. Sharp eyes; a rambler's calendar of fifty-two weeks among insects, birds and flowers . white teeth exposed, and their double-barrelled gunsloaded to the muzzle, and ready to shoot whenever thewhim should take them. These little sharp-shooters I have shown in my illus-tration. They are the double-barrelled guns of thewitch-hazel—the ripe pods of last years flowers—no\r 2O4 SHARP EYES opening everywhere in the woods among the yellowblossoms. Each pod contains two long black shiningseeds of bony hardness. The pod splits in half, expos-ing the two white-tipped seeds. The edges of thehorny cells
. Sharp eyes; a rambler's calendar of fifty-two weeks among insects, birds and flowers . white teeth exposed, and their double-barrelled gunsloaded to the muzzle, and ready to shoot whenever thewhim should take them. These little sharp-shooters I have shown in my illus-tration. They are the double-barrelled guns of thewitch-hazel—the ripe pods of last years flowers—no\r 2O4 SHARP EYES opening everywhere in the woods among the yellowblossoms. Each pod contains two long black shiningseeds of bony hardness. The pod splits in half, expos-ing the two white-tipped seeds. The edges of thehorny cells contract against the sides of the seed, andfinally expel it with surprising force, sometimes to thedistance of over forty feet. If we sit quiet on a sunnyday in a witch-hazel copse we may hear the dry leavesrattle with the continual bombardment. A branch ofthe unopened pods brought home and placed in thevase upon the mantel will afford considerable amuse-ment as the seeds rattle about the room, singling outtheir whimsical targets, or, perhaps, carrom around fromwalls and ceiling,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
