen the bees
come to meal barrel in early spring, and
to II pile Of hard wood sawdust before
there was yet anything in nature for them
to work upon, and having busted their
coats with the finer particles of the meal |
OF the sawdust, hover on the wing above |
the mass till the little legerdcmain feat is
performed. Nature fills her baskets by
the same leight-of-hand and the observ- |
er must be on the alert who would pos
sess her secret
Nature will not be corncred, vet she
does many things i'll n corner and surrep-
She is all things to all men {;
she has whole truths, half truths and
luarter truths, if not still smaller frac-
lions. The careful observer finds this
1ut sooner or later. Old Iox-hunters will
iell you, on the evidence of their own
Eyes, that there is black fox and silver
gray fox, two species, but there are not
.he black fox is black when coming to-
ward you or running from you, ana silver
gray at point blank view, when the eve
oenetratcs the fur ; each separate hair is
gray the =. first half and black the last.
This is n sample of natures half truths.