re practical expression
of their gratitude in the shape of a handsome gold watch.

'So your running was some good after all,' Harold said, and he no longer
laughed at his small brother's hobby, but learned to admire the
nimbleness of body which, with his ready wit, made him of so much use in
an emergency.

M. H.

INSECT WAYS AND MEANS.

IX.--THE EARS AND NOSES OF INSECTS.

Most of us have a vague idea that what we call the 'ear' is only partly
concerned with the work of hearing; but only a few know exactly what a
complicated organ the ear, as a whole, really is. The external 'ear'
only serves as an aid to the collection of sounds, and the real work of
hearing is performed by a delicate organ inside the head. Seals, moles,
whales, and porpoises, birds, reptiles, and fishes have no visible ear;
yet we know that they are not deaf, though in many the hearing must be
dull. In all these creatures the sense of hearing lies inside the head.

But the ears of insects must be looked for in strange places indeed,
and, when found, they seem to bear no sort of likeness to what most of
us call ears. They may be on the antennae, on the trunk, or on the legs!
In the grasshopper, for example (fig. 1), the ear is placed on the
abdomen, just above the base of the great hind-leg, so that this leg
must be pulled down before the ear can be seen. When this has been done,
there will be found an oval drumhead-like spot (figs. 2 and 3); this is
the outer surface of the ear. If you had sufficient skill to take away
this part of the body, so as to show the inside of this drum, you would
find two horn-like stalks, to each of which is fastened a small and very
delicate flask, with a long neck. This is filled with a clear fluid, and
corresponds to a similar structure within our own ears.

In the green grasshoppers--those delightful sprites of hot summer
days--'ears' of a precisely similar structure are found on the fore-leg
instead of on the body.

In a little gnat-like insect known as Corethra, common in England during
the summer months, the 'ear' takes the form of delicate hairs growing
out from the body on a stem, like the teeth of a comb; the base of what
corresponds to the back of the comb is connected with a delicate nerve,
and this, as in the case of the similar nerve in the grasshopper and
locust, makes hearing possible.

Only in some ants and bees, and in some mosquitoes, is the organ of
hearing placed on the head. We say _