FOOTNOTES:
[ [1] "The Strange Adventures of a Pebble."
[2] "The Strange Adventures of a Pebble."
[3] All these things put together are called "weathering."
[ [4] Muir. "[The Mountains of California]."
[5] "The Strange Adventures of a Pebble."
[6] That is to say, no descendants worthy of them. It is now thought some of the modern reptiles may be degenerate descendants of the big reptiles of old.
[7] Muir: "[The Mountains of California]."
[8] "[Outlines of Earth's History]."
[9] "The Two Majesties." This painting, by a great French realist, shows a lion getting home rather late, after his night out, stopping for a look at the rising sun; a thing with which, owing to his habits, he is not very familiar.
[10] When you study French, if you want to read this book—like most French works on science it is very interesting—ask for Perrier's "Organization des Lumbricus Terrestris."
[11] Just listen to this: "Worms," says Mr. Darwin, in that remarkable book of his, "are indifferent to very sharp objects, even rose thorns and small splinters of glass."
[12] In the world of science, the ant goes by her Latin name, Formica, and the whole family is known as the Formicidæ. To a Roman boy Formica simply meant "ant." Fusca is also Latin, and means "dark"; so you can see this part of the story is about a species of dark ant. As a matter of fact he is dark brown.
[13] The scientific name for this particular kind of ant is Lasius niger.
[14] A "bad" conductor is often a good thing, as you'll see by looking it up in the dictionary.
[15] The whole story is told in the famous book, "[The Mason Bee]," by Henri Fabre. He was the teacher.
[16] The boys were a great help. You ought to see what Fabre himself says about them in that famous book of his.
[17] You've often noticed them, haven't you? Now read Fabre's wonderful book and see how much you didn't notice.
[18] "And that's once too many," as the old farmer said; and we must agree with him when we think only of the damage they do.
[19] One of my friends in the faculty of the University of Chicago tells me there are still a good many armadillos in Texas.
[20] Isn't that the way a toad swallows an angleworm? Or how does he do it?
[21] Observers find that flamingoes can be successfully approached by putting on the skin of a cow or a horse.
[23] "Admire," in those days, meant "to wonder at."
[24] By the way, the funny thing is that, while the bacteria that live on roots of the legumes are plants and not animals, most of them do move about.
[25] Rev. H. S. McCook: "The Agricultural Ant of Texas."
[26] Strictly speaking, I presume this was the same Apollo who carried the sun about in his chariot, and "Destroyer of Mice" was one of his many nicknames.
[27] Here imagine Brer Bear putting on his specs and reading from the book.
[28] That's the name of the Englishman I've just been quoting. He's a famous artist, but, like most cultivated Englishmen, can also write a good book when he feels like it.
[29] Ingersoll: "Wild Neighbors."
[30] Adapted from Langdon Smith.
[31] Whittier's "Barefoot Boy."
[32] "Pictured Knowledge."
[33] "The Strange Adventures of a Pebble."
[34]"As You Like It."
[35] Martin: "Physiography of Wisconsin."
Transcriber's note:
In the scanned version of this book, there is apparently a printer error in the acknowledgments for sources of illustrations (page x) where the author refers to an illustration on page 125. There is no illustration on page 125 in the original text, so the hyperlink in this ebook has been connected to the closest illustration, (caption: This Must Be a Pleasant Day) which is on page 126 in the original text.
Another possible printer error occurred on page 52, where the phrase "branches and holes" appears in the original text. In an effort to relate the context of the phrase, this has been changed to "branches and boles" in this text.
Full-page illustrations have been moved to the nearest paragraph so as not to interrupt the flow of the text. Some page numbers are missing as a result.
Where appropriate, internal hyperlinks within the index link directly to the pertinent chapter heading, section, or illustration referred to on the referenced page. In cases where no appropriate heading was available on the page, the top of the referenced page is linked. In some cases illustrations have been moved from the original location in order to avoid breaks in paragraphs, and to place them more closely to the related paragraph. For example, the index reference for "Hornbills" (page 169) links directly to the illustration now located on page 170.
This book contains links to other books in the Project Gutenberg collection. Although we verify the correctness of these links at the time of posting, these links may not work, for various reasons, for various people, at various times.