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Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 139, 8 March 1929, Page 12

"Why do cats dislike ulta-violet rays?”, asked a “Morning Post’-’ correspondent, - y who states that his tabby cat had a favourite seat by the window, and deserted - it when the old window glass was replaced by a glass which allowed thg passage,, of the ultra-violet rays. The explanation probably is to be found in the fact that the cat objected to the alteration in beg favourite sleeping place. There is, however, in animal literature a curious parallel. The explorer La Houble describes how. on his travels, he happened upon a shepherd boy and asked him'whether it was midday. The boy looked towards the sun, but it was hidden behind clouds. He ran to the nearest courtyard and returned with a cat under his arm. “Look,” he said, “it is not the twelfth hour,” and. moving back the cat's eyelids, he showed ■ that they had not reached their maximum . contraction. The cat. La Houble ex«,:plains, did not lilts the ordeal, but was. obviously used to it.■ He adds that, after further f'-ials.’ he and‘his friends reposed faith in the infallibility of-the test. Cats in China were especially collected for this purpose. La Houble states. As midday -•cached their eyes became smaller, reaching the limit of their contraction at midday in the form of a small streak or horn. After midday the pupils opened, until in the middle of the night they became full circles.. Every child, he adds, acquired great skill in ,making use of the cat as a timepiece. -t No one who had seen them together in large numbers could say that New. Zealand had not evolved a type of tall, broad-shouldered, light-flanked boy, said , the Hon. H. Atmore in New Plymouth (reports the “News”). Measurement! had proved that the New. Zealand boy of 15 was the heaviest for his age in the world, but this was not strange, considering . the ■wonderful pioneers from UwhotQ they had v <