How does a flying fish fly?

The fins of a flying fish act like glider wings when it leaps out of the water and sails through the air.

The fins of all fish help them to swim, but the fins of the flying fish also help it to fly.  The “wings” of the flying fish are its large, wing-like front fins.

It does not fly through the air by flapping its “wings” like a bird does.  It just glides through the air, sometimes for several hundred feet.

The flying fish gets into the air by swimming rapidly through the water.  Then it flips itself out of the water with its strong tail.

Once in the air, it spreads out the large fns at its sides and sails through the air much like a glider.  Sharp blows of its tail on the water’s surface give added power to its takeoff.

The flying fish can “fly” high enough to land on the decks of ships.  Schools of them will suddenly burst from the water, looking very much like they are playing.  But it is more likely they were frightened by a passing boat, or trying to escape larger fish.

Flying fish can be found in all warm seas.  They are deep blue on their backs and sides and silvery underneath.  Flying fishes may grow to be 18 inches long.   – Dick Rogers

How do birds chew their food?

Birds don’t have teeth to chew with.  They grind their food up in their gizzards.

If you own a pet canary or live near a chicken farm then you may already know that birds have a very strange way of chewing their food.  Birds must swallow their food whole because they have no teeth to chew with.

Instead, the work of “chewing” is done by the gizzard, a special part of the bird’s stomach that grinds the food up.

Some birds that eat seeds and other hard food swallow small stones and gravel.  These pass into the gizzard with the food.  The strong muscles of the gizzard grind the gravel and food together.

The stones and gravel crush the hard seeds and help the bird digest the food.  It is sometimes easy to tell the kind of food a bird eats by the shape of its bill.  They chisel bill of the woodpecker is used to dig insects out of wood.

The long, spear-like bill of the heron is ideal for jabbing fish and frogs. Finches and cardinals have short, strong bills for cracking hard shells of seeds.  And a hawk has a sharp hooked bill that is good for tearing apart the animals it catches for food. – Dick Rogers

Can dogs hear better than people?

Dogs can hear many sounds that our ears cannot hear.  If you have a pet dog, then you know what keen ears dogs have.  A dog will bark at approaching footsteps long before they are heard by his master.

It’s easy enough to hear noises.  You can hear with noises, loud noises, and in-between noises.

All sounds are produced in the same way.  Every kind of sound begins with the vibration of something.

When a bell is rung, the bell shimmers and shakes.  We say, that it “vibrates.”  When a lion roars, the voice cords in the lion’s throat vibrate.

These vibrations disturb the air and cause sound waves that travel outward like ripples in a pond, and when they reach your ear they make part of your ear vibrate, too.  That’s when you hear the sound.

But we cannot hear all the sounds around us.  Our ears can only hear certain sound vibrations.

Some animals, like the dog, can hear sound vibrations that humans cannot.  The “silent” dog whistle makes a sound vibration so high and so shrill that you can’t hear it – dogs can!

A cat can hear even higher sounds.  And the bat can hear the highest sounds of all. – Dick Rogers

What is a sea cow?

Sea cow are large water animals that look somewhat like seals.  “Sea cow” is the popular name for the manatee and dugong, which are sea animals that look somewhat like a large seals.

The sea cow is an awkward, slow-moving animal with no hind legs.  Its front legs are paddle-shaped and it has a broad, shovel-like tail.

A very large sea cow would weigh more than 1,500 pounds.   Sea cows prefer to live quietly in warm, shallow bays and coastal waters, and in certain large rivers.

They feed on water plants growing in the shallow water, and are often seen in small herds, browsing like real cattle grazing.

Since they are mammals, they must hold their breath under water, and come to the surface often to breathe.

The mother sea cow feeds her baby mild.  The baby called a calf, is born under water.

The mother pushes her newborn infant to the surface for its first breath of air.  She carries the little animal on her back so that it is above water, then dunks it repeatedly until it learns to breathe correctly. – Dick Rogers

How far can a kangaroo jump?

With the help of its strong hind legs, a kangaroo can leap 30 feet or more.

If you want to see a live kangaroo, the place to go is to the zoo for the “Land of the kangaroo” is the far-off country of Australia.

There are many kinds of kangaroos.  The smallest, called wallabies may be as small as a rabbit.

The biggest, called the “great” kangaroos, may grow 8 feet tall and weight nearly 200 pounds.

Most kangaroos have two short front paws in place of hands, and very long hind legs.

When they want to go anywhere in a hurry they leap and bound.  When moving at a slow pace, they move along in short hops.

The great kangaroo may travel at speeds of 30 miles an hour, and take jumps as long as 30 feet at a time.

The kangaroo uses its big, long tail to balance itself when jumping and to help push it along, as well as for a seat when it is resting.

Baby kangaroos are called “joeys.”  The baby rides inside its mother’s pouch until it is able to hop about by itself.

When frightened, the baby kangaroo quickly hops back into the mother’s pouch safety. – Dick Rogers

Where did the goat come from?

Domestic goats probably are descended from the wild Persian goats of Southeastern Asia.

The goats we see raised on many farms today probably were descended from the wild Persian goats that lived long ago on the high plateaus and rugged mountains of southern Asia.

Goats are closely related to sheep, and in many ways look like sheep.

One of the ways you may tell a goat from a sheep is by the long beard that grows on the chin of most goats.  The tail is shorter than a sheep’s and turns upward.  Goats do not grow as large as sheep.

Many people think that goats will eat anything.  It is true that goats will try to eat most things that other animals won’t.

But it isn’t true that they eat tin cans, as some people like to think.

They may, however, lick tin cans for the food they may contain and lick the glue on the backs of labels on the cans.

Goat’s milk and cheese made from it are important foods.  Probably more people throughout the world use goat’s milk than cow’s milk.

Goats are also raised for the long wool, which is woven into soft, warm cloth. – Dick Rogers

Why do we say the stork brings new babies?

The familiar legend that the stork brings new babies arises from the fact that the stork takes loving care of its own young.

When a new baby is born, people sometimes like to say they have had “a visit from the stork.”

The familiar legend that the stork brings new babies from heaven arises from the fact that storks are devoted parents.  They take loving care of their own young.

The only member of the stork family living in North America is the wood ibis, or wood stork, that lives in marshes along the southern coasts of the United States.

White storks live throughout Europe and Africa.  They are large, white birds with long, red legs and long necks.  They have no voice except for an occasional hiss.

They “speak” to one another by noisily rattling their long, red bills.

These are the storks that like to build large twig nests of chimneys and rooftops.

Many Dutch and German families build stork nests on rooftops and chimneys to attract storks.

A house that storks nest on is considered a lucky house.  Each spring, the birds often return to the same nests to raise their young. – Dick Rogers

How do bees sting?

A worker honeybee can only sting once in its life.

Most bees depend on their stingers, or stings, only as a means of self-defense and to protect the bee colony’s store of honey from robber bees and bears, as well as people.

A bee’s sting causes sudden pain and swelling.  You may know something about that already.

The stinger of a worker is located at the tail end of its body.  It has little barbs that turn inward.

So, when the bee sticks it into your skin, the barbs hold so tightly that the bee cannot pull it out.  The bee must tear itself away, leaving part of its body behind the stinger.

The bee dies soon after losing its stinger continue to pump the stinging fluid into the wound even after the bees has flown away.

If you are stung, gently scrape the stinger off immediately.  This reduces the amount of poison that enters the wound.

There are many kinds of bees, and many of them don’t sting at all.

Bumblebees and wasps can use their stingers over and over. – Dick Rogers

What is a pack rat?

A wood rat is often called a pack rat because it collects shiny objects for its nest.

A wood rat is sometimes called “pack rat” because of its curious habit of stealing and “packing off” shiny buttons, silverware, buckles, colored rocks, or any other small, bright object that catch its fancy.

Sometimes the pack rat will drop and leave a pebble or something equally useless he is carrying in order to “pack off” a more attractive button or coin.

This accounts for his often being called a “trade rat.”

A pack rat looks much like the common house rat, but it has cleaner habits.  It does not like to live in sewers and garbage dumps.

Instead, some pack rats live in the mountains and make their homes in bulky piles of sticks, which they build on rocky ledges, under trees or in branches.

Other pack rats live in the desert and build their  homes in clumps of cacti or cover their nests with cactus spines to keep enemies out.  A pack rat home may often tower as high as three or four feet.

Pack rats go out only at night to look for berries and seeds to eat, or any nice shiny objects that they find in your yard or camp site that they can “pack off.” – Dick Rogers

How do crickets sing?

Crickets chirp away merrily by rubbing their rough wings together. The cheerful songs that crickets chirp have inspired the popular expression “as merry as a cricket.”  Actually, a cricket does not “sing.”  A cricket fiddles its chirping note by rubbing its wings together.  

The wing edges are rough where they overlap.  The chirping noise is produced by rubbing the rough edges briskly together.  In this manner, the boy cricket fiddles courtship songs to a girl cricket.

His chirps also serve to warn away enemies.  Crickets have keen ears, which are located on their legs instead of their heads.

The little pale-green tree cricket has the clearest and most musical notes of all.  It lives high in trees and bushes, and is sometimes called a “thermometer cricket” because of its ability to report the temperature.  It chirps faster as the temperature rises.

If you live where there are crickets, you can find the temperature by counting the member of chirps a cricket makes in 15 seconds and adding 39 to the number. – Dick Rogers

What is an aardvark?

The aardvark is an African animal that feeds on ants and termites.

The aardvark is one of Africa’s strangest creatures.   Its strange name comes from the Old Dutch words meaning “earth pig.”  In some ways “earth Pig” is a good name, for its body is shaped much like a pig’s, and it spends most of the day curled up in its cool underground den.

But the aardvark is not like a pig in any other way.  An aardvark’s front feet are provided with powerful claws, which it uses to open termite and ant nests.

Then it pushes out its long tongue, which is like a flat, sticky worm more than a foot long.  It licks up the ants it  uncovers.  The ants stick to the aardvark’s sticky tongue as if it were flypaper, and the aardvark slurps the ants into its mouth.

Then it pokes its long tongue down into the winding tunnels to find more ants to eat.  It may eat many thousands of ants in one meal.

While it is eating, the aardvark’s thick, leathery skin protects it from the angry bites of the ants.

Although they look clumsy, aardvarks are not easy to catch, for in a few minutes they can dig a hole deep enough to escape from enemies. – Dick Rogers

How Long Have Cats Been Pets?

Cat

Cats are fun to keep as pets.  They make playful friendly companions.  The cat has been a favorite pet for a long, long time.

Many believe that the Egyptians tamed the first cats more than 4,000 years ago.  The Egyptian cat was one of the small wildcats found in North Africa.

Cats kept rats and mice from overrunning the great Egyptian grain storehouses.  Probably because they did such a good job in destroying these pests, the Egyptian worshipped the cat as a god.  An Egyptian who harmed a cat was punished.

By about the 9^th century, cats were helping to keep farms, shops and houses in Europe mouseless.  But the early Europeans associated cats with witches and evil spirits rather than a god, and many superstitions grew up around cats.   A black cat, for example, was a sign of bad luck.  To many people today,  a cat is just a nice pet to have around. - Dick Rogers

How Does A Turtle Get Into Its Shell?

Turtle

Everyone knows a turtle when he sees one.  Turtles are easy to recognize by their shells.  A baby turtle is born with a shell just the right size for its body.  As the turtle grows, its shell grows too.

The hard shells of most turtles are made up of a “bony box”  covered by horny plates.  A turtle can’t crawl out of its shell.  The shell makes up much of a turtle’s skeleton, and is firmly attached to its body.  

Turtles are well-protected by their shells.  Some turtles, such as the box turtle, can pull their heads, tails, and legs into their shell when frightened.  Then, very few enemies can get at them.

All turtles hatch from eggs.  The mother turtle lays the eggs in a hole she has dug.  She then leaves them.  The sun’s warmth hatches the eggs in about two months.  As soon as the baby turtles are hatched, they are on their own.  They must be able to tend for themselves. - Dick Rogers

What Is A Scorpion?

Scorpion

A scorpion is a small animal with a long and narrow tail that has a poisonous sting at the tip of it.

Scorpions are not insects.  They are related to spiders.  They live mostly in the warm, dry parts of the world and range in size from yellowish-colored half-inch creatures to shiny black scorpions seven inches long.

The scorpion is armed with powerful pincers, like the claws of a crab.  When the scorpion walks, it carries its tail arched over its back so that the sharp sting is in position to strike.

When the scorpion is ready to kill, it seizes its prey in its pincers and plunges its stinger into the creature it is holding.  The poison will kill the spiders and other small creatures on which the scorpion feeds.

Only the sting of certain kinds of scorpions, is dangerous to man. Oddly enough, the scorpion is unharmed by its own poison but two scorpions are likely to sting each other to death. - Dick Rogers

How Does A Frog Catch Its Food?

Frog

The frog catches insects and other small food animals on the sticky tip of its long tongue.  All summer long, the little frog squats, motionless, on the bank of a quiet pond or brook and watches for passing insects.

If a fly or cricket passes within reach, the frog’s long tongue will snap out like a flickering whip, so fast that you can scarcely follow the action.  The insect is caught on the sticky tip.  Just as quickly the frog flips its tongue back into its mouth.

The frog’s tongue is fastened at the front of its mouth, not the back, so that it can be flipped out a long way.  The frog’s mouth is equipped with feeble, practically useless teeth, which are present only in the upper jaw.  So it must live mostly on small creatures that it can swallow in one gulp.

Frogs also eat earthworms, spiders and minnows that they catch in the water.  Toads capture their food in much of same way frogs do.  Frogs and toads help man by eating many harmful insects to be found in gardens and on farms. - Dick Rogers