The Adventures of a Grain of Dust

INDEX

(For numerous practical suggestions as to the use of an index the reader is referred to the preface to the index in the author's "Strange Adventures of a Pebble.")

Africa, one country where the Hornbills live, 169

Ants, their interesting habits in relation to the history of the soil, 94;
ants that thresh and store, 205, 213;
how they clean up after the day's work, 208

Aphids, how they supply the ants with honey, 99

Armadillo, a four-footed farmer who wears armor;
how fast he can dig, 120;
the funny gimlet nose that helps him travel so fast under the ground, 121

Asia, one of the countries where the Hornbills live, 169;
home of a farmer who stores grain for the winter, 212

Australia, home of that animal paradox, the Duck-billed Mole, 144;
and of birds that hatch their babies with an incubator, 174

Bears, how they go into winter quarters, 216, 219

Beavers, their work and their wisdom, 148

Bees. (See Mason Bee and Bumblebee.)

Beetle, Sacred (Tumble Bug), sinful tactics of, 92

Birds, their ancestors among the ancient monsters, 24;
service of the Moas in ploughing and in grinding up rock, 28;
other farmers who wear feathers, 162

Bumblebees, their homes under the ground, 104

Caveman, what he learned from his fellow animals, 228

Central America, a good place to look for Flamingoes, 166

Chipmunks, work and play in Chipmunkville, 131;
why they have large feet for such little people, 132;
inside the Chipmunk's home, 132;
why they have several front doors, 133;
how they spend the winter, 218

Clouds, how dust helps make them, 56;
and shape them, 57

Colorado, once the home of prehistoric monsters, 27

Corn, how the "rag babies" tell the fortune of the seed, 199

Crabs, water farmers who help make land, 140

Crayfish, their habits and their service in helping get land ready for the farmer, 140

Crustaceans, their relation to insects, 143

Cuvier, Baron, the famous paleontologist, and his adventure with a "monster," 34

Dandelions, flying machines of, 51

Darwin, Charles, on the importance of earthworms in the history of human civilization, 75;
what he said about the intelligence of roots and why he said it (the whole chapter is about that), 186;
how he taught roots to write their autobiographies, 190

Deserts, plant pioneers in, 8;
rich in plant food, 59;
how irrigation transforms them, 72

Dormice, their Thanksgiving dinners and their long winter naps, 204, 217

Duck-billed Mole, the Animal X that lays eggs like a bird and yet suckles its young like a pussycat, 144

Dust, how it helps the rain come down, 56

Earthworms, great importance of their work in pulverizing and fertilizing the soil, 75;
their habits and remarkable intelligence, 75;
how the great sea and the little earthworms work together, 242

East Indies, home of some of the Hornbills, 169

Electricity, how it helps in the shaping of the clouds, 57

Elephants, their ancestors among the prehistoric monsters, 27;
elephants as ploughmen, 28

Fabre, Henri, his study of the Mason Bee and how his schoolboys helped him, 108

Farms, abandoned, how Nature restores them, 16

Fish, monster fish of other days, 23

Flamingoes, habits of some feathered farmers with queer noses, 162

Florida, one place where you may find flamingoes, 166

Fox, home life and habits, 128

Frost, Jack, how he helps convert rock into soil, 43;
how he makes stones "walk" and in other ways co-operates with the river mills in making soil, 60

Geese, their relation to the flamingoes, 166

Groundhog. (See Woodchuck.)

Hamster, a four-footed farmer who uses a threshing-machine, 210

Hedgehogs, why they are so unpopular as food, 121;
their homes and how they do their ploughing, 122;
pictures of baby hedgehogs, 216, 217;
why they go into winter quarters, 216, 218

Hibernation, "The Autumn Stores and the Long Winter Night," 204

Hornbills, why Mr. Hornbill shuts his wife up in their home in a hollow tree, 169

Hungary, home of the field rat, a farmer who stores grain for the winter, 212

Ice Ages, how the glaciers ploughed and mixed the soil, 237

Insects, their service in pulverizing and fertilizing the soil, 92;
damage done by injurious insects, 93;
relation of insects to crustaceans, 143

Kangaroo rat, 131

Kingfishers, their tunnel homes in the bank and how their fishing habits help enrich the soil, 171

Kiwi, a late bird that nevertheless gets the worm, 167

Lichens, first of the soil makers—how they helped Columbus discover the world by discovering it first, 1;
how the volcanoes and the lichens work together, 235

Lizards, reign of the lizard family in the days of the prehistoric monsters, 25

Lubbock, Sir John, the great London banker who carried ants in his pocket—what he had to say about the pleasures of Nature Study, 231

Maeterlinck, on the presence of mind of a tree and its heroic struggle against adverse circumstances, 200

Marmots, their farm villages, 124

Mason-Bees. The house that Mrs. Mason-Bee built and its relation to the story of the soil, 104

Moles, their work as ploughmen, 115;
how they do their tunnelling, 117;
Mr. Mole's castle under the ground, 118;
how he keeps his hair so sleek, 119;
where he spends the winter, 218

Monsters, prehistoric, what they looked like, their habits and how they help the farmers of to-day with their farming, 20

Mosses, as soil makers, 8

Mound-Birds, how they build their incubators;
other interesting habits, 174

Mountains, how the trees climb them, 13;
why you always hear a rattle of stones in the mountains at sunrise, 43;
how the winds help trees to climb the western slopes, 55;
how the mountains help the rain to come down and why so many rivers rise in mountains, 56;
why the bones of the monsters are found in the mountains, 31;
how the mountains helped kill off the monsters, 32;
farm villages of the marmots in the mountains, 124;
team-work between mountains and pebbles, 240

Nature Study, its great value, 231;
how it is taking the place of cruel sport, 232

New England, why its soil is so versatile and dependable, and how it helps grow farm boys into famous men, 239

New Zealand, home of a bird that is a very late riser but nevertheless gets the worm, 167

Oven-Birds, of South America, how they differ from the American oven-birds, 172;
their remarkable adobe homes and their friendliness toward man, 172

Pebbles, how they help feed the Wisconsin cows, 239, 240;
teamwork between mountains and pebbles, 240

Philippines, one of the regions where mound-birds live, 174, 176

Ploughing, Nature's system: work of the squirrels, 14;
of the elephants and their ancestors among prehistoric monsters, 27;
of the Moas, 28;
of the Dinosaurs, 29;
storm ploughs of the winds, 46;
use of the plough to prevent soil waste, 70;
the great ploughs of the Ice Ages, 237

Pocket Gopher, Thompson-Seton's "master ploughman," 128;
why he has that queer expression on his face, 128;
how he spends the winter, 218

Pocket-Mouse, 130, 131

Pot Holes, soil-grinding mills of the rivers, 61

Prairie-Dog, his watch tower and how it protects him from his enemies, 126;
his great sociability, 127

Rains, their work in making and transporting soil, 44, 55

Rivers, work of the river mills in soil making, 60

Roots, how lichens get along without them, 4;
how and why they work at different levels, 11;
how they make their way about (you won't wonder that Darwin said their actions suggested intelligence!), 186

Sand, how it helps the soil to breathe, 59

Seeds, how they determine the order of march of the trees, 12;
use of screw-propellers and other devices, 42, 49, 51;
how and why baby plants back into the world, 190;
how they tried to change a sprouting seedling's mind but couldn't, 195;
how "rag babies" tell the fortune of corn, 199

Shrews, their work as ploughmen, 115;
where they spend the winter, 218

Siberia, there you will find the voles and their root cellars, 212

South America, home of the four-footed farmers that wear armor, 120;
and of the viscacha, 127;
a good place to look for flamingoes, 166;
and for oven-birds, 171

South Sea Islands, one of the regions in which you find birds that hatch their babies with an incubator, 174

Squirrels, how they help the trees to march, 14;
the winding streets of Ground-Squirrel Town, 123;
marmots, the largest of the squirrel family, 124;
how the tree-squirrels spend the winter, 218

Swallows, their habits and their service as soil makers, 177

Termites, insects improperly called "white ants";
their habits in relation to the history of the soil, 100

Terracing, how employed to prevent waste of soil, 71

Texas, you can still find armadillos there, 120

Trees, their settled order of march into new lands, 8;
how the winds and the rains help trees to climb the western slopes of mountains, 55;
how waste of trees causes waste of soil, 69

Turtles, how turtles differ from tortoises;
habits of both these water farmers, 137;
how turtles differ from crabs in their notions about laying eggs, 142

Viscachas, South American relatives of the prairie-dogs;
their villages and their athletic fields, 127;
how they rescue their buried comrades, 128

Volcanoes, their contribution to soil making, 39;
how they help the plant world to get its breath, 40;
team-work between volcanoes and lichens, 235

Voles, four-footed farmers who fill root cellars for the winter, 212

Wasps, their habits in relation to the history of the soil, 102

Weather and the groundhog's shadow, 219

Weeds, as soil makers, 9

Winds, how they helped Mr. Lichen to discover the world, 1;
how they help the trees to march, 12;
their work in making, mixing, and transporting soil, 37

Winter in the animal world, under the ground, 204

Woodchuck (Groundhog), picturesque home of a Connecticut woodchuck, 134;
Mr. Woodchuck's winter quarters and his shadow, 219

Wyoming, one of the homes of the prehistoric monsters, 27

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "The Strange Adventures of a Pebble." [2] "The Strange Adventures of a Pebble." [3] All these things put together are called "weathering." [4] Muir. "The Mountains of California." [5] "The Strange Adventures of a Pebble."[6] That is to say, no descendants worthy of them. It is now thought some of the modern reptiles may be degenerate descendants of the big reptiles of old.[7] Muir: "The Mountains of California." [8] "Outlines of Earth's History."[9] "The Two Majesties." This painting, by a great French realist, shows a lion getting home rather late, after his night out, stopping for a look at the rising sun; a thing with which, owing to his habits, he is not very familiar.[10] When you study French, if you want to read this book—like most French works on science it is very interesting—ask for Perrier's "Organization des Lumbricus Terrestris."[11] Just listen to this: "Worms," says Mr. Darwin, in that remarkable book of his, "are indifferent to very sharp objects, even rose thorns and small splinters of glass."[12] In the world of science, the ant goes by her Latin name, Formica, and the whole family is known as the FormicidÆ. To a Roman boy Formica simply meant "ant." Fusca is also Latin, and means "dark"; so you can see this part of the story is about a species of dark ant. As a matter of fact he is dark brown. [13] The scientific name for this particular kind of ant is Lasius niger.[14] A "bad" conductor is often a good thing, as you'll see by looking it up in the dictionary.[15] The whole story is told in the famous book, "The Mason Bee," by Henri Fabre. He was the teacher.[16] The boys were a great help. You ought to see what Fabre himself says about them in that famous book of his.[17] You've often noticed them, haven't you? Now read Fabre's wonderful book and see how much you didn't notice.[18] "And that's once too many," as the old farmer said; and we must agree with him when we think only of the damage they do.[19] One of my friends in the faculty of the University of Chicago tells me there are still a good many armadillos in Texas.[20] Isn't that the way a toad swallows an angleworm? Or how does he do it?[21] Observers find that flamingoes can be successfully approached by putting on the skin of a cow or a horse.[22] CHAPTER VI. [23] "Admire," in those days, meant "to wonder at."[24] By the way, the funny thing is that, while the bacteria that live on roots of the legumes are plants and not animals, most of them do move about. [25] Rev. H. S. McCook: "The Agricultural Ant of Texas."[26] Strictly speaking, I presume this was the same Apollo who carried the sun about in his chariot, and "Destroyer of Mice" was one of his many nicknames.[27] Here imagine Brer Bear putting on his specs and reading from the book.[28] That's the name of the Englishman I've just been quoting. He's a famous artist, but, like most cultivated Englishmen, can also write a good book when he feels like it. [29] Ingersoll: "Wild Neighbors." [30] Adapted from Langdon Smith. [31] Whittier's "Barefoot Boy." [32] "Pictured Knowledge." [33] "The Strange Adventures of a Pebble." [34]"As You Like It." [35] Martin: "Physiography of Wisconsin."

Transcriber's note:

In the scanned version of this book, there is apparently a printer error in the acknowledgments for sources of illustrations (page x) where the author refers to an illustration on page 125. There is no illustration on page 125 in the original text, so the hyperlink in this ebook has been connected to the closest illustration, (caption: This Must Be a Pleasant Day) which is on page 126 in the original text.

Another possible printer error occurred on page 52, where the phrase "branches and holes" appears in the original text. In an effort to relate the context of the phrase, this has been changed to "branches and boles" in this text.

Full-page illustrations have been moved to the nearest paragraph so as not to interrupt the flow of the text. Some page numbers are missing as a result.

Where appropriate, internal hyperlinks within the index link directly to the pertinent chapter heading, section, or illustration referred to on the referenced page. In cases where no appropriate heading was available on the page, the top of the referenced page is linked. In some cases illustrations have been moved from the original location in order to avoid breaks in paragraphs, and to place them more closely to the related paragraph. For example, the index reference for "Hornbills" (page 169) links directly to the illustration now located on page 170.

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