FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>  
flat. The shell is on the back, nearer the tail than to the head. It has a spiral twist, as is shown in the picture. 9. The snail's body, where it touches the ground when he moves, is called the foot. When he moves, the head reaches forward first and takes a firm hold, then the other parts come forward in turn, the tail last. 10. The snail can not crawl over a dry place; so, when he moves, a thick fluid comes out of his foot, moistening the surface as he passes along. 11. As he must be saving of this fluid, in dry weather he stays at home most of the time, and comes out only when it is wet enough to crawl about. 12. When the cold weather comes, the snail crawls away to some quiet place, usually under a log or a stone, draws himself into his house, makes a door to keep out the cold, and goes to sleep until spring. LESSON LI. _THE FLY AND ITS WAYS._ [Illustration] 1. Here is one of our friends that we know very well--the common house-fly. It is here drawn large on purpose, so that we can better see how it is made. 2. The fly is an insect. Its body is divided into three parts; and it has three pairs of legs. Upon its head are two large eyes, each of which is made up of about two thousand small eyes. When we look through a glass that makes things look large, we can see and count these little eyes of the fly. 3. Its feet are made in such a way that they will stick wherever it places them, so that it can crawl up the walls of the house, or on the ceiling, with its back down. 4. The fly's wings are light and thin, and made up of fine network. It has no jaws or teeth; and, instead of lips, it has a tube, or trunk, through which it sucks up its food, as we can suck milk through a straw. 5. When a fly lights on a lump of sugar, it puts out its trunk, and lets fall a drop of fluid, which is clear like water. This moistens the sugar, and then the fly sucks it up. [Illustration: A Fly's Leg, magnified.] 6. The fly keeps himself very clean. After each meal it brushes its head, first on one side, and then on the other, with its first pair of legs. Then it will rub the two legs together to get off the dirt. 7. The fly lays its eggs in the kind of food its young can eat. In a short time a little white grub hatches out, which does nothing but eat until it is of full size. 8. Then its skin becomes hard, and shrinks. It lies still, and does not eat anything for several days; but, inside its h
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>  



Top keywords:
weather
 
forward
 
Illustration
 

lights

 

ceiling

 
places

network
 

hatches

 

inside

 

shrinks

 

moistens

 
magnified

brushes

 

purpose

 
saving
 

surface

 

passes

 

crawls


moistening

 

touches

 

ground

 

picture

 

spiral

 

called


reaches

 
insect
 
divided
 

nearer

 
things
 

thousand


common

 

spring

 

LESSON

 

friends