NATURE NOTES.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 1797, 18 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

• . THE POCKET GOPHER. The pocket gopher is a most curious and interesting lodeht. It lives in North and Central America, and is fitted with peculiar cheek pouches, for storing food,- which open from the outside. The gophers live entirely underground, using their incisor ; teeth as picks oh the hard soil. The ■ loosened earth is pushed out by pressing with-their chests and fore feet. ■-'"','. AUSTRALIAN NATIVE BEAR. .The koala or Australian native :. bear is confined to''.'South-East Australia, and makes its home in the ■' loftiest giim-trees, on the leaves and flowers of which it feeds. It is a very sedentary and slow little ani-r-mal, yet makes a delightfully droll • household pet; but they can only be kept in Australia successfully, because they can there be supplied ' ,wit_i the native gum leaves. Al- - though of peaceful temperament gen- ■■- erally speaking, it has sudden fits of • rage when teased excessively or dis- ' appointed in love. The vocal duet then emitted by-the rival suitors is remarkably weird; but it is soon the picture of placidity again. The koala is about thirty inches long, has one cub at a birth; which it carries on its back till half-grown. A BIRD THAT COUNTED. A curious and instructive story was related at a lecture on bird photo- . grapby by Mr W. Bickerton. He . had determined to photograph the wary stone curlew mesting on the Cumberland fells. A hiding-place near the nest was fixed up for him, and in this he was wholly concealed. He approached the scene of operations, with a couple of friends, who . saw him safely into his hiding-place, . and ostentatiously departed. The . unsuspecting bird, who* had been watching from a safe distance, returned, but, startled by the noise of his shutter, soon went away. On the following day he took only one friend . with him, and the same process was ' repeated. The bird, returned, but was evidently doubtful and nervous, - and on the third day he waited concealed for hours after his friend had departed, but the bird, fully alive to what was going on, never came near the nest. It had learned in the /. course of three days that one from two left one. THE OSTRICH DANCE. Curious movements like those of a dance are made by ostriches. First one bird will dart forward and begin the circular movements; another will follow, and then another and another, until the entire flock is careering round in the mad whirl! The dance is seen at its best only when a considerable number of birds are together. Although it is often performed by a few only, it is never so intense or prolonged as when the flock is large. Chicks only a month or two old engage in the amusement, although they are rather clumsy and sometimes stumble, particularly when '•'" they are reversing. As they grow older they learn to make several complete tiirns with great facility. The ' South Africans ! declare that this ' playful activity is of great practical " value to the bird. The wild ostrich. can protect itself against lions and ■/- ' leopards only by flight. When chased the ostrich, starting to run, twists - and turns in curious fashion, and jerks so quickly from side to side that no beast is likely to have time to set itself for a spring in one direction before the bird .is off in another. ' THE ALASKAN -MOSQUITO. ; Alaskan mosquitos have earned themselves the reputation of being >n'■unmitigated nuisance. They come , Ifco life about the middle of May, before the,ground is thawed out, and Jjrhile many feefc of ice still cover ihe lakes and all but the swiftest rivers. Stagnant, sun-heated water is not in the least necessary. They V breed in the glaciers wherever a bit Sof earth or manure has melted a little pool. Their wrigglers are seen 5n running ice water. By the beginning of June it is uncomfortable to sleep without protection; and from that time on until September, when the first frosts have benumbed them, especialy dnring the warm, rainy season, of July and August, they become a never-ceasing scourge, swarming in thousands. The Alaskan mosquito is small; brown, silent, arid very much in earnest. He never sings a warning, but, says a sufferer, comes in a- bee-line with his probe and gets into action. RABBITS ON STRIKE. A carious fact has been noted about rabbits. In a large warren it falls to the lot of the biggest and strongest rabbits to do the digging and burrowing necessary to keep their underground homo in repair. About brice in every two years it is declared that these animals come out •, . on strike and refuse to make the passages and burrows. After a time they return to work, and things move along smothly in the bunnies' home. The small yellow ant which does the work for the black ants also goes on strike sometimes, but when ,the black ants stop their food supply it usually ends the trouble, unless the yellow ants .leave and form a colony of their own. A CURIOUS TREE. , A curious tree, whose roots grow j 1 out of the trunk above the ground, j

•■ t i i Is found on the island of Cereazn, m the East Indies. The tiee is a species of fig treo, and tho roots stait to grow out at a distance of ten feet from the giound Theso v tiecs giow to a height of 50ft or 60ft. THE STICKLEBACK. The- stickleback, the denizen of sti earns, makes a most interesting study. He is easily recognised by the spikes or stickles on his back. These vary in number ,the common variety being two-spiked and the sea variety fifteen-spiked. The sea-water resident is not so common, though quite similar in habits to the freshwater one. The stickleback fights I fiercely, especially when jealous. To make up for this he has more domestic virtues than most fish, for he , builds beautiful nests and shows a distinct interest in his family, or in the eggs from which the said family is to hatch.