NATURE’S BOOK.

Northland Age, Volume IV, Issue 42, 22 June 1908, Page 7

NATURE’S BOOK.

THE "DEATH-WATCH. ’ 1

The insect so styled by some is a small beetle which has a very powerful jqint in its neck, and calls its mate by tapping with its head on the wall or on any surface where it may happen to be located. The noise is similar to that which may be produced by tapping with the finger-nails on a table, anc| the insect can frequently be made to answer such taps.

A SNAKE THAT STOLE EGGS. A Plymouth Rock hen belonging to a farmer qf West Finley, near Washington, made her nest at the bottom of an old haystack. Each day the hen was heard to cackle, but no eggs could be found. The other day a commotion was heard at the haystack. The hen was found savagely fighting a huge black snake. The snake was killed, and dissection showed it had swallowed, without cracking the shells, a dozen eggs.

THE GHOST PLANT. The ghost plant of Western Oregon is now very rare, but specimens are still sometimes secured. It was made much of by the Indians of an older day, and is sometimes knowp as the Indian pipe plant. It is said the Indians believed that it had great remedial qualities, and mads from it a lqtion which they consider- , ed curative of diseases of the eye. It is a tall, wax-like plant, about eight inches high, and its bloom resembles a waxen cup. AFFECTIONATE FISHES. An eminent naturalist assures us that the paired species of rays exhibit the most affectionate attachment for each other, and are said to remain mated for life, and several instances have been reported where when one of the couple has been captured, its mate remained in the vicinity apparently seeking it, and at the end of a couple of days was found floating dead, having apparently died of a broken heart. They have great affection for their young. THE CROCODILE’S JAWS. Once when in Africa Sir Samuel White Baker had the metall of a large hook, the thickness of ordinary telegraph wire, completely bent together, the barbed point being pressed tightly against the shank and rendered useless. This compression was caused by the snap of the crocodile's jaws when sei'ing a live duck which he had used as bait, the hook being , fastened beneath the wing. On an- | other occasion he found a fish weigh- . ing seventy pounds bitten clean : through, as if divided by a knife. This, again, was the work of the snapping jaws of a crocodile. A WHITE-TAILED STARLING. INSECT INSTINCT. In a tunnel bored by her in l suitable wood the carpenter bee deposits her eggs. As these are placed in a number of isolated cells, and the necessary labour occupies many days, the grub in the innermost cell is hatched out first, and a way for its escape without injuring the rest is provided by means of a back door or entranco to the long gallery. MOTHS THAT MADE MISCHIEF, j An American entomologist had sent to him for examination a few specimens of the gipsy mqth not many years ago. and by accident permitted 6ome half dozen of the inr sects to escape. These increased and multiplied so alarmingly that the moths wrought enormous damage to vegetation over a wide area. It has cost one State quite £IOO,OOO already in efforts to keep the mischievous insect under, and it is calculated tltat a quarter as much more will have to bo spent in preventing the moths from travelling outside the districts they have devastated.