It is a pleasant pastime to take a lantern and make a social evening call at the coop after Papa and Biddy have put their children to sleep. The most amusing thing of all is to hear the old rooster talk to the chickens. Thus, if anything goes wrong, any naughty crowding or some little foot trodden upon so as to cause an outcry, Papa slowly rises, shakes out his feathers, readjusts his great spreading toes, pokes in with his beak any little protruding head and then settles down again, all the while talking and saying in plain chicken lingo, “There, little dears, now nestle down and go to sleep.”
In conclusion I will say to the readers of Birds and Nature that this little story is no fancy sketch but a true recital of events that took place at Vashon College while I was a member of the faculty of that institution. The chanticleer of every farmyard is a noble bird and a hero in his own sovereign right.
L. Philo Venen.
THE DAMSEL FLY.
This is a small insect—that is it is smaller than some of the dragon flies, to which order—Odonata—it belongs. It is of more gentle habits and not so swift of wing as the dragon fly. It was the French writers who gave it the name it bears, while some English authorities placed it along with the dragons. Howard says they are seldom found far from the stream or pond where they are born, yet I have two or three varieties that I caught on the prairie some miles from any water. Their wings are not held horizontally, but are folded parallel with their bodies. This facilitates the backing down the stem of a plant or reed when the female wishes to deposit her eggs below the surface of the water, which is usually the place for incubation. The wings are gauze like, some nearly black, others with a beautiful metallic luster. They are not so savage as the dragons, although one I took last summer held on to the threads of the net until it nearly severed them, and bit at my fingers in a most savage manner.
Alvin M. Hendee.
FELDSPAR.
Feldspar is the family name of several minerals closely related and indeed grading into each other, but distinguished by mineralogists by separate specific terms. These minerals are all silicates of aluminum, with some alkali or alkali earth, having a hardness of about 6 in the scale in which quartz is 7 and a specific gravity varying from 2.5 to 2.7. They are fusible with difficulty before the blowpipe, crystallize in the monoclinic or triclinic system and cleave in two well-marked directions nearly or quite at right angles to each other. It is this latter property, probably, which led to the grouping of these minerals as spar, since this term is applied in common language to any minerals which break with bright crystalline surfaces. Thus calc spar is a common name for calcite, heavy spar for barite, needle spar for aragonite, and so on. The term field spar, of which Feldspar is probably a corruption, was perhaps given the minerals of this group because of their widespread occurrence. The English spelling of the word is Felspar. The Feldspars form an essential part of nearly all eruptive rocks and by their decomposition produce clays and other soils which may harden into great areas of sedimentary rocks. They are thus of great geological importance and interest. Usually the white crystals to be seen in an eruptive rock in contrast to the dark green or black of the pyroxene or hornblende, or the glassy, nearly colorless quartz, are Feldspar. The Feldspar may, however, contain more or less iron and then take on a flesh color or become even darker. Feldspar crystals can best be recognized by their prominent cleavage, which appears as numerous bright flat surfaces extending in any given crystal in the same direction. The crystals, while they may be of so minute dimensions as to be visible only with the microscope, may on the other hand reach in veins in coarse-grained granites a length of a foot or more.
As ornamental stones only certain varieties of Feldspar are valued and their value depends on accidents of color or structure. The first of the Feldspars which may be mentioned as being prized as an ornamental stone is amazonstone or green Feldspar. This in composition is what is called a potash Feldspar, potash being the alkali which in combination with alumina and silica goes to make up the mineral. The percentages of each in a pure amazonstone are silica 64.7, alumina 18.4 and potash 16.9. The mineralogical name of the species is micro-cline, meaning small inclination, and refers to the fact that the angle between the two cleavages of the mineral is not quite a right angle. The common color of microcline is white to pale yellow, but occasionally green and red occur.
It is only to the green variety that the name of amazonstone is applied, a name meaning stone from the Amazon river. It first referred probably to jade or some such green stone from that locality and then came to include green Feldspar. No occurrence of green Feldspar in that region is now known.