Mother Nature's Children.

Front matter

^ CX LIBRIS

UNIVERSITATIS

ALBERT/ENSIS

Preface

Our purpose is to teach only the actual facts about nature. But as every fact is a fairy tale in the mind of the child, these facts will “ take form and limb ” in a way that would make them untrue for us. They may seem childish to us, but we must remember that all conceptions are necessarily childish when really imaged by children. That is the only way the truth can be held by the child. If we impress upon the child the love and faithfulness of nature, and also the way in which nature requires effort and desert, we can safely leave the reconciliation of those ideas to the later years of the pupil.

Heartfelt thanks are due to many friends, on both sides of the water, who have helped with suggestions and criticisms and encouragement in this effort to put the everlasting gospel of nature in such a form that even the children may read and understand it. If this result is achieved, surely we shall all feel that we have our exceeding great reward.

ALLEN WALTON GOULD.

Chicago Institute.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. How THE Birds Cradle their Babies 1

II. How Mammals, Spiders, and Fish Cradle their Babies 9 HI. How Babies are Cradled in Clay and Wood ... 17

Chapter I. How The Birds Cradle Their Babies

That baby in the picture ought to be a happy little child. She has been playing with the pet lamb that yon see lying in front of the cradle, and with the dog who is rubbing his head against the cradle to show how much he loves his little playmate. And she had such fun watching that mother hen feed

Mother Nature's Children.

her three cunning little chickens. But when she grew tired of play and wanted to sleep, she did not have to lie down on the hard ground. She found a cradle ready for her. Where do you suppose she got that little rocking cot, with a soft bed in it to lie on and a cover at the head to keep the wind and light from her while she slept? Of course she could not have made it herself. Some one else must have made it for her. I think it was her father who made it for her, or got some one else to make it. And it must have been her mother who made the soft bedding for the baby. You can see the father and mother both looking so lovingly at their sleeping baby. But why do you suppose they took the trouble to make such a cradle for the child? They cannot speak in the picture, but I think if they could speak they would tell you that they did it because they loved her. If }mu ask your own father and mother why they made your little bed for you, I am sure they will say it was because of love for you.

But birds, and other creatures too, all make cradles for their young, and even the plants cradle their babies in beautiful flowers. They cannot tell us in words why they do it, any more than the parents in the picture can ; but we cannot help thinking that it is because of their love for their little ones. The same Great Love seems to be in us all, — in man and birds and insects and plants, — coaxing us to make cradles for the children because we love them.

Here is the cradle the humming-bird makes for her baby (Fig. 2). You see it is no bigger than half an egg-shell, and the one in the picture has two eggs in it about the size of peas. It was made by those two beautiful birds that sit on the rosebush beside it. Mr. Humming-bird and his little w'ife live in Mexico and build their nests in the gardens there. How do

Sow the Birds Cradle their Babies.

you suppose they manage to make such a dainty little cradle for their tiny babies?

If you and I could steal softly to their rosebush when they were at work, we should see first one bird and then the other come with a mouthful of spider’s webs mixed with the downy fibres that grow on seeds like the soft white threads that float the dandelion seeds. Each bird would put the down on the bush where the nest was to be, and would tie it fast to the branch by winding the spider’s web about it.

Soon the mother bird would seat herself on the pile of fibres, and by turning round and round on it she would press it and round it into the circular bottom of a little nest. Then the husband would bring ^ her more downy fibres and spider’s webs as fast as he could find them, and she would work them into the side of the nest in the same way. But the white down of the nest could be seen a long Fig. 2.— The Hummmgway on, so that you could find the nest

easily if the down were left uncovered. So the wise little birds gather bits of gray lichen or thin moss, such as you find on the tree trunks or rocks, and put them all over the outside of the nest, and make it look just the same color as the bush on which it rests, to hide it from us. In a week they finish their work, and then in a day or two you would find two little eggs, and a couple weeks later you would see two of the tiniest little birdies you ever saw.

Mother Nature's Children.

The next picture (Fig. 3) shows you the oriole’s nest. It looks like a bag, and it is really a bag ; hut it has one great

advantage, — the babies cannot fall out of it. I suppose that is

what Mr. and Mrs. Oriole thought when they decided to make such a nest as the one in the picture, for it is exactly like a

bag with the three corners fastened to the branches of the tree. Their dear little babies will be safe enough

in it. But how could birds

weave such a nest as this?

Perhaps you have seen the oriole picking up strings and long grasses about the orchards or lawns in the spring and flying away with them.

He takes one of the longest and strongest and winds one end of it around a branch of the tree he has chosen for his nursery. Then he winds the other end of the strand about another branch close by, leaving a loop hanging down as long as he wishes the nest to be.

Then his mate brings another strand and makes a loop with it, just as Mr. Oriole did with his, so that two loops are now hanging down. They do this again and again, till they think they have loops enough for their bag. Then they begin to weave in between the strands finer material, like down or tow. Usually one of the birds stays inside, weaving and picking and pressing the down and tow into shape, while the other brings it from the fields or forest.

Fig. 3. — The Oriole’s Nest.

How the Birds Cradle their Babies.

As you may imagine, they are very glad to get anything that they can use in making this cradle. One nest was made almost entirely of tow furnished by a man who loved birds, and the oriole was so delighted to have such a gift that he would burst into song with his mouth full of tow. He could not wait to express his thanks till he came back for more. But they do not always wait for people to give them the strings they want. One eager pair were m.aking their nest not far from a house where a woman sat sewing by an open window. She left the room for a moment, and when she came back she could not find the measuring tape or the skein of silk she had been using. The birds had flown into the window and carried them off and woven them into their nest.

I will tell you the story of something that befell a Mrs. Oriole who did this. She and husband were a very happy pair. They had first met each other in an orchard in the beautiful month of May. Two or three gaily colored songsters of the Oriole family had been trying to win this young lady bird as their wife. Each one of them had sung his sweetest to her and looked his finest and behaved his best, in order to persuade her to choose him. But when she saw Mr. Oriole and heard him sing to her, she fell in love with him at once. And when she had chosen him, you should have seen how fond he was of her, — singing to her, bringing her the daintiest bits of food he could find, talking to her in the sweetest little ripple of cooings, and doing everything he could for her.

After a day or two they went house-hunting for a tree to hang their cradle in.^ They flew from one tree to another for several days, till at last they found a graceful elm where there were two drooping branches close together and high up out of the reach of cats and bad boys. Then they set to work at once

Mother Nature'’ s Childreyi.

weaving their little cradle. Early in the morning, before you and I were awake, they were flying over the fields and through the forests to find the bits of fibre they needed.

They had been working for four days early and late, and in a day or two more they would have finished the nest, when Mrs. Oriole happened to spy a skein of thread hanging by an open window. She thought that this would be just what she wanted and would save her many a long search. So she darted into the window, caught the thread in her mouth, and flew Quicklv to the nest. There she found her husband hard at

work weaving in a horsehair he had found in a pasture. He was delighted with the thread, and they both set to work to weave it in and out through the sides of the nest.

But it was so long that it got into a snarl, and as they were trying to straighten it out Mrs. Oriole somehow got both her tiny feet caught in one of the knots. Her husband tried his best to help her and picked at the knot, but he could not untie it.

Fig. 4. — The Titmouse’s Nest. it i • t t

He could only moan with her, and she would have lost her life if some kind man had not happened to hear them and cut the string for them.

Mr. and Mrs. Titmouse make a cradle that is safer even than the bag of the Orioles ; for these ingenious little birds have covered the nest all over at the top and made a round passage-

How the Birds Cradle their Babies.

way at the side, like the neck of a bottle or flask, tipped to one side, as you see in the picture (Fig. 4). These bright little cradlemakers are foreign relatives of our own Chickadees. They live in Europe, and are called Titmice, because they are so small. But small as they are, they have found out how to make a nest that keeps the sun and wind and rain from the babies they love so well.

But the Weaver birds of Africa have made something still better. They have hung their nests (Fig. 5) upside down, with the entrance at the very bottom, like a decanter wrong side up. They have a safe little cot for their babies at the large part of the nest, with a high side to keep them from falling out. When they build their hanging nests, one of the birds stays inside and the other outside. The outside bird pushes a strip of grass through the strands, and the bird within pushes it back in another place ; and so they weave the strip out and in till their baby’s cradle is finished. They only stop now and then for a frolic, chasing each other merrily through the trees with many a gentle twitter and loving caress.

They like play as much as you do. But these loving pairs never quarrel. Each seems to think that the other is just right. The nearest approach to a quarrel that I have heard of in Birdland was where one bird refused to bring any more stuff to

Fig. 5. — The African Weaver’s Nest.

Mother Nature's Children.

weave into the nest till his little mate had taken a romp with him. He even picked at the nest roguishly, as if he would tear it down. His mate came out of the nest and gave him a little love-pat with her bill, and then darted off through the trees for just a minute’s sport with him. At the end of the minute they were back at work as hard as ever, making a cradle for their dear little babies.

He prayeth well who loveth well Both man and bird and beast ;

He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all. — Coleridge.

The spirit and method under which these chapters can be made to accomplish their purpose is indicated in the Preface.

The opening picture by Landseer is a lesson in itself, and may lead to acquaintance with other animal pictures by this great artist, now readily obtainable in convenient form for school use.

The following are appropriate topics for conversational and language exercises in connection with this and the three following chapters, which are intended to cover a month of time and bear upon a single branch of the book : — ■

How nests are made ; why birds build in trees rather than on the gi’ound ; why more often on tips of branches than close to the trunk ; why with openings below in the land of monkeys ; why some have their nests over water ; why such as have strong feet for walking or swimming do not need finely woven nests ; why the birds that have strong beaks for fighting do not make fine nests, and other questions to make children see the wisdom as well as the love of birds.

A collection of abandoned nests will add greatly to the profit and interest of the reading.

CHAPTER XL

HOW MICE AND SQUIRRELS, FISH AND SPIDERS, CRADLE THEIR BABIES.

Hebe is a happy little family, and they have a cradle large enough for them all to snuggle into at night, if they pack themselves very close together. How do you suppose they managed to make this tiny cradle? I do not think you ever saw them building a nest, because they are so very shy and put their cradle so deep in the forest and so high on the tree. But an Englishman once got near enough to watch them, by wearing clothes the color of the forest and lying perfectly still on the ground, so that they could neither see nor hear him. And he tells us how the squirrels do it.

In the first place, Mr. Squirrel had to get himself a wife,

Mother Nature'’ s Children.

and that was no easy task. There were a dozen other young squirrels who wanted to marry this same Miss Squirrel, and so he had to show himself stronger and braver than all the rest of them before he could persuade her that he was the best. Even then she led him a merry dance through the trees. She ran to the very top of the tallest tree, keeping on the other side of the trunk from him and peeping mischievously around it now and then at him with her bright eyes. '

And when he thought he had caught her at the top, she dodged him and scampered gaily down to the lowest branch. When she reached that, she jumped lightly to the ground and was up another tree and out of sight in a second. He raced after her but could not see her or hear her anywhere. Then he stopped and peered into the branches and tipped his pretty little head over on one side as if he were listening with all his might. In a minute or two he heard the faintest little footfalls, and away he was after her again.

So they played hide and seek through the forest till she let him catch up with her at last, and then they came scampering back again, leaping lightly from one tree to another. After a while they began to think of a cradle for the little ones, though they kept up their merry sport whenever they were not at work building the nest.

The first thing they did was to find some large bird’s nest of last year to use as a floor for their cradle. Then they went down to the ground and gathered ever so many mouthfuls of dead grass or flower stalks, nibbling them off close to the lower end. When they had brought up enough, they put on a rounded top and wove in the twigs and grass and stalks so close together that neither wind nor rain could get in to wet the little babies when they came. Inside they put soft moss, while

How Mice^ Squirrels^ Fish and Spiders^ Cradle their Babies. 11

Mother Squirrel pulled out a lot of hair from her breast to make the softest possible couch for her dear little babies.

And when the babies come she cares for them tendeily ; and she will not desert them, either, if any danger threatens them. She and her husband have two or three other nests besides this softly lined cradle. If any bad boy climbs to this one, the papa and mamma take their little ones in their mouths and carry them off to another nest. But once, when the mother could not carry off her babies, she staid in the nest, even when the tree was cut down and came crashing to the ground, and she refused to leave her little ones even when they were put in a cage.

Another time, when Mr. Audubon here in America took a nest of baby flying squirrels home, their mother went with them, and he put them all in a table drawer, leaving it open a little crack. The next morning the mother was gone, but the babies were there. He tried to feed them, but they would not take anything, — yet they seemed to be growing larger every day. After several days he felt sure that they must be getting food somewhere, and so he thought he would watch them by night as well as by day. He hid himself in the room, and as soon as it began to grow dark the mother squirrel suddenly peeped into the window. Finding no one in sight, she ran softly over to her babies and nestled down to nurse them.

I suppose she felt something as your own mother would feel if she had to go into a lion’s den. But if her baby was in the lion’s den and crying to be fed, your mother would go, at the risk of her life. And the little squirrel mother risked her life, too, because she loved her children more than her life.

W e have had babies in a bag and in a bottle, you remember, and now we have them in a ball. And these are about the tiniest babies there are among mammals. You see the papa

Mother Nature's Children.

and the mamma in the picture (Fig. 7). The mamma has found something to eat, — a fly, perhaps, — and she is sitting up on the top of the nest and holding the bit of food in her hands

while she nibbles it.

Her husband is climbing up the stalks of wheat and holding himself fast by coiling his tail about the stem. They are the tiny harvest mice of Europe, and are only two inches long, and so light that it would take a hundred of them to weigh a pound.

But small and light as they are, they make a prettier nest for their little ones than any other animal. They find a place where ten or fifteen stalks of grain are standing close together, and then they take the grass-like blades that grow on the grain and draw them through their mouths with their teeth shut, and so divide them into a lot of fine fibres. But they do not break them from the stalks of wheat. They pull them together so that the stems of wheat make the supports for the cradle. Then they weave the strands of grass in and out, as you see in the picture, making a perfect ball somewhat smaller than a tennis ball.

When it is finished the wheat goes on growing and the fibres stay green for a long while, so that the nest looks just like the rest of the grain and cannot easily be seen by any one. The

How Mice^ Squirrels^ Full and Spiders^ Cradle their Babies. 13 inside of the nest is soft and smooth, because the little parents line it with the down of thistles and dandelions to make it comfortable for the six or eight little babies that the small mamma will soon be caring for. Those babies fill the nest so full that Mrs. Mouse can hardljr squeeze in to feed them. Whenever she leaves them for a few moments she pulls the strands of grass together over the entrance, so that you and I would not be able to find any opening at all.

But the baby mice do not stay in their ball very long. When they are two or three weeks old the papa and mamma help them down the stalks to the ground and begin to teach them how to make a living, — for a mouse has to make a living, you know, as well as a man. They soon learn to climb and jump and swim, and to find the little insects and seeds they eat, and then they are able to start in life for themselves.

But if any one attempts to catch them while they are still in the cradle, the little mother will try to run away wdth them all in her arms at once, using her tail to hold them to her. Of course she cannot run very fast with such a load as that; but she loves them so much that she will allow herself to be caught rather than desert them.

But little Mrs.

Harvest Mouse is not the only mother who weaves Mrs. Spider makes a little bed of soft fluffy silk for her eggs, and then weaves a silk ball around the bed. The ball is soft

Fig. 8. — The Crowned Spider’s Cocoon.

a ball for her babies’ cradle.

Mother Nature's Children.

and yielding inside, but hard and smooth outside. You see such a little ball full of spider babies in the picture (Fig. 8). l"he mother has fastened her eradle to a leaf by spinning threads all about it, and she has tied the edges of the leaf together to make the nest still safer. Then she sits beside it on a leaf to watch over it till the eggs are hatched and the babies ready to come out. If you break off the leaf and throw it to the ground, she will immediately raise it to some bush again by spinning threads from the bush to it and then drawing it

up. If you tear a hole in it, she will mend it with new silk, so as to keep her babies safe.

In the other picture (Fig. 9) the mother spider is so careful of her ball of babies that she even carries it around in her arms and Avill not let go of it for a moment. If you are cruel enough to pull it away from her by force, she is wild with anxiety till she finds it again, when she hugs it tighter than ever, just as your mother would if she should lose you and find you once more.

A Frenchman who was studying spiders once threw a mother and her ball of babies into the pit of an ant-lion, — a horrible creature who is fond of eating spider babies, and spider mothers, too, whenever he can get them. The mother tried hard to pull her little ones from the jaws of the monster, but all in vain. Then the man who was watching her thought he would save her life, and so drew her out of the pit, leaving her halfdevoured nest behind. But the moment he let go his hold of her she rushed back again and seized her nest, right in the

How Mice^ Squirrels, Fish and Spiders, Cradle their Babies. 15

jaws of the ant-lion. She loved her babies even more than her life.

Even the fish down in the water love their little ones well enough to make cradles for them. They have no hands or feet, — nothing but their mouths to work with, — yet they manage to weave a comfortable little nest. In the picture (Fig. 10) you see two sticklebacks beside a / nest that has just been filled wit papa had built it; for it is the Papa Stickleback who does all of the cradle-making. If you could get close to the bank of a brook without his noticing you, you would see him rushing about in search of stuff for his nest.

He gets a bit of weed in one place and a tiny stick in another, and tugs them along in his mouth to the place he has chosen. There he puts them down, one after another, laying them close together.

If a stick will not fit one way, he pulls it out and puts it in another way ; or if it is too crooked or too light, he carries it off to a distance and drops it, and gets another, straighter or heavier, in its place. He tries the weight of the sticks by letting them drop. If they fall through the water rapidly, he uses them ; if not, he leaves them. When he has got- material enough for the floor of his nest, he glues the pieces together by rubbing his body over them ; for you know how sticky a fish’s body makes anything he touches.

Mother Nature's Children.

Then he scoops up a mouthful or two of sand from the bottom of the brook, and scatters it over the floor of the nest to make it heavier and more stable. After that he builds up the sides of the nest, rubbing round and round it with his body to stick it fast, and spinning a sort of gluey thread to bind it together, something as a spider spins its web. The roof he makes in the same way, only he has to go through the nest often to keep it the right shape and to smooth it inside. It is pretty hard work for the little fellow, — for he is only about as large as a baby’s little finger, — and he gets so excited with his work that he never stops to rest or to eat.

When he has finished it to suit him, he goes off to find. Mrs. Stickleback and coax her to fill his nest with eggs. Then he stands guard over it for many weeks, caring for the eggs, and later for the baby fish. And though he is so small, he will rush upon any fish, no matter how large, that venture to come near his precious charge. He will strike at their eyes, bite their fins, and stick his sharp spine into them, till they are glad to swim off and let his babies alone.

God made all the creatures, and gave them our love and our fear,

To give sign we and they are his children, one family here.

Browning.

TEACHING NOTES.

Marvels of Animal Life by C. E. Holder has a full account of the nests of fish; and Chamber''s Journal for 1850 describes the “Ways of the Squirrel”; and Homes without Hands by J. G. Wood is a good book for the whole subject.

Have the children tell how the nests are made and how the tools used by man have been suggested by the work of animals without tools.

Ask why it is the smallest animals and fish that make the most careful cradles ; why the squirrel and harvest mouse rather than the lion or bear or shark keep the purpose of the nests steadily in view.

Chapter III. How Babies Are Cradled In Clay And Wood

This picture shows a family of swallows in France. But out* swallows here in America build just the same sort of a nest that you see here, and sing the same sweet little twittering song.

About the only difference between the French swallows and those in America is that our Mr. Swallow sits on the eggs sometimes and lets Mrs.

Swallow have an hour or two off, while his French cousin lets Madame Swallow do all of the sitting herself, though he is very faithful in getting her food as long as she has to stay on the nest.

And how do they build this nest? They are very sociable little

Mother Nature's Children.