Evening journal., 1896-11-04
ANIMAL MOTHERS.
Tho Queer ways In Which They Take
Care Of Thoir Young.

Tho Queer ways In Which They Take
Care Of Their Young.
81 dumb animal and insect mothers
have certain ways Of taking care of their
babies, as we'll as our mothers do Of us,
and some Of their ways are very queer.
At ny grandmother there was an
old cat that had five kittens, which she
kept II the hay in tho barn. One day
one Of the kittens went out on large
beam that extended from one end of the
barn to the other, and when he reached
the middle Of it he began TO be afraid
aud sat down on the beam, mewing
piteously. He was so far away from me
that 1 could not reach him, and did not
know how to get him down. just then
the mother cat came up and purred and
mewed to bin, telling him to wait I'M
til she came. Sho then went out to
where he was, and, as the beam was a
broad one, she went before him, picked
him up in her mouth and carried him
back into tho hay out Of danger.
One day ! was up in the attic, and
found on the ceiling a paper wasp's
nest. took it Off and found that twas
empty. There were also several mud
wasps' nests, and upon opening some Of
them found the grubs in one part Of
the nest and the food, which was noth-
ing but little worms and insects pack
ed together, in another part. I brought
the paper wasp's nest 70 my city home,
but not the mud nests
The turtles do not take much care Ct
their babies. They scoop a place in tho
sand and lay their eggs and then cover
them up The heat of the sun matches
them. and the young turtles have to
take care Of themselves.
Frogs lay their eggs in some warm
place in the water and fasteD them to
reeds cattails or some such plant, and
the warmth OF the sun matches them.
The eggs are in a cluster, and each one,
which looks like white jelly, is about
the size of a small pea and has little
round black spot in the center. / found
some once and put them in a large glass
jar with water in it and set it in a
warm place. After several days each Of
the little spots had tail, and the jelly
like substance that had been around the
black spots to keep them from injury
began to disappear. 1 found that they
had hatched and were pollywogs. They
grew very fast, but never lived TO change
into frogs, as they died before they were
half grown
The potato bug lays its eggs On the
underside of a potato leaf, and when
the young are hatchod they have the
leaves TO eat, and the mother does not
have to take care Of them. The eggs are
small and Of a bright yellow color. ]
have seen a great many Of thcm ON one
leaf
Near my grandfathcr's there is a
creek, with willows growing on the
edge Of It, Ono day l saw two Hngiish-
ers on limb Of one Of the trees and the
mother bird sitting by the side Of them
She was looking steadily into the water
Suddenly she darted down into the
water and in o minute came up with
FISH. She took it TO the little birds, and
after this she dived several times, as
though showing them how to catch fish.
The crabs have their homes under
large stones. This is the way found
out once lifted a large stone, and aft
er the water had become clear i looked
for crab did not see any, but dis
covered a hole that seemed to go under
some smaller stones. took up the small
er stones but the hole seemed to go still
farther. As was looking into it / saw
q big crab come out, followed by two
smaller ones. Then / knew that this il
the way they live. Philadelphia Times.