BROWNIES THE GIRL GUIDES RANGERS

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19759, 14 December 1935, Page 20 (Supplement)

BROWNIES THE GIRL GUIDES RANGERS

THAT MIGHTY BIG IDEAL. You near a lot of Guiding-, And on alinost every side You’ll see a shining- “Tenderfoot,” And say, “Ah! There’s a Guide!” But though we wear our “Tenderfoots” As so many of us do, I wonder, Is there anyone A real Guide through and through. For the Sisterhood of Guiding Has a mighty hlg Ideal, And one that Is so great, that . It Is difficult to feel. Yet though each one of us may feel A mediocre Guide, There’s always consolation In The knowledge that we’ve tried. And though our Ideal Is so big That It Is hard to reach, We’ve learnt a lot from Guiding And It has much more to teach. s So let’s Jog along together, What gay comrades wo shall feel While we all or us are striving For that mighty big Ideal! WHAT ANIMAL CAN STAND ON ITS HEAD? The above question might be answered by “the animal called ‘hoy’,” hut the answer required Is “the elephant.” No animal In' the world has legs like an elephant’s. It can stand on either Its fore feet or its hind I'cet: moreover, it can stand on the two feet of either side. And It is so amazingly strong that It can' stand on its head. Of elephants* we have hut two species left in the world, the African nml the Asiatic, hut time was when they roamed over Europe, Asia and Africa. African elephants are bigger than Asiatic, with grander tusks, larger ears and rougher skins. The. hacks are slightly hollowed. The other elephants have arched hacks, and their ears are small, while the females have but small tusks. In the Arrlcan elephants, both sexes are tusked. A big elephant measures ten feet high at tlio shoulder and weighs six or seven tons, yet It can support Us mountain of flesh on Its head. A tusk may he ten feet In length and weigh about 115 lbs., though there are records of tusks weighing over 200 lbs. The value or the ivory is about £125 evvt. The elephant sets an example to Guides and Scouts, for In spite of its vast hulk and weight it can walk quite noiselessly over dry sticks and dead loaves, on its iiuliarubber-Itko pads. The grown elephant Is always on Its legs, and probably In a wild state never lies down—they seem to spend the night standing up, swaying and shulTllng. As a rule an elephant walks; it can neither trot, canter or gallop, but can shuffle along at some eight miles an hour to about llfteerr. Nothing can lie more terrifying .than the charge of an elephant, when It comes hurtling upon you, with ears spread at right angles like sails, and screaming like a steam-engine. But elephants are as a rule timid, and prefer to fly rather than attack. BROWNIE GAME. Magic Kingdoms.—Each Brownie lies flat on the grass with her arms stretched out In front or her, the ilnger-tips Joined to enclose a little circle of grass. This is her own Magic Kingdom and she must keep very quiet and still, and watch everything that passes through It or that Is growing in It. This is an admirable game arter one has been rollicking. Everything seen must be afterwards told to Brown Owl.

WHAT ANIMALS WEIGH. Naturalists delight In measuring and weighing the wild creatures, and thereby have collected many remarkable racts. The eighteenth century naturalist, Gilbert White, set the-- example by putting the little harvest mouse on his scales, when he was giving the world the first notes about this midget: he found that from nose to tail they were two Inches and a quarter long, and their tails were Just two inches long, while two or them were exactly the weight of a halfpenny. He found that a full grown house-mouse weighs one ounce. \ye are told that there are whales that

weigh 150 tons. An elephant may weigh nve or six tons. The heaviest bird is the king penguin, which weighs over 40 lbs., six times as much as an eagle. This difference may be accounted for by the eagle flying In air, and the penguin “flying ” In water, through which, thanks to Its weight, It can move at some firteen miles an hour. In Insects, weight is reduced to vanishing point, as we may judge by the calculation that eighty thousand fleas weigh but one ounce. Bees are much heavier: two hundred go to the ounce, but even the queen bee, with her burden or eggs, weighs less than a gram. The queen will lay as many as 4000 eggs In one day. It Is because Insects are so -light that they dare not attempt to drink from the surface of water, -but quench their thirst by sipping from damp surfaces, for were they to wet themselves they would have to lift many times their own weight. The insect going for a drink is like a man reaching over a precipice for food: It is risking Its life. But It is an advantage or lightness that many insects can walk or slide on the taut surface-film or water. The common gnat Is sometimes In dangor of drowning by reason of its weight pressing through thA surface-illm, yet It manages to deposit its eggs In that Him, where they remain quite dry. One hlrd may almost be said to walk on water, the tropical jacana, a ploverlike bird with long legs', and enormously long, thin toes, which allow It to run, as no other bird could, over the weed-grown surface -of water.