Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/376

270 comyces which vou send prefers an oily material, such as the edible portion of the walnut within the shell, but it can also, like other mucors, be cultivated on bread and potatoes, Sometimes the growth reaches a foot in length, resembling glossy black hair.

While making a recent visit with my uncle and aunt, I was walking around and I noticed a lot of hornets flying in and out of a hollow tree, but 1 did not think much about it for the rest of

the day. A few days later we smoked them out and got the tree on fire inside. While putting it out I got some nests, pupre, larva, and live hornets, which I put in a box. The hornets fed the larvæ, and I watched them, and in a short time several hatched out and a good many are ready ta come out.

When I got the hornets, I put on gloves, and to tame them I put them under a glass with some nest, and in a short time they were quite tame. When I want to handle them, I take them by the wings; but this I very seldom do. I inclose two hornets, also a piece of nest.

Please tell me something about hornets.

Your interested reader, (age 9).

These Vespos, for such we name the hornets, as well as the “yellow-jacket” wasps, are dangerous, and the ease with which you handled them is remarkable. You were aided somewhat by the season of the year. In the autumn they are not so fierce as in the summer, but become quite sluggish. Usually, however, they regain activity when brought into a warm room.



In the warm summer evenings I used to go down on the sidewalk and catch toads and bring them up on to the front porch. One of them we named “Uncle Jeary.” He walked instead of hopping. He did not like to jump off the front porch. He walked up and down the front porch, hunting for a low place to jump off. All the other toads jumped off without hesitation. After a while he went down one of the porch steps and looked off to see whether it was low enough to jump off. He thought it was not low enough, so he jumped down to the next step, and there waited. He was very large. I found him every evening in the same place for along time. Why did he walk instead of hop? Was it because he was old ? (age 10).

I have also observed that a large bullfrog kept for several weeks in my vivarium seemed to dislike to jump, perhaps because it required less effort to walk than to jump. The smaller