OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2691, 11 October 1905, Page 80

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

♦ ■ — FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. [Conducted by Magisteb, to whom nil i»*>mmunicatioru> must be addressed.} < MY MAIL BAG. We are getting along famously. This morning I have an interesting letter from , "Ornithologist," a note from "Eggyatherer " (which contains one of those .little tiature observations 60, useful to be made Acquainted with), a query from "Enthusiastic," and some weather observations from jkfr Murray. These I give first, and follow them with another section of the article on Spiders. ' i Dear " Magister," — In answer to the query ' from " Schoolboy " as to the bird he heard, fa is almost certain that it was the piercing, irhizzms cry of the long-tailed cuckoo, as that "" Bird is ouite common in the slimmer time, and tean. be heard almost anywhere in the outskirts — -pf the bush during "the months ■'of "November," J f>ecember,,and January.- The call is a peculiar -, ' aerating, harsh one with an' ascending series of fcotes, if one^ could, wiite it, like whiz— z— z—z- - >— zt; the "last consonant -being censiderabiy ■ liigher in., the scale than the itrst.'Thej bird ican -generally be heard all through the night, smd often before rain,. but, as rain is compara'4fciv«ly. common in our'- part of the- world,- thart^ .is not saying very rnuch.^Khe only "other b'ircte'^ Jwdfh a cry at all -like -it are the green- linnet, Twhich never calls at night; and the laughing « Wl of whekau, Seeloglaux albifacies, which Is too rare to bd "in it "' as a competitor now-a-fiays. There is another bird called the rain bird "lEstrelata inexpectata, one of our petrels, sncl r»Br »B Captain Hutton naively says, "It is known ;'*s the rain bird in many .places, as it is often •heard at- night calling as it flies to the sea, and He New Zealand rain often falls at ~%ht, and Ithe weather is fine in the morning. However, 'eeveral other petrels do the- same thing, and <Jie cry is not limited to this petrel." If . will turn up, the files of ths -TOtago Daily Times or Witness in the nearest library and look through the first week of. STanuary, 1904,- he will find a good deal about - *he cuckoo. Now, as to your kind remarks Vbout the bronze cuckoo \ memo. I sent to • irou. I forgot to ask" your readers to carefully >/atch the birds, and tell me if they ever see & pair together, or if they are not often in Jittle flocks of four or "five. I know Mr Fenfcrick,' of the Times, mentioned this in his •>iotes of a trip to Manapouri about 1903. If Readers will carefully,, read the article before * - teierred to on the long-tailed cuckoo they will know exactly what I want to find out. With Regard to the " Eely" letter from another gentle--fcuan in your notes, I think Dr Tapper is too .ijood an" 'observer to mistake lampreys, or ibloodsuckers, as we used to call them, for >eJs. For another thing, lampreys were never iscmmon enough to be found in thousands — feels.always were and are still. By the way, I liope you will thank " Dinornis " for his "Jplendid account of the breeding of eels and lor -the notes of the-- superstitions and fallacies >n 'the subject.^l am, etc., JDunedm, Sept. 29. " Ornithologist, j Bear " Magister,"-*-As _the vernal equinox is: ■ tost pastel thought that I would write to ton and give you ah account of the weather ■for at letfst-a summary) we have- had this last ' "two weeks,. for it'has been an^extended equinox ■ lasting all that- time. For the week ending •September 24, there was lain- on every day. >Some of the days were rough, cold, thick, and xainy, -wind from S.W. to S.E., barometer unsteady, ranging from 29.37 to 29.82. There /was very little variation in the thermometer, )th« lowest being 40deg, the highest 58deg. On f>me of the days in the last week of Septfeniftr the weather was worse. The 25th was fine, 'lie sky, but cloudy at times, with a fresh toorth-eabt breeze, bar. 29.5. By noon of the §6th the barqmeter had dropped to 28.90, with peavy rain from N.W, At 2.15 p.m., at the ■fcne the Mararoa was leaving, there was a _ Very rough and heavy shower from the S.W. \LI noon of the 27th there was a shower of 1 Jarge hailstones, followed by rough rain from ' *he S.W., the barometer by night up to 29.40. Ct was amusing during the hailstorm to watch . £ko school girls catching the hailstones ia ■their aprons. The 28th was changeable, it icing cold, thick, and rainy at times; bar. " -J89.21, and unsteady. There were snow showers „ in the night time, and a heavy coating of snow 'on Flagstaff Hill. Friday morning: It lefine, all that day (29) to night time, -,Yrhen~ it came on thick, rough, and rainy from the S.W. ; bar. 29.67. The last day of the - 'Jftwmth was fine all day,- the barometer at noon '■£9.75, the highest for the week, but falling "- -again ; the -thermometer at the same date and ftirue, 64dcg, and in the sun 74deg, the highest £or the month. The lowest for the week was •BSdeg at 9 p^.m. oh the 27th. The wind on the afternoon of the 30th came away from the £*.E. D. Mubbay. . A HINT FOR EGG-HUNTERS. -"When- bird-nesting always take with you tome clean water (say a small bottleful). (Then before touching a nest to take out ' >n egg wet your fingei-3. If this is done )sven the shiest bird will not leave its nest. Again, if there is only one egg in a nest, ilo not take it ; and further, I very seldom

(almost neTer) took more than one egg from any nest. — Egg-gatherer. South Dunedin, Sept. 27, 1905. Deaar " Magister." — Taking advantage of your kind invitation to the young, I now send you this. My companion and I were walking along G-reen Island beach, -when "we noticed t.wo strange birds. At all events they -were strange to us. When the wings were folded they seemed a little smaller than a pigeon; but whsn flying they appeared larger. With folded ■wings the backs seemed to be jet black, from the top of their heads to the tip of their tails, but with the wings otherwise part of the tails •wns seen to be white. Their breasts were white; a- white streak branching from the white of the breast, running almost to the ba-ck portion of the neck, and almost disfiguring the blackness of the back. The • yellowish, red beaks were extremely long, the j birds emitting from them £heir cry, which I was similar to a shrieked " Wee." They must I have had claws, as the toe portion of the foot sunk deeply into the sand. Although we followed them along the beach we never got nearer than 20 yards from them. Perhaps you cculd give the name of the^iirds. — I am, etc., . Enthusiastic. TRAFALGAR DAY. I could hardly .believe my *. eyes when I reafd -yesterday that in one of our schools it; is- proposed to give a -whole HALFHOLIDAY" on the, 2oth. I hope the committee will not think it - has been overgenerous, and will reduce the "holiday to 30 minutes"!'- A half-holiday for the centenary., o£. Trafalgar! . Shades of Nelson! j I shan't say any more. If I were the boys i of that school I should ' take a "petition j right through Caversham, and get every man jack to sign for a "WHOLE holiday. A half-holiday, indeed! THE SPIDER. Another interesting point is in the relative j size of the sexes. Generally, in the higher | animals, -the male is larger than the female. The male has to protect his mate. In the lower animals the male is often much smaller than the female. The disproportion between male and female is carried to an extreme with some garden spiders. Sir John Lubbock has again put it very definitely. If we imagine the male spider to- be equivalent to a man 6ft hi^n and 1601b' weight, then his mate would be a giantess 80ft high and 200,0001b (90tons) in weight. The male, though very small, yet Las one advantage— he is- very brightly coloured, and is very conspicuous. This brings us to another phase of colouration in Nature. Protective colouration and warning colouration have already been referred to. The bright colouration of the male is a. different matter. It is generally ascribed to the female choosing the brightest and most at- j tractive of the males when, in spring, they display their brilliant spots, etc. _ ] The spider known as the web builder is the female, and the male has to be very careful in aproaching his insatiable mate, or he may form part of'the big supper she takes. The spider, though a soft-bodied and apparently: "defenceless- animal, yet has two 'gifts' that', have helped' -'it to become one of the most widely spread of animals." Though spiders are non-ppisouous to vs, yet each' lias a pair of poison claws, and poison enough to kill the email animals it preys on. Of course, with the one exception previously noted. The second point of advantage is the power of spinning a thread and using it to capture food, or, in case of emergency, to escape f p om danger. . , There are all stages of civilisation in spiders, according to the use made of the web, from the wandering hunting ground spider, which uses it only to make an egg bag, to the highly-civilised, luxuriojslyliving, geometric web builder. The web is used by all spiders to form a cocoon to hold the eggs. Having made the young comfortable, - the silk could well be used to make the nest secure and snug by lining it with silk. Then, having a comfortable nest, a little turret could be built round the top of the hole to keep out water or enemies' (turret spicier). Then a lid could be made to fit the hole. The next step would be a lid hinged to tl c side (trap-door spider). A further advance wotild be to have a little snare above the hole. Then a silk web could be built in a corner or amongst grass, and lastly, the thread could fc© u.--ed to make the geometric web, which has been called a '■beautiful example of unconscious art, and very effective as a snare." In the meantime the thread is being uaod as a suspension bridge by spiders who wish to cross over spaces. ' Others, by floating off a long -piece of thread, have a balloon, and so travel through the air as successfully as some insects. Many travel long distances by this means. The " gossamer on the grass is the threads used by spida/s, mostly young ones, who have been dispersed to new places while we have bt-cn asleep. » "Another spider, finding that her hairy body did not get wet in the water, acquired the habit c-f climbing down plants, takinff

a bubble of air with her. Soon she learnt to imprison some air in threads down below, and go there when she required fresh air to breathe. She learnt to make a little acorn-shaped cvp — a "diving bell" — to hold the air, and spent some time filling this -with air, and so enabling her to live safely below. So we have many xises of the silk: — (1) To form an egg cocoon ; (2) to line the hole ; (3) to form a turret ; (4) to form a trap-door for defence ; (5) to make a web — a snare ; (6) to make a suspension bridge; (7) to make a balloon or parachute; (8) to make a diving bell. Ihe thread is a thing of wonder, and will be dealt with more fully when dealing with the spinnerets.

In dealing with th© structurej we can contrast it with the mosquito, an insect already dealt with. The mosquito is divided into three parts. — head, chest, body. The spider is divided into two — (1) the headchest, (2) the body. The limbs of the spider have no c^se relation to the limbs of a mosquito. On the head the mosquito has feelers and three pairs of jaws. On the chest wings and three pairs of legs. Last week I put in this column a selection or two on " Mother," and I am told they were appreciated very much," so I add two more this week. ■ THE "GOODEST" MOTHER. Evening was falling cold and dark, And people hurried along the way; As if they were longing soon to mark Their own home candle's cheering ray. Before me toiled, in the whirling wind, A woman with bundles great and small, And after her tugged a step behind The bundle liked best of all. A dear little rolly-polly boy, With rosy cheeks and a jacket blue ; Latighing and chattering, full of joy, And here's what he said — I tell you true f " You're the goodtest mother that ever was," A voice as clear as a forest bird's, AncS I'm sure the glad- young heart had cause To utter the sweet of the lovely words. Perhaps the woman had worked all day Washing'or scrubbing, perhaps she sewed; I knew by her weary footfall's way That life for her was an uphill road. But here was a comfort, children dear ; Think what a comfort you might give To the very best friend you can have here — The mother dear in whose house you live. If in a while you'd stop and say, In task or play, for a moment's pause, And tell her in a sweet and winning way: " You're the goodest mother that ever was."Habgaeet E. Songsteb. MY MOTHER. (Selected) The sweetest face in all the world to me, Set in a frame of shining silver hair, With eyes whose language is fidelity — This is my mother. Is she not most fair? Ten little heads have found their sweetest rest -.Upon the pillow of her loving breast; The world! is wide, yet nowhere does it keep So safe a haven, so secure a rest. 'Tis counted something great to be a queen, And bend a kingdom to a woman's will; To be a- mother sxich as mine, I ween, 'Is something, and more noble .still.