Naturalist.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 428, 21 July 1904, Page 2

Naturalist.

SUBSTITUTES FOE WHALEBONE, has foe man? yeaia M&KaPi eeu Btea d sl y increasing ia fejjgfejgg price. The record was reached not long ago, when two and a quarter tons were sold at Dundee at £BOOO per ton. The explanation of the steadily increasing scarcity of whalebone is that the bowhead and light whales, which supply it, have been hunted, like the American buffalo, until their practical extermination appears to be only a question of time. The bone is obtained only from the upper jaw of these marine monitors, the bowheadß yielding some 1600 or 18001bs. a whale, although an old hull whale will sometimes supply SOOOlbs, Prom the sperm whales, in the southern se39, no whalebone is secured. 'Whalebone is obitfiy used in the manufacture of fine corsets, in the stiffening oE the waists of expensive gowns, and for the centre and tips of high grade whips. It has also been extensively used in Great Britain in the manufacture of certain kisdn of brushes, but it is probable that itß late scarcity has largely curtailed its employment for this purpose, A trifling amount is used in surgical instruments. There are many cheaper substitutes for whalebone, which dealers in the ocean product declare to be much inferior to it. One of these is a material called feather, bone, which is made of the quills of fowls, split up and woven into a kind of tape. This has been on the market about nine years. Other substitutes for whalebone are celluloid, thin pieces of steel betweaa I two strips of celluloid, raw hide chemically j treated, and cattle horns Bteamed, flattened out and cut into strips. A WONDERFUL MANE. . Among the world's eighty million horses there is believed to be only one that has a mana eighteen feet long. Its owner always keeps the mane" braided and bound in a net, excipt on special occasions, 'The mane of hair jb so heavy that the upper part of the braid measures six inches in diameter. It requires an hour and a half to unbraid the great length, for the greatest care muafc be exercised lest' the strands become twisted, and, if they do, it takes a long, patient struggle to untangle them. The possessor of this mane is a dappled chest Hut, and seem* to enjoy having his hair combed and arranged as much as any girl. Maud, as the horse ia called, is now ten years old, weighs 1,00 0 pounds, and ia hands high. She was purchased when she was three years old. At that time she was in every way an ordinary horse, and it was not until a year later that her i mane showed unusual growing abilities. When ehe was six years old her mane was eight feet long, and it has been growing ever since. Once it was kept in a net for i ten months, and when, at the end of that time, it was taken down, it was measured, [ and found to be two feet longer than ] when it was put up The horse is cared i for and fed just as any other horse would ■ be, but she ia a remarkably small eater.

BEINDEEB AT HOME. American explorers have recently added to the general knowledge of the habits and species of reindeer, One explorer travelled to the interior of north-easter-most Siberia from Murkova, fifteen hun- , dred miles ncrth of Vladivcßtock. In the mountains he came across the tribes of Lamuts, who put their reindeer to all manner of uses, The animals are harnessed to sledges or are ridden horseback fashion, or are loaded up like pack camels. Other tribes, notably the Koryaks and Ohukehis, use their reindeer only in sledges. The reindeer of the latter tribe has also the advantage of being very good to eat. The animals fatten quickly and retain their fleßh. The wild reindeer and the tame are often bred together, and the offspring of such parents is very highly esteemed. The animals are trained for racing. They are fed on moss in the winter, but directly the spring brings the first green shoots of grass through the ground the reindeer leave their moss and feed on sprouts of the tundra, reed grasses, young leaves of low willows, and any kind o! grasses except the common variety. The reindeer are not so hardy as the sledge-dog of the Esquimaux, A good team of dogs will go on as long as they can stand, but the reindeer cannot endure a long journey. Three successive days of travel in Siberia are about all they can manage. Some of the reindeer are really only half broken, and revert to their old wild state at the first opportunity. It is impossible to milk them, and the man who wishes to use them as beasts of burden hss-ÜBU&Uy a lively time before him. 'CAPPING' CBQWS. The following account is given in •Country Life' of the way in which pilfering crows are dealt with by Italian agriculturists. A hole of a certain depth 'is dug in the ground, at the bottom of which is placed some decayed meat. A funnel-shaped wedge of paper is then inserted into the hole, the upper edge of the paper being coated with bird-lime. 'Maitre Corbeau'sees the food, descends to grasp it, and when he has firm hold of it rises up again. His head is, however, swathed with a paper cap, and in his mad endeavour to rid himself of it he circles up to extraordinary heights in the air, revolving constantly, anl at so rapid a paoe, that, soon overcome with giddiness, he falls to the earth, dead.

A JACKASS. An interesting anecdote of the Außtratralian kingfisher or • Laughing Jackass/ is told by a correspondent of a contemporary. The bird was taken from the nest, a hole in a tree, before he was properly fledged. 'I used to take him, when grown,' says the writer, 'to the stable, and put him on the edge of ;'a manger, whence ne would drop fatefully on the mice that infested the place. As soon as he got one, he would take it to a prominent stone in the cobble floor and smash it to a pulp before bolting it. He did tho same with everything, except his dinner of chopped meat, but once he got the worst of it. Our tame magpie had the habit of stealing anything bright; and besides by his pilfering ways he picked up so much food that he used often to bury the dinner supplied to him, only to have it dug up and swallowed by the laughing jackass as soon as his back was turned, One day ha buried with the meat a new pair of scissors, which were duly unearthed; bat, after five to ten minutes' hammering on tbe flagstone of underground tank, Jack has acquired nothing but a very sore poll from the return thump of the other arm of the scissors With a torrent of the very worst jackass-language he carried the scissors to the water-pipe of the tank and dropped them in, and 1 do not think that he ever meddled with the magpie's hoard again.