NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6678, 28 November 1908, Page 4

NATURE NOTES.

LIVES OF BEES. Queen boas live from three to five years, drones about six months, while the workers of the colony wear themBelvca out in a few months. It born m tho middle of ttto season for producing honey, the worknr’s _ life usually closes after a month's -iw-tivity. ABOUT THE FIREFLY. Tho light of tine brolly is caused by natural phosphorus produced by the insect. It is supposed to bo displayed or withheld at will. Only .tho females ■possess tho power of illumination and it is displayed for tho purpose of attracting the malta. SWALLOWS OP THE SEA. plying fiah, or "sea swallows," as they aro also culled because of their reseinblanco to swallows in flight, are truly •wonderful inhabitants of. the deep. On first seeing them one might reasonably suppose them to bo birds. In size tho flying fiah is about equal with tho herring. Some of them havo four wings, others only two. Tho fish clears tho water by tho aid of its tail, .keeping; its wings close till free of tho brine ; it then flies with a rapid motion till tho wings become dry. which generally happens in tho course of sixty yards. A touch of tho water enables it to fly on for about twenty yards further, and then tho hsh : returns ‘to tho sea exhausted. 1 SWALLOWS’ NESTING PLACE. A swallow built its nost in the centre of tho roof—on tho inside—of tho schoolroom at Holbeach St. Mark’s (Lincolnshire), whore the children are daily at work. Tho bird has brought up its young in this quaint place, and goes out of and in tho windows of tho school to got and giro food to its young, quite undisturbed by tho scholars. The winodws are left open at play-time and at night for tho turd 1 to fly in and out to attend its young. TEE WALRUS A HORSE. Testing animal origins or kinships by similarities of blood analysis, as suggested by Professor Nuttall, is bringing novel Wens into zoology. It shows that the hippopotamus is a pig, and tho walrus a borso, and confirms the long recognised lelafekanohip between birds and reptiles. But it does not connect man with monkeys, laid braces only slight kinship with tho anthropoids. WHERE TO STUDY INSECTS. An abbractivo foaturo of tho Zoological QjKxlon at Amsterdam is tho inscctarium, ■which contains numerous living insects ia glass cages, with plants and stones and other natural surroundings. Over each cage is a caso showing dead specimens in tho various stages of development. Nocturnal moths, tho common innqcbt' of Holland, are given special attenfaion. The insoot house in tho gardenia W the Zoological Society of London is aaothor interesting institution of a similar ohjaractoT. DANCING BIRDS. A opcodes of albatross found on the jM-.ru-) of Laysan, in the Hawaiian group, affords visitors much amusement. These lards sometimes-perform, in pairs, a kind Ifflf dance. Two will approach one an- - ether, nodding and making profound tboow, cross their bills, produce snapping ;and groaning sounds, rise on tboir toes, naS eat their breasts, and finally part uiflh more nodding and bowing, only to , otmio together again and repeal the per- • iiocniancG. Occasionally throe engage at onoo in this singular pastime.

SKELETON LEAVES. About seventy years ago a French botanist collected in Madagascar specimens of a singular plant called the lattice plant. There is little of interest m the inconspicuous flowers, but it would bo difficult to imagine anything more delicate ami beautiful than the loaves. Ihe plant grows under water near tno margins of running streams. The leaves are .supjKirlLxl on stalks which are long enough to bring them just under tho water, where they are spread out more or Ires horizontally. They have a strong. mid rib, but the remainder of the leaf is like a living fibrous skeleton formed by tho interlacing of sets of veins. CAN SPARROWS SING? Tho idea of a sparrow as a song-bird seems rather comical. Nevertheless, an enthusiastic bird-lover has succeeded, by skilful training, in transforming the sparrow’s chirp into something not unlike the warbling of the canary, lie commenced his experiments by placing four fledgling sparrows in a nost of amgiim canaries. Three of them died, but the fourth, although it had acquired the chirp of its parents, speedily dropped it under the influence of its musical companions, and before long began to acquire a succession of notes of the canary quality. PLAGUE OF BUTTERFLIES, From all the villages in the neighbourhood of Vienna a curious phenomenon is reported. Enormous swarms of cabbage butterflies, numbering many railline, aro passing in long drifts from time to tune. Tho swarms resemble a heavy snowfall. The passage .of each array tokos several hours. The peasants are exasperated by tho plague, as tho butterflies deposit millions of eggs on cabbages and other vegetables, of which tho greater part will be spoiled. The people do their best to destroy the eggs, but it is impossible to deal thoroughly with the huge masses, and a caterpillar plague is expected in the autumn. Some of tho swarms aro 30 miles broad. IN THE DEEPEST SEAS. Nothing more curious in tho make up of a fish can bo found than the provision nature makes for fishes that have to feel or see their way at great depths.. Some of tho most curious fish in this respect are found in tho Caribbean Sea, where deep soundings bring up creatures with uncanny optics. Among them is a fish which has two convex lenses in place of eyes, and these lenses are very bright of golden hue, and gleam in the sunlight. Another fish, a large one, has eyes that grow on stems sticking out from the head several inches. Another has an eye on a stem half a yard long; the stem is flexible, ami waves in any direction desired by the fish.