Part 1
Nature Readers.
SEA-SIDE AND WAY-SIDE.
No. 1.
BY JULIA McNAIR WRIGHT.
“Then Nature, the old nurse, took The child upon her knee, Saying, ‘Here is a story-book Thy Father hath written for thee.’”
LONGFELLOW _to_ AGASSIZ
BOSTON, U.S.A., D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1896.
COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY JULIA MCNAIR WRIGHT.
TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & CO., BOSTON, U.S.A.
PRESSWORK BY ROCKWELL & CHURCHILL, BOSTON, U.S.A.
PREFACE.
This Series of Nature Readers is intended for the use of beginners in reading. The subjects chosen, and their treatment, have been alike subordinated to this object. The Nature Readers are not offered as text-books in natural science, but rather as a contribution to the idea that facts of real and permanent value, may be made known, a noble taste may be cultivated, thought may be developed, and the initiatory steps in an increasingly popular study may be taken, while a child is learning to read a certain number of English words.
Should not the first short, strong Saxon sentences be rather used to convey scientific facts, than such trivial information as, “The boy has a new hat,” or, “I had a plate of green corn to eat, on the fourth day of July”?
Lessons fresh from the sea-shore and the field, where life is seen, not in an abnormal state, as captivity, but in its own chosen homes and natural development, cannot fail to have an educative power of great value, even to minds of a very early age.
The real difficulty to be overcome has been to put these simple lessons concerning the habits, homes, and anatomy of certain animals, into such words as are usually found in the most elementary reading-books. To accomplish this, so that the series shall reach the hands for which it was intended, has been the author’s chief concern. There is happily no uncertainty as to the scientific accuracy of the work. Every substantive statement has been verified by the observation of the author, or of those whose competency for such work is unquestioned. The practical value of this series of Nature Readers must now be tried in the Homes and the Schools.
Whether the pages have been discreetly broken into paragraphs to catch restless and unaccustomed eyes, whether the words and subjects have been fitly chosen, whether the individuality and personality given to irrational animals shall succeed in attracting the interest, and fixing the wandering thought of childhood, are all questions rather to be answered by a trial of the book, than argued in a preface.
We bring no cat and dog stories, no tales of monkey antics; but we have endeavored to impress upon the little Heir of life, in one of its highest forms, a comprehension of, and a reverence for, life, even in some of its lower manifestations.
This object has already been kindly commended, and generously welcomed, by no small number of skilled teachers and scientists, who have given valuable time to the reading of manuscript and proof of this series.
To those parents and teachers who will give the books a careful trial, and reinforce these simple instructions by their own enthusiasm and experience, the Nature Readers are commended by
THE AUTHOR.
TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS.
Do you know that there are cities on your path to school, and under the trees in your garden? Do you know that homes with many rooms in them hang in the branches above your head? Do you know that what you call “little bugs” hunt and fish, make paper, saw wood, are masons and weavers, and feed and guard and teach their little ones, much as your papa and mamma take care of you? This sounds like a fairy story, but it is a true fairy story.
In this book you will read of some of these wonders. And when you have read this book well, you shall have one or two more.
These books will not try to tell you all that there is to tell of these things. They are only to wake up your minds, so that you will think and study and notice these things for yourselves.
Your eyes will be worth many times as much to you as they now are, when you learn to observe with care and to think about what you see.
J. M. N. W.
CONTENTS.
LESSON PAGE
I. MR. AND MRS. CRAB 1
II. MR. CRAB AND HIS HOUSE 3
III. MORE ABOUT MR. CRAB 5
IV. MR. AND MRS. CRAB GET A NEW COAT 7
V. WHAT THE CRAB DOES 9
VI. MR. CRAB AND HIS FRIENDS 12
VII. SOME OTHER CRABS 14
VIII. THE HERMIT CRAB 17
IX. THE CRAB’S ENEMIES 20
X. THE USES OF CRABS 22
XI. MRS. WASP AND HER HOME 24
XII. WHAT MRS. WASP CAN DO 26
XIII. A LOOK AT MRS. WASP 28
XIV. MRS. WASP’S YEAR 29
XV. MRS. WASP AT HOME 31
XVI. REVIEW 33
XVII. THE BEE AND THE MAN 35
XVIII. HOW THE BEE IS MADE 36
XIX. THE BEE AT HOME 38
XX. THE BEE BABIES 40
XXI. THE BEE WAR 42
XXII. THE BEE’S WORK 44
XXIII. THE WISE BEES 45
XXIV. EARTH BEES 47
XXV. OTHER BEES 49
XXVI. MORE ABOUT BEES 51
XXVII. THE SPIDER AND HIS DRESS 52
XXVIII. THE SPIDER AT HOME 55
XXIX. THE LITTLE NEST 58
XXX. THE SPIDER AND HIS FOOD 60
XXXI. VERY QUEER SPIDERS 62
XXXII. REVIEW 65
XXXIII. OUT OF HARM’S WAY 67
XXXIV. SHELL-FISH 69
XXXV. THE STORY OF MR. CONCH 73
XXXVI. SEA-BABIES 75
XXXVII. MORE ABOUT SEA-BABIES 77
XXXVIII. ABOUT MR. DRILL 79
XXXIX. THE STORY OF A WAR 81
XL. HOW SHELL-FISH FEED 84
XLI. REVIEW 86
SEA-SIDE AND WAY-SIDE.
LESSON I.
MR. AND MRS. CRAB.
This is a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Crab.
Do you see the round hole?
It is the door of their house.
Mr. Crab lives in the sand by the sea-side.
He has a smooth, flat shell on his back.
The crab has eight legs and two hands.
One hand is large; the other hand is small.
He fights with the big hand, and takes his food with the little hand, or with both hands.
Mr. Crab digs out his house in the sand. He makes a place for a hall, a bed-room, and a pantry.
Mrs. Crab does not dig.
Both her hands are small and weak.
She gets food to put into the pantry.
She never fights.
If she is in any trouble she runs home, or to a hole in a rock.
See what queer eyes!
They are set on pegs; some call them stalks.
The crab can push the eye-pegs out and pull them in.
Would you not look odd if you could make your eyes stand out six inches?
When crabs go into their houses, they draw down their eyes and tuck in their feet.
Crabs are of many colors.
They are red, brown, green, yellow, and blue.
The claws are often of a very bright color.
The color on the shell is less bright; it is in small dots.
The color on some kinds of crabs is in lines.
No crab is clear, bright red when it is alive.
When it is boiled it takes a fine, red hue.
Why is this?
We cannot tell why the heat makes it change color.
LESSON II.
MR. CRAB AND HIS HOUSE.
The water of the sea comes and goes in tides.
Twice each day the water rises--then it is high tide.
After each high tide the water goes back--then it is ebb tide.
Each tide lasts six hours.
When the snow melts in the spring, or when much rain falls, the water rises high in the brook.
In the dry, hot days the water is low in the bed of the stream.
If the stream or brook were full and low twice each day, the change would be like the high and low tides of the sea.
When the tide is low, Mr. Crab digs out his house.
He scoops out the sand with his big claw.
Then he folds his claw to carry the sand, as you can carry grass or leaves on your arm.
Some kinds of crabs carry the sand in three of their feet, bent to form a basket.
Mr. Crab takes the sand to the top of his hole.
Then, with a jerk, he throws the sand into a heap.
The crab is very strong.
He can lift and carry things larger than his body.
He digs out a long hall.
He makes rooms in his house.
Then he goes with his wife to look for food.
They keep near their home.
They eat flies, gnats, ants, lady-birds, and other little insects.
They also eat sea-weed.
When beach-flies light on the sand or on sea-weed, the crabs jump at them, and catch them as cats catch mice.
But the cats do not move so quickly as the crabs.
Mr. and Mrs. Crab put the bugs they catch into their pantry.
For six hours, while the tide is high, they stay in their house; and while they stay in the house they eat insects and sea-weed they have stored away.
The crab acts as though he knew about the tide.
He knows when it will be high over his house.
He knows when it will be low, so that he can come out.
LESSON III.
MORE ABOUT MR. CRAB.
I could, for a year, tell you queer things about Mr. Crab.
Where are your bones?
They are inside your body.
Your bones are a frame to hold up your soft flesh.
Mr. Crab’s bones are on the outside of his body.
His bones are his armor, to keep him from being hurt.
The crab can live and breathe either in water or on land.
You can live only on land.
He can both walk and swim.
Mrs. Crab lays eggs.
A hen, you know, lays eggs, one by one, in a nest.
She keeps them warm till the chicks come out.
The crab’s eggs are put in a long tube or sack.
Mrs. Crab does not leave them in a nest.
She carries them tied on her legs, or under her body.
When the small crabs come out of the eggs, they grow very fast.
When you catch a crab by his arm or leg, if you do not let go, he drops off this arm or leg, and runs.
He will first pinch you, if he can, with his big claw.
Could you run with one leg gone?
The crab has legs to spare.
Then, too, his legs will grow again.
Yours would not.
A crab’s leg, or hand, will grow again very soon, when one has been lost.
But if his eye-peg is cut off, it takes a whole year for a new eye to grow.
I think he knows that; he is very careful of his eyes.
The eye-pegs of one kind of crab are very long.
He has a wide, flat shell.
There is a notch in each side of his shell.
He can let his eyes lie in that notch.[1]
How can he do that? His eye-pegs are so long he can bend them down flat to the shell and keep them safe in the notch.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Picture in Lesson IX.
LESSON IV.
MR. AND MRS. CRAB GET A NEW COAT.
Your skin is soft and fine.
As you grow more and more, your skin does not break.
Your skin gets larger as your body grows.
But Mr. Crab is in a hard shell.
The shell will not stretch.
It gets too tight, and what can Mr. Crab do then?
What do you do when your coat is too small?
Now I will tell you a strange thing.
When Mr. Crab finds that his shell is too small, he takes it off, as you take off your coat.
He pulls his legs, his hands, and his back, out of his shell.
He does that in his house.
You do not undress out of doors.
You go to your room.
So does Mr. Crab.
He slips out of his shell.
He pulls out his feet and hands, as if he took off his boots and his gloves.
Then he is a poor, soft, cold thing.
But over all his body is spread a skin, soft as paste, like glue and lime.
In a few days it gets hard.
It is as big as Mr. Crab, and just fits his shape.
It is a good, new shell!
It has the right colors,--blue, brown, red, or gold.
It has spots and rings.
When Mrs. Crab changes her shell, Mr. Crab stays near, and tries to keep her from being hurt.
The young crabs have to change their shells often, they grow so fast.
Crabs that live in dark mud have dark brown or green shells.
Some crabs have sand-colored shells,[2]--pale gray or brown shells, with close, fine specks like sand on them.
There are more kinds of crabs than you could count.
They live in all parts of the world.
This book tells you of only a few of them.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] See Lesson XXXIII.
LESSON V.
WHAT THE CRAB DOES.
The crab is quick to get cross.
Are you?
He likes to fight.
In that he is like a bad boy.
When he sees some other crab near his house, he is angry.
Then he stands high on his toes.
He pulls in his eye-pegs, for fear they will be hurt.
He spreads out his big arm.
Now he is ready to fight!
He runs at his enemy!
Each tries to hit the other with his big claw.
This big claw, or hand, can cut and pinch hard.
Sometimes one crab cuts off the hand or leg of the other crab.
Or he bites the shell on his back.
If only a leg is cut off, the crab may keep on fighting.
But if his hand, or eye, or back shell is hurt, he must give up.
He runs home to hide, until a new eye, or hand, or leg can grow.
If your hand is cut off, will it grow again?
When a crab is afraid, he runs home.
But he is very brave, and does not much fear other crabs.
He fears birds most; for birds eat small crabs; and the crab cannot fight a big bird.
Swing a rag over a crab’s head.
Up fly his eye-pegs!
Up comes his big hand!
There, he has caught the rag!
He will not let go.
You can lift him into the air by the rag; still he holds on.
Once I saw a blue crab catch a dog’s tail.
The crab held on fast.
The dog gave yelps, and ran up and down the beach.
We had to catch the dog, and pry open the crab’s claw.
Let us look at this crab; he has let go the rag, and has gone to dig in his house.
Lay this bit of shell on his hole.
See it shake!
He has run up and hit it with his head.
Now he waits.
Watch well.
There, the shell flies up in the air!
He struck it hard as he ran, and made it fly up.
I have seen him try twice, and make the shell shake before he found how hard he must hit, to get it out of the way.
Some folks think he shuts the door of his house with his big hand.
I do not think so.
He knows that the tide will wash a lump of sand over his hole, for a door.
The tide shuts him in.
He watches the waves come near.
At the last wave he jumps through his door, for he knows the next wave will close it.
He never stays up one wave too long. He gets in in time.
He is shut in his house with Mrs. Crab.
He knows that the tide will pass, and he has bugs to eat.
When Mr. Crab has lost a leg or hand, and a new one grows, it is small at first.
Then when he gets a new coat, the new hand or leg becomes half as large as the one he lost.
The next new coat, the new hand or leg comes out the full size it should be.
When crabs get a new shell we say they molt.
LESSON VI.
MR. CRAB AND HIS FRIENDS.
The crab that has one large claw has many names.
Some call him the Fighting Crab, he is so cross.
Others name him the Calling Crab, because, when he runs, he holds his big claw high, as if he called, “Come! come!”
Most people call him the Fiddler Crab, and say that his big claw is his fiddle.
I think that is the best name for him.
He can, and does, play a tune on that hand.
It is his violin, as well as his hand, his spade, and his sword.
Do you see a row of little knobs on the inner edge of his big claw?
He rubs those knobs on the edge of the shell that covers his back, and the sound is his tune.
He uses that tune to call his mate.
Mrs. Crab thinks it fine.
Mr. Crab has friends upon the beach, as well as down deep in the sand and in the water.
When he walks along the sand, he meets big flies with two wings.
He is glad to see them. Why?
They put their grubs, or young ones, in the sand, and Mr. Crab knows that he can find them to eat.
Mr. Crab also meets a great, green tiger beetle.
He does not fight him.
He knows that he shall find the beetle’s grubs in the sand and eat them.
While he is digging down below, he meets a little fat, round crab, with big eyes, and a thin, gray shell.
He is glad to see him.
If the crab has not food enough to eat while the tide is high, he will creep along in the sand, and catch and kill this small crab for his dinner.
Mr. Crab also meets, deep down, long worms, green, red, or brown.
They are making houses for themselves.
He does not trouble them.
Out in the sea, Mr. Crab finds some small shell-fish called limpets.
He likes them so much that he lets them live on his shell.
They take fast hold on his back, and he does not pull them off.
LESSON VII.
SOME OTHER CRABS.[3]
All crabs are not alike.
There are many kinds.
They differ in shape, color, and habits.
Some are not at all pretty.
Some are very pretty.
All are very queer.
The Spider Crab[4] has long, thin legs.
The front of his shell, which is over his head, is not wide, but is a sharp point.
This is to help him dig his way into sand and mud.
Some crabs do not make a house in the sand; they live in holes in the rocks.
The Horse-Shoe Crab is of a chestnut color.
Some call him the King Crab.
Look at his picture.[5]
His shell is of the shape of the hoof of a horse, but it has a long tail, with sharp points on the edges.
The tail is as hard as wood, and has edges like a file.
The Horse-Shoe Crab lives in sand and in mud.
He chooses the muddy banks where rivers or streams run into the sea.
He pushes his way in the mud, with his big, round shell, and scrapes the mud out with his many feet.
He eats the worms he finds in the sand and mud.
Why are the worms down there?
Like Mr. Crab, they build a house in the mud.
Some time I will tell you about these worms.
Now and then, as Mr. Crab goes along under the ground, he finds in his way a long, soft thing that looks good to eat.
It is the long pipe or tube with which a clam takes his food.
The King Crab puts out his claw to get it.
The King Crab can move his hand claw as quickly as your cat can jump or strike out her paw.
But the clam is far more quick than the King Crab, and shuts his shell down on the King Crab’s claw.
Now is he held fast, like a rat in a trap!
He waits to see if the clam will let go.
No, he will not.
Then the crab drops off his claw, and goes away to hide and grow a new one.
Do you see, in the picture, a crab in a shell made like a curl?[6]
That crab steals his house.
He finds an empty shell, and goes into it to live.
It is odd to see him run, with the shell he stole on his back.
How does he live?
By fishing.
All crabs hunt and fish.
I have told you how they hunt on the sand for bugs and flies.
Did I not tell you how they hunt for grubs and worms under ground?
How do they fish?
Mr. Crab gets into a good place to fish.
He pops out his eyes to see all about him.
Then when things that he likes to eat float by, he strikes out with his big hand.
He catches what he wants nearly every time.
Crabs are very greedy.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] See Frontispiece.
[4] See Picture in Lesson IV.
[5] See Frontispiece.
[6] See Frontispiece.
LESSON VIII.
THE HERMIT CRAB.
Do you wish to hear more about the crab that steals his house?
Why does he do that?
His back is long and soft, and has no hard shell.
If he could find no hard cover, he could not live.
All the other crabs would bite or pinch him.
So would many fish.
He is called the Hermit Crab.
As the Hermit Crab grows too big for one shell, he finds another.
He never stays outside of his shell until he knows that he is about to die.
How does he know that?
I cannot tell.
But he comes out, lies flat down by his house, and dies.
He wants his house to live in, not to die in.
When he needs to change his shell-house, he hunts for one to suit him.
Then he puts in his long claw, to feel if it is clean and empty.
Now and then he finds another crab in it.
Then the two fight for it.
If some small thing lives in the shell which the hermit wants, he pulls it out with his long claw.
Then he brings the new shell near, and springs from the shell he is in to the shell he wants, as you would spring from chair to chair.
On the end of his long, soft tail he has a hook.
He twists his soft body into the new shell.
Then he clasps his tail-hook to a small, round post in the top of the curl of the shell.
That holds him fast.
His horny legs hang out in front.
He can run and carry the shell.
He can draw back into the shell and hide.
There is a small, pink, sea-animal, like a flower, that one kind of crab likes.
He wants it to grow on his shell.
It may be that it helps him to catch food.
Or, it may be that he likes it to hide the door of his shell.
This pink sea-creature can build more shell on the edge of the one the crab lives in.
This makes the shell larger.
Then the crab need not move so often.
When he moves, he takes his friend with him.
He puts out his claw and lifts her off his old shell, and sets her on the edge of the new one.
Then he holds her there until she has made herself fast.
Then he slips in, tail first.
The fine red, pink, and white frills of the friend hang like a veil over his door.
They keep fish and other foes away.
For this pink thing can sting.
Once I found a nice shell.
I thought it was empty, and I kept it for eight or ten days in a box. Then I laid it on a shelf.
One day I heard, clack! clack! clack!
And there was my shell running up and down the shelf!
In the South Seas some of these crabs do not live in sea shells.
They live in cocoa-nut shells. They eat the meat of the nuts. When it is all eaten they seek for another shell.
Each night these crabs crawl into the water to get wet. They leave their eggs in the water to hatch.
LESSON IX.
THE CRAB’S ENEMIES.
Crabs have many enemies. Fish and birds eat them.
Men eat some kinds of crabs. Crabs eat each other.
With so many enemies, crabs would soon be all gone, if they did not lay so many eggs. Mrs. Crab, each year, lays more eggs than you could count.
Crabs do not always have hard shells.
When they first come from the egg they have long tails, four legs, and no claws. The crab’s body then has a thin cover. He can swim well.
A little pink crab, named Pea Crab, goes to live in the shell of the oyster. The oyster does not seem to mind it.
You may see this little crab in your oyster soup. He turns orange color when he is cooked. Pinna, or Pea Crab has a very soft shell.
The Spider Crab has a brown shell, rough like sand. Little thorns grow all over it.
This Spider Crab cuts off fine sea-weed with her little sharp claws, and hangs it like ribbons on these thorns or hooks.[7]
Then she looks like a little green grove! Who can tell why she does that? Is it to hide?
Do you see the wide hind feet of the crab in this picture?
Those are his paddles, or oars. They are his swimming feet.
His shell is wide and light. He can float on the waves like a boat. He goes far out on the sea.