Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 2.djvu/698

678 that he had not been smashed by the metal stamp-obliterators of the post officials.

By-the-way, curious things are sent me by post. Every week I receive fish of some kind or another by post: young salmon, young trout, young whitebait; also young pheasants, three-legged kittens, six-legged kittens, no-headed kittens; and they generally smell frightfully. The postman always knows my letters without reading the address. Sometimes live things are sent me by post. I lately received a scorpion, caught alive at Woolwich. He was packed in a jeweller's box, and when he arrived was poisonous enough to sting a mouse severely; and, once, some kind person killed a viper, and put him into a paper sweet-stuff box; but, during the journey, the scotched viper came to life, and had to be killed again by the postmaster-general, who wrote me an official note about it. I once heard of a pair of jack-boots being sent by parcels post. What next, I can't tell. Send what you like, my friends, only pay the postage, and, if you send vipers or scorpions, kill them first.

When at home, the habits of the horned frog are, I believe, very much the same as the toad's, lurking about stones, ruins, rocks, etc. Their spines, I believe, are given them for neither offence nor defence, but simply for the purpose of concealment from their enemies. The polar bear among the icebergs wears a coat as white as snow for concealment. It is exceedingly difficult to distinguish a sitting partridge when crouched down in a ploughed field. The tiger carries stripes like the jungle. The grouse is like the heather. In fact, most animals have coats given them to conceal them from their enemies, and it is more than probable that the spines of this little lizard serve for the same purpose.

I do not observe that in the so-called educational programme the subject of natural history is in any way introduced. This is, I think, a great mistake. Children and young people are naturally fond of animals, but they are too often brought up to kill and destroy any thing that looks, as they call it, ugly. I have known ladies scream, and even sometimes nearly faint, if they see an unfortunate spider, and then they go and kill the spider. Others are afraid of mice, frogs, and other harmless creatures. If these individuals had in their youth been taught how there was "evidence of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator" in all created things, they would look upon these common ones with wonder and admiration, instead of being foolish enough to be frightened—or pretend to be frightened—at them.—Leisure Hour.