Naturalist.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 387, 8 October 1903, Page 7

Naturalist.

AMAZING APJEIITES.

to say, the sp.ettto of a whale is phenomtn*). His chief ifISK diet consists of jellyfish. He has simply to open his mouth and paddle along leisurely in order to take in jellyfish by the wagonload. Sach is the method adopted by the whalebone whale. The sporm whale, on the contrary, captures huge squids, weighing often several tons. Like his brother the whalebone whale, he must be constantly on the look out for fo d. Otherwise he would starve. As many as fourteen seals have been taken from a thirty-ftot « killer.' Other fishes of enormoußappetit6B are not uncommon. Tie blue-fish, for example, thrives on sardines and other small fish! Assuming that one bin* fish eats ten small fish a day, it has been figured that it requires ten thousand million sardines to feed the one .thousand bluefish on the American coasts every Bummer. Most curious of all eaters is the hydra—a strange creature that can be turned inßide out without impairing its appetite or its power to eat. *LY SILLING AS A SPORT. Fly-killing is the most popular game in many English towns. This will be news to Englishmen. In France, however, it is well known. A French sporting paper publishes the exact paniculars of this popular English pastime 1' Here they are -■— • Teams are chosen", and each player is allotted a certain space is which to kill flies. The man who has the biggest bag' at the end of an afternoon wins a substantial money prize. Tie record up to the present/ continues this veracious chronicle,' is 149 flies in an hour. Seven have fallen at one swoop. The 'sj ortsman' with the next best only accounted for 101 The French writer &mits to mention that flies are caught in the mouth. THE HOMING PIGEON. The reason why a homer more than any other pigeon is able to find its way back to its home seems never to have been satisfactorily settled. Ttat it does so, however, there is no doubt, and Mr H. Hendrick, j nn., in as article in the latest number of 'Amimal Life,' gives some particulars of the speed which homers attain. On one occasion a pigeon, he tells, flew for nearly twenty-seven hours at an average speed of 607 yards per minute, or ten yards per second. Greater speeds for short distances are frequently obtained At a concourse of fanciers in Paris the rate of Bpeed per minute of the first ten pigeons was 1020 yards; while a ' fly' from Lille to Paris was at the rate of 1378 per minute! SEMI-RELIGIOUS BIRDS. The fallowing lovely advertisement appeared in the New York «Evening Post':— ' Bullfinches.—Whistling many songs of stately hymnal measures and ragtime dashes, including Maiden Be Mine, Bridal Wreath, America, How Can I Leave Thee? Let's Be Merry, Comrades, Where the Blue Waters Sparkle. These are the most tame, affectionate, and beautiful birds. Prices reduced to .£5 'The Campanini Holden Canary is a great song canary, very soft and varied trills, bells, and flute notes. Pikes from <£2, &c., &c. 'Large variety semi-religious talking parrotß, the profane one only ,£4,0. Any one writing for a list of his oaths, please enclose at least 4/. Bir<?s eent everywhere by express. 1