File:Nature sketches in temperate America, a series of sketches and a popular account of insects, birds, and plants, treated from some aspects of their evolution and ecological relations (1911) (14775177613).jpg

Identifier: cu31924024546263 (find matches)
Title: Nature sketches in temperate America, a series of sketches and a popular account of insects, birds, and plants, treated from some aspects of their evolution and ecological relations
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Hancock, Joseph Lane
Subjects: Plant ecology Animal ecology Animal behavior Birds Insects
Publisher: Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co.
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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uarters onto the floor during my absence.This species of minnow is more or less of a vegetable feeder,consuming green algse in quantities, its choice of these plantsbeing Spirogyra, which is abundant in almost all our ponds andstreams. In situations of the brook, such as I have shown,earth worms and midges, the latter in either larva or adultstages, also form a large proportion of theiV food. If any of our readers desire a handsome species for stockinga pond, or for aquarium objects, this is certainly a most desirablenative species to cultivate. In the spring at the time of mating,the males undergo a change of color of a secondary sexualcharacter. The sides of the abdomen, which are ordinarilysilvery white with a dark stripe, become suffused behind thegills backwards, with an exquisite, brilliant Fed. Natures Laboratory The great laboratory of nature is always .open to the interestedobserver. On the one hand, we see the effect on animal and GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND SKETCHES AFIELD 285
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A brook, the habitat of the Red-bellied Minnow (Chrosomus erythro-gaster) and the Black-nosed Dace (Netrcfpis nwgalops). 286 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA plant life from the downpouring rain in summer, the effectof hail, wind, sudden lowering or elevation of temperature, andfinally the effect of sunlight and shadow. On the other hand,these physical forces are seen operating every moment of timeover the face of the earth, exercising a powerful influence now,as they doubtless have in the past, over organic life. Thesefacts tell us that the interrelation and interdependence betweenorganic life and the relation to their environment are foreverseeking adjustment. We note that the destruction of a largenumber of one form of life may disarrange the adjustment of thewhole interlacing series in a given locality, because of the depend-ence or predaceousness of one form upon another. The sameis true as to the effect of a sudden shower in summer, whichmay cause the death of thousands of i

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