How you can stop it.
The katydid commonly makes three rubs at a time with its drum-heads. It sounds somewhat as if it said Katy-did, and from this comes its name. Sometimes there are only two rubs, and then you can fancy that it says She did or She didn’t. The katydids, you know, are all quiet in the daytime, but when evening comes they are very noisy. I have often been amused to hear them as they begin just at dusk. One will begin, and perhaps say its Katy-did several times; then another, on a neighboring tree, will reply; and after a little time the whole tribe will be at work. Each one appears to rest upon it after each rubbing, and so it seems as if they answered each other from one tree and another. It is curious that you can at once stop the noise of this insect by striking the trunk of the tree on which he is with your hand.
Questions.—What are the bones in a bird’s wing like? What is said about the size of birds’ wings? What about the muscles that work them? Why can not a man fly if he makes wings for himself? What birds have the largest wings? What is said about the hen? What about the ostrich? What is said about the motions of birds in flying? What is said of the swallow? What of the humming-bird? Tell about the parts of a feather from a bird’s wing. What is said about the bat’s wings? What about its motions on the ground? How does it rest? What is said about the wings of insects? How does the katydid make its noise?
CHAPTER XXVII.
COVERINGS OF ANIMALS.
The skin of man.
The skin of man is his covering. It covers up like a case all the machinery that I have told you is in his body—the bones, the muscles, the nerves, the arteries, the veins, etc. It keeps them from being injured. Besides this, how strange we should look if there were no skin to cover up these parts from view.
The skin fits very nicely all parts of the body. On the hand it is like a glove. See how well it fits. But observe that there are some places where it is quite loose and full of wrinkles. It is so between the thumb and forefinger, and around the joints of the fingers. In these places it would not do to have it fit tight, because if it did you could not move your thumb and fingers as freely as you do.
Why it is different from the covering of animals.
But the covering of man’s body is different from that of other animals. It is, for the most part, bare skin, while most animals have either hair, or feathers, or scales, or hard plates like armor, or shells. Why is it that man has a covering that protects him so much less than animals generally are protected by their coverings? It is because he knows how to make such a covering as he needs to put on over his skin. He can suit this to the degree of heat or cold. But animals know nothing about this. No one ever saw an animal make clothes and put them on. The Creator has given to each animal such covering or clothes as it needs, ready-made. Let us look at this a little.