BUTTERNUT

297

BUZZARD

or benzine ; a board for spreading the wings until they are dried, and a tight covered box in which the specimens may be kept. Hodge in Nature Study and Life, recommends a home-made glass case, specimens glued. As is well known, butterflies and moths come from caterpillars and various other larvæ forms. The eggs are laid by the full-grown insects, but from them hatch worm-like larvæ instead of winged insects. After feeding and moulting, the larvæ in turn form cocoons or cases about themselves, from which they emerge as butterflies and moths. The larvæ are exceedingly varied; the common, woolly caterpillars, the measuring worms, forming a group of moths; the tomato worm, the milkweed worm are familiar examples. From the cabbage worm come the white butterflies that are so common. Some are destructive to crops, as the army-worm; some to fur and woolen fabrics, as the small, inconspicuous larvæ of the woolen moth; and some to trees, as the gypsy moth. (See Caterpillar.)

Among the butterflies of the United States the swallow-tailed variety (see Fig.) is the largest and most attractive. The common yellow and white varieties are the most numerous. The brownish milkweed butterflies are very well known. The promethea, polyphemus and luna moths are large and beautiful, as are also the moths of the silkworm. Some of the common, dark-colored butterflies (euvanessa antiopd) live through the winter in sheltered places in the middle and northern states and come out on warm days. Some of the large tropical butterflies are exceedingly brilliant in color, and measure upward of eight inches in spread of wings. The mouth parts of butterflies and moths are much changed. There are no biting jaws, but a long, sucking tube, coiled like a watch-spring when not in use, sucking nectar and honey from flowers. Some of the forms resemble leaves when the wings are folded over the back, and are protected from their enemies by this resemblance. See Scudder: Everyday Butterflies (1899) ; French: Butterflies and Moths of theE. U.S. (1806); Holland: The Butterfly Books, with colored plates but of moderate price : the beautiful and extensive monographs of Edwards and Scudder; Weed: Life-History of American Insects; Comstock: Insect-Life; and Crojin: Our Insect Friends and Foes.

Butternut or white walnut, is an American tree, growing to a height of 20 to 50 feet. It has numerous spreading branches and a smooth, ash-colored bark. It blossoms in May, and the fruit ripens in September and October. The fruit is an oblong nut, covered with a thin husk or hull, dark-brown when ripe. The kernel is sweet but oily. The bark and shells yield a dark-brown dye, and a poor quality

of sugar can be obtained from the sap. The half-grown fruit is also used for pickles. The timber is valuable, and is much used for cabinet-making, gun-stocks, etc.

Butterworth, Hezekiah (1839-1905), a well-known writer of juvenile books, and a poet of fair ability, was a native of Warren, R. I. Mr. Butterworth was a platform lecturer of repute, speaking at times upon education, at times on hymnology, but for the most part upon his travels, which included tours in Europe, South America Cuba and Canada. Among the works of Butterworth, most of them books for boys, may be mentioned several volumes of Zig-Zag Journeys, the Knight of Liberty, In the Boyhood of Lincoln, Great Composers, The Patriot Schoolmaster, Songs of History, Poems and Ballads and Boys of Greenway Court, together with several cantatas.

Buttons, useful articles of wear, used as coat and dress fasteners or as mere ornaments, and made of bone, wood, metal, jet, papier mache, mother of j pearl or glass. They are manufactured in various sizes, and sometimes covered with cloth or other material, and also made with and without shanks. Birmingham, England, is a great seat of their manufacture; while they are extensively turned out in factories in this country, in the different varieties of the button industry, there being to-day about 250 button-making factories in the United States, with a gross value-output of close upon $8,000,000. Ther process of manufacturing them is chiefly by stamping in the case of metal buttons; while the cast button is made in molds by pouring molten metal over them, the loop of wire which forms the shank being suspended in the process and pressed into the bottom of the button. Powdered steatite, saturated with soluble glass, is used for making shirt buttons in molds, the buttons being afterwards baked and polished. Other kinds of buttons are made of various composites, as well as of vegetable ivory and of the hoofs of cattle, boiled down and turned out in hydraulic presses of the various sizes and patterns.

Buzzard. The term is used in a loose way. The true buzzards include the hen-hawks and the common buzzard of Europe. The hen-hawks, embracing the red-tailed and rough-legged buzzards, are good representatives of the group as to general appearance and average size. The white-tailed buzzard of South America and the common fish-hawk or osprey are other varieties. The true buzzards are related to the eagles and falcons. The so-called turkey-buzzard belongs with the vultures, and not with the buzzards. In the south this bird is protected by law, both whites and negroes appreciating its services in removing decaying matter. Seen floating high up in the air, one forgets its habits and thinks only of the beauty of its motion;