INSECTS IN WINTER.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 348, 8 January 1903, Page 6

INSECTS IN WINTER.

Vmtvem «• ftraajre Biding: Flore* to • Jmck Frott. ' Often on a -warm, sunny day in midwinter in England, where the climate is so much milder than it is in «ur northern latitude, one walking in the fields will startle a swarm of grasshoppers that will leap before him, their hard bodies striking the dead leaves with a sound like hail. They are called "grouse grasshoppers." And during cold weather in this country the grasshoppers hide beneath the loose bark of logs or under the bottom rails of fences. The common field cricket often bids defiance to Jack Frost from within a little burrow or pit. This burrow shows as a pile of sand at the surface, but beneath is a small tunnel leading to an oblong chamber, and at its further end another tunnel running from three to sir inches down into the ground, at the bottom of which the eggs are laid. The nest of the tree cricket is very interesting; the eggs are laid in the pith of raspberry stalks and grape shoots, and as the mother mast bore through the tough stem, lay the egg and then close the opening with fluids from her mouth, the amount of work performed by her is incredible. She is a frail looking insect of a pale green color, with glassy wings, but she sometimes bores 40 or 50 holes, and lays as many eggs in a day. If you will examine the raspberry stalks during the winter you may often find long scars, showing where the holes have been bored. These eggs of the tree cricket remain all winter and hatch in the early summer. liut crickets have as many different methods of nest making as birds have, and while a few of the adults survive the -winter, most of next summer's "shrillers" must hatch from the eggs in the various nests. The eggs are laid in autumn and hatch the following spring into little crickets that look like the grown ones, but have no winps until later on. Walking sticks lay their eggs loosely upon the ground, where they are more or less protected by th& fallen leaves. Each egg has at the upper end a lid-like cover, and the tiny walking sticks, always green at first, push open this lid in the spring and crawl out. Myriads of the eggs of grasshoppers lie in the ground, in compact masses of 40 to 60 each. They begin to hatch about mid-April, and are lively little insects without wings, bat otherwise like their parents.

MISSION INDIANS HOMELESS* Have Ko Leffal Right to the Lands k Occupied for Tliem in Sowth* em California. I In carrying out the provision* of the mandate lately issued by order of Lhe I'nited States supreme court in t he case of the Warner ranch against '.he Mission Indians of South Caroi'ra. the sheriff of that section has r.ci .inly a disagreeable duty to perform, i.ut one that is felt by the resie'tnts of the section to be most unfortunate, says the St. Louis Republic. Letters to this effect have been roc.'ivod at the interior department from the Indian agent, from the sheriff and from officials of the department of justice. While none of these criticises the supreme court in its action in the case, they will decry the necessity for dispossessing these li.dians of their lands and homes which they have occupied for genera rion. and turning them out into the world without the means of «upp. ■-.. n ' h e case in question reached the supreme court on error from the supreme court of the state of California, the action being brought to eject the Indians from lands claimed by what is known as the Warner ranch proprietors. The highest tribunal held that the Indians had no legal right to the land they had occupied, and that the mission of San Diego having admitted that the lands were not necessary to its support the occupants must remove. The question now before the Indian bureau is where to remove them and when. The people number about 200. In the meantime the Warners have been requested to permit the Indians to remain upon their property until their present crops are harvested. This will be about the middle of July. The Indian bureau has no funds with which to provide them homes, but they will not be permitted to suffer for the necessities of life, even if the regulations governing the distribution of funds have to be stretched a bit to fit the case. A prominent official of the Indian bureau said the other day that this case would be the means of getting congress to make provision for the Mission Indians, for whom no funds has ever been set aside.

IfitMMii Combtutloß of fif. Moat of the paper now need ia mad* from wood and other Yegetable fiber*, which are chemically not rery different from tire material* of which a hayrick im composed. Consequestly if paper ia stacked damp heating ia likely to take place, just as it doe* witi pre maturely stacked hay, and at any time fiamta may buret oat aa aha reault of afoatiteomcombtMtfoa. 4kiouofc, KaelUJk Worfi Ua««e> better -Jkf In 50 year* th* word* «Bd phrases of tha English language lexiconiaed under the letter "A" here increased from 7.000 im number to nearly 80,000. Science amd invsstiofi rtquirinf new terms a*e tergeljijesfntnaHa,-. ficfeoesv .—: -