Naturalist

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 351, 29 January 1903, Page 7

Naturalist

WHAT A CANAEY EiTS. who are very dainty are q|gJ£ sometimes said to have only the 28£ i? appetite of a canary bird. But a scieHtific sceptic recently resolved to find ont just what the appetite of a canary is. He weighed a canary, and found it weighed 247 grains, or something over half an ounce. He also weighed all the food, and found that the bird eats thirty-times his weight every month, or actually more than his weight every day. SPEUCE MINING BEETLE. Government experts have reported on one of the moet destructive forest insects yet known. It is the spruce mining beetle, whose deadly borings in the bark and the interior are killing off great areas of spruce trees in Maine, rendering worthless billions of feet of lumber, valued at millions of dollars. The ravages of this pest are so damaging that if hot soon exterminated it is predicted that nearly all the virgin forests of spruce will be destroyed. Even at present it is estimated by lumbermen that from fifty to seventy per cent, of the. matured timber now standing in large tracts has been rendered commercially valueless by the beetle's work. '■■*■'. A LION.

Out of the many treasures discovered in the East by the German expedition oi. which Dr. Robert Koldeway is the leader, not one is of more interest than the lion recently unearthed in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar. It is fashioned of many-coloured glazed tiles, in the form of a mosaic, and is regarded as one of the choicest specimens of that kind of art that has ever been found. Lions of this type used to adorn the outer and inner walls of eastern palaces, and were also often placed in front of the outer doors, presumably because their grim aspect enabled him to perform admirably the duty of watchman. As Nebuchadnezzar reigned during the sixth century before Christ, this novel work of art must be at least 2,400 years old. It was in fragments when the German explorers found it, but all the pieces were recovered, and it was not difficult to place them in their original positions. SCENT IN DOGS. Dr. E imaneß submitted his favourite setter bitch to a most severe test. He collected eleven men about the place and directed them to walk close behind one another in Indian file, each man taking care to place his feet in the footprints of his predecessor, says the ' Gentleman's Magazine.' In this procession Dr, Romanes took th« load, while the gameKeeper brought up the rear. After walking 200 yards he turned to the right, fol-

lowed by five men, the remainder turning at an angle to the left, and walking as before, in Bingle file. The two parties, thus formed, then walked a considerable distance and concealed themselves. The bitch was then pat upon the common track of the whole party. She followed this track with rapidity, and at first overshot the point of divergence, where the bmd split into two parties; but, quickly reco'serinß the track, she, without any hesitation, chose the footsteps to the right. Y; e t m this experiment the footprints of Dr. Romanes in the common track were overlaid by eleven others, and in the track to the light by five others. Moreover, though it was the gamekeeper who brought up the rear and went to the left, and as in the absence of her master's track the bitch would always follow the kteptr's trail (the fact of his scent being second uppermost in the series), the animal's attention was never diverted from her master's trail; for to get to him was the object of her desire.