BREEZES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 21 January 1933, Page 4

BREEZES

Sarcastic! Magistrate: The traffic policeman says you got sarcastic with him. Mr Nagger: But I didn’t intend to be. He talked to me like my wife does, and I forgot myself and answered “'Yes, my dear.” * * * *

The “Charming” Method. The story of how a blue-tongued lizard, eommont o the bush of Cronulla, “charmed” a dove with the object of making a meal of it, is told by Mr Pickering, an officer of the Petersham Fire Brigade (New South Wales). On a visit to his cottage at South Cronulla, Mr Pickering .took a bush track to Gunnamatta Bay, and happened across a dove lying on the track. At 'first he thoughtt he bird was wounded, but closer examination showed that a large blue-tongued lizard two feet away had apparently hypnotised it. With its mouth wide open and body inflated, the lizard was apparently about to seize the dove, but Mr Pickering saved it. Gripping the lizard by the head, Mr Pickering turned it away from the dove, which immediately flew off. It is known that snakes take a big toll of the bird life in the bush by this • • charming ’ ’ method.

A Golfer’s Dog. Golfing stories come into much the same category as those of fishing. But here is one, vouched for by a writer in a London paper, that deserves to be true! A Great Yarmouth dentist, J. Tiffin, always takes his clog with him when he is playing golf, and invariably the terrier runs to his master’s ball afetr the drive. That helps, but it seems that the dog can be even more useful. Recently the dog’s owner sliced hsis drive into the rough; his opponent reached the green. When the players arrived at the green the dog was there, but so was his master’s ball; the opponent’s ball wa9 in the rough. The dog had changed them! Next, please! The name of the place from which the story told in the preceding paragraph comes should be Great Yarnmouth!

Oldest Woman Driver. The 85-year-old Duchess d’Uzcs claims to be the doyenne of motor car drivers in France, and possibly in the world. She obtained her license in 1898. A French newspaper has established, after a careful investigation, that no woman in France has been driving vehicles as long as she. “I received my license after my first drive,” said the duchesse, “and I have never driven without a license. My first iDelahaye is in the Transport Museum at Compiegne. What an honour! But how much more amusing it was to drive four horses that were alive!

The duchesse, in spite oi! her age, is still the active president of the Women’s Automobile Club, and often takes part in motor rallies. Her love of horses, however, is at least as great as her interest in motor cars. She has her own pack of stag-hounds, with which until cjuite recently she used t > go cut regularly.

Difficult Quarry. White butterflies are looked upon by gradeners in the same light that the locust is viewed overseas. The depredations on vegetables, which the insects have committed in northern districts, have caused gardeners to fear for their own crops to such an extent that the sight of the white wings causes immediate reprisals. The gardener sets out in pursuit, but 'he butterfly is a wary foe, and leads his pursuer in a race round the garden, just keeping out of reach. To enliven proceedings ic alights for an instant, and when the gardener swoops down for a capture finds that he has started some more pests from their browsing grounds in the hearts of his cabbages. Fully resolved to clear his domain, the gardener goes for an insect spray, but upon his return finds that the butterflies are disporting themselves next door. One gardener has discovered an effective method of dealing with the insects. He has attached a fine spray to his hose, and when several appear he turns the water on them. The spray wets their wings, causing them to fall to the ground, where they are quickly killed.

This method is stated to be efficient in a small area, but the large landholder will have to depend upon the parasite which has been specially imported from England to check the activities of the butterflies.