Here and There.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 6 November 1911, Page 4

Here and There.

HEADLESS BUTTERFLIES. According to a French authority two biologists 'have produced butterflics without heads. Thoy carefully removed the head of a number of larvae and most of them survived the operation, continuing to develop into tho pupa stage; hut only some few underwent the. last change and emerged as normal 'butterflies —minus tho head. PAVEMENT OF THE FUTURE A leather pavement has stood a successful trial of a year near Birmingham. The material is leather waste, shredded almost to pulp, and treated with bitumen and tar. ' The road is not affected by heavy wheels. gives_ off little dust, resists wear, and it not influenced by weather. Its noiseless and springiness gives a. novel kind of comfort to horses and drivers. HOT BATHS FOR PLANTS. , Plants arc given warm baths, according to a German method, by placing slabs across the pots, and then inverting over the 'heated water, so that the tf>ps are submerged, the roots and earth remaining dry! The effects are extraordinary. One side of a double-branched syringa .received a. bath at 95deg. F/about tho middle of .November, and was in full bloom at Christmas, the other branch remaining bare. Pussywillows showed even more striking results. After half of a forked twig had been given a .hot bath tho lower end was placed in water of ordinary temperature for about nine days, when the side that had had the hath was covered with catkins,, tho other half being unchanged. HABITS OF ANIMALS. A fly on a window pane will crawl up to the top, fly back to the bottom, and crawl up again. This order is seldom reversed. It is on record that a fly crawled up a win-dow-pane thirty?two times, returning each time to the same place. Hens always scratch for food with the sun behind them, the season being that the rays show up minute particles. A blind hen will pick up grain and not miss a kernel. Cats seldom lie with their feet to tho fire, and usually Jie on tho left side. Dogs lie with their forepaws to the fire. A mouse will ignore a food supply sufficient for a meal and run great risks to nibble at a large sunply. Goldfish usually swim round a. globe to the right. They can be , taught to take a fly out of the hand in six weeks. Sheep spend more time grazing than do cattle wand hor- . . ses, and they eat for 12 hours out of 24. ITNENESS OF SPIDERS' THREADS. The cultivation for scientific use of certain species of spiders, solely tor tho fine threads thoy weave, has an important bearing upon astronomy. Nb substitute for the spider's thread .has yet been found for bisecting the screw of the micrometer, used for determining tho positions and motions of the stars wot only because of the remarkable fineness of the threads are they valuable,, hut because- of their durable . qualities. The .threads of certain - spiders raised for astronomical purposes withstand changes in temper- - ature, so that .often in measuring sunspots they.j.aro uninjured when the .beat is so great that the lenses or the micrometer eyepieces are cracked. These spider lines are only one-fifth to' one-seventh of a thousandth of an inch in diameter compared with which the threads of tile silkworm are large and clumsy