Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 6, 11 February 1909, Page 235

Science Siftings

BY 'VOLT

Apples Breathe. That apples breathe is _the startling- discovery made by Professor F. W. Morse," the director of a scientific experiment station in New Hampshire. 'He finds that when in storage they give out carbonic acid gas and moisture as animals do, and that it is because of this respiration that they become softer and lose weight. It appears that the colder the place in which the apples .are stored the slighter are " the chemical changes produced by their breathing. - The practical moral for the fruit-grower is, therefore, that they should be put in ' cold storage ' as soon as possible after they are picked. According to Professor Morse, exposure to a high temperature for a few days will greatly lesson their ' keeping ' power. - r A Voracious Spider. Far up in the mountains of Ceylon there is a spider that spins & web like bright yellowish silk, the central net of which is sft- in diameter, while the supporting lines, or guys, as they are called, measure sometimes 10ft or 12ft. The spider seldom bites or stings, but should anyone try to catch him, bite he will, and, though not venomous, his jaws are as powerful as a bird's beak. The bodies of these spiders are very handsomely decorated, being bright gold or scarlet underneath, while the upper part is covered -with the most delicate slate-colored fur. So strong are the webs that birds the size of larks are frequently caught therein, and even the small but powerful scalp lizard falls a victim. A writer says that he has often sat and watched the yelloAv monster — measuring, when waiting for his prey, with his legs stretched out, fully 6in — striding across the middle of the net, and noted the rapid manner in which he winds his stout threads round the unfortunate captives. He usually throws the coils about the head until the wretched victim is first blinded and then choked. In many unfrequented dark nooks of the jungle you come across skeletons of small birds caught in those terrible snares. Eyes of the Savage. The scientists are always delving into the mysteries t f nature, many times on lines that the average man never thinks of. Here, for example, is that question of the keen " eyesight of the savage. We have all heard how much keener his eyes are than those of civilised men, and we have accepted tlie statement as a fact without stopping to think how and why it is true. But a party of scientists from Cambridge, England, who have been qii an anthropological expedition, to the Torres Strait, tell us as a result of their investigations that the keen sight of the native is due to his knowing what to look for. They found that members of their party could see and distinguish objects as far as the natires could after they had become familiar with the surroundings. A q*ueer illustration of this principle is given in the western Indian's power to distinguish the sex of a deer at .a distance so great that the antlers cannot be seen. It is not only sight that gives the Indian that power, but his knowledge of the peculiar gait of the male deer . " -,-..! The Habits of Sea Birds. A visit to the well-known sea birds' island of Lawrence Bocks is described by Mr. Mattingley in the Victorian . Naturalist, and the article contains a number of very careful and valuable observations about the habits of the dove-like prion (which is usually called the whale-bird because as soon as a whale appeared the prion appears by the thousand out of the blue in order to be present at the banquet); the fairy penguin; the mutton bird or shorttailed petrel; and the gannet. The gannets' nests are mound-shaped, with a dished hollow in the middle to receive the one egg which the bird lays. The nest needs to be dished so as to give a purchase to the bird's feet, and it also n«eds to be firmly fixed to its rocky foundation since it is built on the most exposed part of the cliffs in a region swept by the fiercest gales of the Southern Ocean. The birds deal with the gale by sitting face towind so as to offer as little resistance as possible to it, with their webbed feet flattened on the outside slope of their nest, while their strong; stiff tail feathers are propped against tlie inside ridge of their saucer-shaped nest. Thus an excellent leverage is< obtained, and apparently the bird holds the nest and the nest holds the bird against tho wind's assault.- Mr. Mattingley says .that most of the brooding birds' tails were very much worn by using them in this manner, a 3 they hold on and protect their young with the bent feathers.