Animal Life in Field and Garden

“In these talks that we shall have together,” said Uncle Paul, as he sat with his nephews one evening in May under the big elder tree in the garden, “I propose to designate as ‘...

“Is it not true,” resumed Uncle Paul, “that each kind of work demands its own special tool? The plowman must have the plow, the blacksmith the anvil, the mason the trowel, the w...

“The other twelve will come some day, my boy; at present you have the right number of teeth for a child of your age. They do not all come at one time, but one after another. We...

“Nobody knows? Well, then, so much the better, for you will have the satisfaction of finding it out for yourselves, from the shape of the teeth. The incisors, small and weak, wh...

“Wings, real wings, perfectly adapted to flying, are the bat’s most striking feature. How can a mammal, an animal whose general structure is that of a dog or a cat for example,...

“Bats are nocturnal,” Uncle Paul continued the next day; “that is, they leave their lurking-places only at nightfall, to hunt in the evening twilight. As a rule, animals addicte...

In his walled garden Uncle Paul allowed a couple of hedgehogs, which he had brought from the neighboring hills, to wander at large. One evening the children noticed them poking...

“Our bats,” continued Uncle Paul, “live exclusively on insects, and these constitute the hedgehog’s chief food, but it also hunts larger game or even eats fruit. In winter there...

Uncle Paul had just trapped a mole that for some days had been uprooting young vegetables and unearthing newly planted seeds in a corner of the garden. He called the children’s...

“All that you know of the mole’s labors is confined to the little mounds of earth, the mole-hills, that it throws up, and the tunnels, of greater or less extent, that it bores j...

It happened one day that One-eyed John caught an owl in his corn-crib, and he had just nailed the live bird to his house door as a bandit of the worst kind, worthy to be exposed...

“The barn-owl, the horned owl, the gray owl, the white owl, and other similar birds are known under the general name of nocturnal birds of prey. They are called birds of prey be...

“Let us return for a moment to the rodents, the habitual prey of the night-birds. You do not know them all, by any means, but we ought not to pass them by; for if some, like the...

“The meadow-mouse is about as large as a common mouse. Its coat is of a yellowish hue mixed with gray above and dirty white underneath. The tail is only one-quarter as long as t...

“We have glanced in a cursory way at a number of our rodents that are harmful to crops. I pass over in silence the pretty squirrel, a lover of walnuts and beechnuts, and the ind...

“Owls not belonging to the horned class lack, of course, the egrets or plumicorns characteristic of the latter. The largest of the hornless owls is the howlet or tawny owl, whic...

“If it were my purpose to give you a systematic and scientific account of birds, instead of acquainting you with the various species useful to agriculture, I ought to have begun...

“Destroy them,” was the reply, “destroy them by every possible means, for we can count on no assistance from other than human helpers. Eagles are the tyrants of the air, and no...

“The kestrel belongs to the falcon family, as may be seen from the small, sharp tooth on each side of the tip of the beak. It is rather a handsome bird, about the size of a pige...

“Their black plumage and similarity of shape make us mistake all sorts of birds for crows. Let us begin with one of these, the raven. This bird is of good size, being about as l...

“The black crow has the same plumage and the same general appearance as the raven, but is one-quarter smaller. During the summer these birds live in pairs in the woods, which th...

In front of Uncle Paul’s house there is a grove of beeches several centuries old, its branches interlacing at a great height and forming a continuous canopy supported by hundred...

“The commonest of our woodpeckers is the green woodpecker, which is about as large as a turtle-dove. Its plumage has a richness rarely seen in that of any of our other birds. Th...

“I have been telling you about woodpeckers and the nuthatch, insect-eaters with chisel-shaped beaks for cutting into trees and getting out the worms hidden in the wood. Then I s...

In an old pear-tree with dense foliage, at the foot of the garden, a black-headed warbler had built its nest. Day by day Jules had watched the bird as it brought blades of dry g...

“All sorts of absurd stories have been made up about the cuckoo and its curious habits, and thus fable has added to the actual facts, which are in themselves strange enough. Eve...

“It is a graceful little bird, lively and quick-tempered, always on the go, flying continually from tree to tree, carefully inspecting the branches, hanging from the tip ends of...

“Another highly talented architect, past master in the building of nests, is the wren, known in learned language as the troglodyte. If you ask me the meaning of this strange nam...

“We have whole tribes of helpers that devote themselves to the patient search for insect eggs in the cracks of tree bark and in piles of dead leaves, for larvæ between the scale...

“The swift is that large black swallow that flies in flocks on summer evenings and utters a shrill cry as it passes. Hunting insects on the wing is its occupation. It has a very...

“There are many other small birds that live almost exclusively on insects, and in so doing render a great service to agriculture. A full account of them all would take too long;...

“Now let us go back to the principal slender-beaked birds, eaters of insects only and consequently our greatest helpers. They are all small in size, delicately and gracefully fo...

“It might at first seem that I ought to be as lenient toward those who hunt granivorous birds as I have just shown myself severe toward the destroyers of insectivorous birds; fo...

“I propose to-day to undertake the defense of reptiles, which many people fear and dislike, even look upon with horror. I have shown you what services are rendered by bats despi...

“I have kept until the last the ugliest and the least esteemed of our helpers, the toad. With it must be classed the frog and the tree-toad because of their close resemblance to...

“What shall I say in defense of that poor creature, the toad, whose very name is enough to excite disgust? It is really loathed by all. It seems to us the ugliest and most disgu...

“Examine the creature closely,” said he. “Its skin is delicate, so delicate that even a light touch hurts it; but here on the head, at the point called the skull, it has the har...

Uncle Paul had sent old Jacques to town to buy the drug they were going to apply to Simon’s wheat. Meanwhile he took occasion to tell his young hearers about the wheat-devourer...

“I remember,” said Jules, “one Sunday last winter—it was some time in December or January, I think—the mayor had just posted a notice on the door of the town hall, and the peopl...

“In the latter part of July the eggs hatch and through the covering of down appear, here and there, little heads pushing aside the fluff that is in their way. The first caterpil...

One morning Jules was sent to the mill to give notice that his uncle’s wheat was ready to be ground. After he had left the village his road ran along beside a vineyard that show...

“Here is another weevil I have to show you,” began Uncle Paul the next day. “What do you think of it? Note its shiny violet coat with glints of blue that bring out the delicate...

“Ha, you rascal, I’ve caught you at it now, eating my hazelnuts!” cried Louis one day on seeing a weevil piercing with its long beak a still tender young nut. “I’ve caught you a...

“Would you like to see another little creature that by reason of its very smallness and its countless numbers braves our wrath and commits ravages that can be checked only by ou...

One day Jacques came in from the garden with a cabbage root all covered with warts having the shape and size of a pea. In each wart was a little worm.

“Here is the caterpillar we were talking about,” he announced at last. “It is of a delicate green color with three yellow stripes running lengthwise. Now you must make the acqua...

Questioned as to the means to be adopted in order to protect from their insect enemies the various plants he had mentioned in his last talk, Uncle Paul was forced to acknowledge...

“At the end of the abdomen,” said he, “the one class have a poisoned weapon for self-defense, as in bees and wasps, while the other class are furnished simply with the implement...

“Yes, moths do more harm than any other insects; but not as moths, for these never give us any cause for complaint, being content to suck a little honey through their slender tr...

“Many of the moths bearing the name of pyralis have a curious habit in their larva state, of rolling up the leaves of trees, or of folding them lengthwise, or of uniting several...

“What is that pretty butterfly in your box, next to the pyralis?” Emile asked his uncle when the latter was showing the children some of his specimens of moths and butterflies....

One day Uncle Paul was in his garden engaged in an operation on his pear-trees that greatly puzzled Emile and Jules. He had a pot of black, sticky stuff with a strong smell, and...

“They do not feed on them,” his uncle replied; “they drink the sap through a very fine, short, pointed sucker which they carry against the breast when not in use. The insect plu...

Uncle Paul had placed in the lettuce bed two large pots half full of water and set into the ground flush with the surface. He said they were a trap for mole-crickets, which, fro...