Killing Ants With Cannon.

Otago Witness, Issue 2572, 8 July 1903, Page 80

Killing Ants With Cannon.

Artillery charged with grape-shot has been employed to destroy great fortresses which the termites, or warrior ants, have made in many tropical countries. ' In South Africa the termites work enormous havoc. They live in a republic of their own, and some of them have wings. I The workmen, the soldiers, and the queens, I however, have none. ' The workmen construct their buildings, the soldiers defend the colony and keep order, and the females, or queens, are cared foi by all the others. These become, in point of fact, mere egg-laying machines which have to remain tied to one spot. Their nesting-homes are often 20ft high and pyramidal in shape. Cattle climb upon them without crushing them. A dozen men can find shelter in -some of their chambers, and native hunters often lie in wait inside them when out after wild animals. The ants construct galleries which are as wide ac the bore of a large cannon, and which run three or four feet underground. I The nests are said to be 500 times as high as the -ant's body, and it has been estimated that if we built our houses on the same scale, they would be four times as high as the Pyramids of Egypt.

A Baby Condor.— ill' G. L. Stillwell, of Ran Jose* California, who has just returned from a trip to Santa Barbara County, has brought back with him a young bird of the giant condor family, the largest species of bird in existence. The bird was captured after a most thrilling experience, but not before the parent bird, which measured 15ft from tip to tip of wings was killed. The young bird has never learned to fly, and its wings are not yet strong enough to bear the weight of its body. It measures 10ft from tip to tip, and is developing well in captivity. Its home is one of the wildest spots in Santa Barbara County, a ciag in the, heart of the mountains.

A Pet Rhinoceros. — The wife of the Governor ol North Borneo has a pet that few people will envy her. The Governor's house is near a jungle, and out of this there strayed one morning a baby rhinoceros. Captured as a curiosity, he soon became tame, and now refuses to return to his wilds. • Sixteen quarts of milk a day is what this pet requires, and on it he thrives and grows fat. He does' not look much like the full-grown rhinoceros, and might be mistaken for a curious sort of hog, were it not for his single horn. He is devoted to his mistress, and follows her about like her dog; but this is a tiait that cannot be indulged very long, as he has lately taken to growing, and will .soon be too cumbersome for a civilised establishment.

— Tho manufacture of some of tho £mos6 French tapesiry la so felow that it is taicl an artwt cannot produce more than a charter of a. square yard in -a year.