How do bees make honey?

It is a mistake to image that bees get readymade honey from flowers.  The honeybees make honey from nectar, the sweet juice found in blossoms.

The reason bees make honey is that it serves them as food.

To make honey, the honey bee sips the sweet nectar from blossoms with its long tongue, and stores it in its honey stomach.

Inside its honey stomach the bee adds special chemicals to the nectar.  The bee puts the treated nectar into a wax cell in the honeycomb, where it ripens into honey.

The bees that gather nectar also gather pollen from the blossoms.  Pollen, too, makes good bee food.

The dusty pollen from the blossoms brushes off upon the bee’s hairy body.  The bee scrapes it off with its legs and moistens it with a little nectar to make a clump, and then pushes it into pollen baskets on its back legs.

Bee pollen is sometimes called “bee bread,” and with pollen bees help plants bear good fruit and seeds.  They help the plants by carrying pollen from one flower to another of the same kind.-Dick Rogers

How do hummingbirds hum?

Usually, the only sound of a hummingbird is the whirring or humming sound it makes with its rapidly beating wings.

A hummingbird flaps its wings nearly 60 times in the time it takes you to blink your eyes.  The wings move so fast that only a misty outline can be seen.  They make the air vibrate, and we hear a humming sound.

The delicate and brightly colored hummingbird usually measures less than four inches from bill to tail and weights about as much as a copper penny.

No other bird can fly in so many ways as the hummingbird.  It can quickly dart up, down, backward, forward or it can hover nearly motionless in the air like a helicopter.

The active little bird must eat every 10 to 15 minutes it is awake to maintain its tiring pace. It flits from flower to flower and hovers above each blossom.  

It sips the sweet nectar through its long, tube-shaped tongue and picks up any small insect that it may find in the flower. Most, but not all hummingbirds are tiny.  The largest is the giant hummer.  It grows nearly 9 inches long.-Dick Rogers

What is a lynx?

Lynxes are wild members of the cat family. They can easily be distinguished from the other cats by their stumpy tails, long legs, and long tufts of hair on their pointed ears.

Primarily a forest animal, the North American Lynx Lives mainly in the great Canadian forests from Labrador to Alaska.

If you live in the United States south of Canada you may know another kind of lynx better by the name of “bobcat” or “wildcat.”

Bobcats are found running wild in many parts of the United States and Mexico.  They are smaller than their northern cousins and have shorter ear tuffs.  Bobcats get their name from their “bobbed” tails.

In winter, the big feet of the northern lynx serve as snowshoes, allowing it to run swiftly over the snow. The rabbits on which the lynx preys try to escape notice by lying perfectly still.  The lynx, unable to tell exactly where the rabbit is, emits a piercing howl.

The timid rabbit, startled by the fearful sound cannot help jumping; thereby disclosing its hiding place to the crafty lynx.-Dick Rogers

What is a leech?

Leeches are bloodsuckers which belong to the worm family.  Most leaches live in water, where they attach themselves to fishes, animals and even to people. Some swamps and ponds contain leeches, worms that can cling to fishes, animals and ever to persons.

Leeches may grow from ½-inch to 4 or more inches long.  Like many worms, they have soft, flat bodies divided into segments. On the leech’s head is a sucker like mouth equipped with three saw-shaped teeth.  A second sucker is located at the hind end of the leech.

The leech attaches itself to the host by means of its suckers.  Then, with the mouth sucker, it sucks up the blood through three little holes which it makes in the skin with its sharp teeth.

In a single meal a leech may eat three times its own weight in blood.  One meal may fast several months. Not all leeches suck blood.  Some feed instead on worms and other small animals that live in the water. 

During medieval times bloodsucking leeches were used by physicians to draw blood from patients in attempts to cure them. - Dick Rogers

What was a saber-toothed tiger?

Saber-toothed tigers were big cats with long, saber like teeth. In the Old Stone Age, there lived a bit cat, more ferocious in appearance than any known today.

This was the saber-toothed tiger.  It was not really a tiger.  But it resembled a tiger and had two long teeth curved like swords called sabers—which accounts for its name of “saber-toothed tiger.”

Sometimes its teeth were as long as 8 inches and could easily slash the thick skins of the large mammoths upon which it preyed.

Perhaps where you live today, saber-toothed tigers stalked their prey long ago.  They prowled most parts of the world and found plenty to eat in North America.

The last of them died out thousands of years ago. Some people think they became extinct because their teeth grew so long that they could no longer open their mouths wide enough to eat.

But it is more likely that they died out when the big animals upon which they depended for food became scarce. - Dick Rogers

How does a turtle get into its shell?

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 quetzal?

The quetzal is a brilliantly plumed bird of Mexico and Central America, and sacred bird of the Aztec.

The quetzal is pronounced ket SAHL.  The male, hardly larger than a dove, has glittering, emerald green-and-crimson feathers, with graceful tail streamers over three feet long.

This inactive bird sits quietly for long periods on a perch in the dense forest, darling off only to capture insects.  The ancient Mayas and Aztecs found the quetzal so impressive that no one was allowed to harm it.

They used the long tail feathers (plucked without harm to the living bird) as symbol of authority and religion.  Only chiefs and priests were allowed to wear them.

Today the quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala, where it appears on postage stamps, coins and on the state seal.  Guatemala is sometimes called the “Land of the Quetzal.” - Dick Rogers

What are musk oxen?

Musk oxen are shaggy-haired mammals which resemble a small buffalo.  They line in the arctic barrens of North America.

The musk ox, is an odd-looking animal that resembles a small, shaggy-haired buffalo. A fully grown musk ox may be little over four feet high at the shoulders and weight 700 pounds.

The musk ox is not really as ox.  It is a relative of goats and antelopes. The first part of the animal’s name is also inaccurate – it has no musky odor, as was once believed.

In the wild, must oxen are found on the treeless tundra and snowfields of Canada and Greenland. They travel in small herds.  When threatened by wolves that, prey upon them, the herd forms a protective circle around the young.  No wise wolf would attack such a fortress of tossing honors!

Once united almost to extinction, the now-protected musk oxen are being raised much like sheep for the silky wool, called “quiviut” that grows underneath their shaggy coats. Garments made of quiviut are very warm and tight in weight. - Dick Rogers

How did the secretary bird get its name?

The quills on the secretary bird’s head make it look like an old-time secretary with quill pens stuck behind his ears. The odd-looking secretary bird is a South African bird of prey.

The reason for this bird’s name is easy to guess because of the tuft of long, stiff feathers that stick out from the back of its head.  The tuffs resemble the quill pens that old-time secretaries and clerks once carried behind their ears.

The secretary bird has a long neck and very long legs.  It is about four-feet tall and its plumage is gray and black.  It usually prefers to run instead of fly and is the only bird of prey that hunts on foot.

An inhabitant of Africa’s grassy plains, the secretary bird feeds chiefly on snakes, which it kills by stamping on the snake with its strong  feet and biting it with its hooked bill.

In their native home, farmers often tame secretary birds and keep them to kill rats and mice.  Another name for the secretary bird is “serpent eagle.” - Dick Rogers

What is a Yak?

Yak

The yak is the shaggy-coated wild ox of Asia. There are not many places that are less pleasant to live in than the high, windswept plateaus of Tibet.

The winters are bitterly cold and food is scarce.  Yet this bleak land, in which few other animals can endure, is the home of the yak.  The wild yak may stand over 6 feet high at the shoulders and weigh more than 1,000 pounds.

Its thick, woolly hair may grow so long that it may even drag on the ground.  Its heavy coat is good protection against the cold. Despite its large size, the yak is as sure-footed as a goat on the sleep mountain-sides.

Some yaks have been tamed.  Tibetan people depend on the yak for their meal, drink their pink milk, and weave their long hair into ropes and cloth and use yaks for pack animals.  

Domesticated yaks are sometimes called “grunting oxen” because they grunt when overloaded. - Dick Rogers

How did the pack rat get its name?

A wood rat is popularly called “pack rat”  because of its habit of stealing and “packing off” shiny objects, such as buttons, bottle tops or other bright objects with which to decorate its nest.

Sometimes the rat will trade a pebble or something equally useless it is carrying for a more attractive ring or coin.  For this reason it is also called a “trade rat.”

The wood rat is native to the Western world.  It looks much like the common house rat, but its tail is furry, instead of naked and scaly.

Unlike most rats, the wood rat does not live in sewers and garbage dumps.  It makes its home mostly in wooded country and on rocky hillside and builds its nest in a large heap of twigs.

Its home may tower three to four feet high and resemble a badly-made beaver lodge.  The pack rat goes out only at night to look for berries and other plant food, or any nice, shiny object it can “pack off” to its nest. - Dick Rogers

What are barnacles?

A barnacle is a short salt water shellfish that attaches itself to ship hulls, rocks, docks and other underwater objects. Anyone who goes to the seashore is likely to see barnacles.

A barnacle hatches from an egg as a tiny, free-swimming creature.  But soon it fastens itself to any convenient object, such as the hull of a ship, pilling, rock, or even a passing whale.

Once attached, a hard, limy shell grows around the barnacle. The barnacles stay for the rest of its life in the place where it settles.

It eats by waving its feathery legs through an opening in the shell to pull tiny sea creatures and plants into its mouth.  The shell has a lid that can be closed in case of danger.

To sailors the barnacle is a trouble.  Masses of them clinging to a ship’s hull reduce the ship’s speed.  The only way to remove barnacles’ shell is to put the ship in dry dock and scrape its bottom. - Dick Rogers

Why does a peacock raise its feathers?

The handsome peacock spreads his feathers into a gorgeous fan when he courts the female, or peahen. A peacock is a bird with beautiful, rainbow-colored feathers.  Its range is really “peafowl”.

The male bird is called a peacock.  It is about as large as a turkey and has a long train or greenish feathers brilliantly spotted with bronze blue, green and gold.  A crest adorns his head.

The feather which grow from the back (and not the tail), are spread out into a gorgeous fan as the bird struts back and forth, “proud as a peacock ,” for all to see.

His majestic parade of flashing colors is actually a courtship display to charm the female, or peahen, and persuade her that he is the most handsome peacock.  The peahen is less brightly colored and has no train of feathers.

As you might imagine, the peacock’s magnificent plumage has made it a favorite parts of the world.  A peacock’s call is so loud it can be heard far away.  It sounds like a human screaming. - Dick Rogers

What is a cassowary?

The cassowary is a large, odd-looking bird that lives in the thick forest of Australia and New Guinea. A fully grown cassowary may be five feet tall and weigh two pounds or more.

Like the African relative the ostrich, the cassowary cannot fly.  All that remains of its flight feathers are a few spiny quilts, but it can sprint at speeds of at nearly 40 miles per hour for its long powerful legs, when it danger.

A bony helmet on its featherless head  helps it butt through the heavy underbrush.  Tough bristle like feathers that cover it body serve as a form of armor as it crashes headlong the forest.

A threatened cassowary can be a dangerous foe.  All three of the toes on each foot are armed with knife-sharp claws which can be a deadly weapon in a flight.

Usually, these shy birds are  heard more often than soon in their dense forest home.  They call by snorting and bellowing. - Dick Rogers

What is a crayfish?

Crayfish are small fresh-water shell fish that look like miniature lobsters.

If you have ever played by the bank of stream or pond, you may have seen a small animal that looked like a miniature lobster living at the bottom of the water near the shore. What you saw was a fresh water shell like known as a crayfish.

It is easy to see that the crayfish, sometimes called crawfish or crawdad, and the saltwater lobster are close relatives.  Both have 10 legs.  The front legs end in large pincers.  These pincers are used to catch any prey that comes near,  as well as for defense.

The four other pairs of legs are used for walking. The crayfish escapes from danger by swimming backward through the water with quick flips of its fan-like tail.

Like the lobster, the crayfish hatches from an egg.  A hard shell covers its soft body like a suit of armor. Several times before it is fully grown, the crayfish must shed its outgrown shell and grow a new and larger one. - Dick Rogers

What is a starfish?

A starfish is a star-shaped animal that lives on the bottom of the sea in bays and shallow water.  Starfish eat clams and other shellfish by pulling the shells apart and pushing their stomach into the shells to digest the food.

Starfish have a peculiar way of eating.  The common starfish feeds mostly on shellfish, it especially likes to eat clams, oysters, and mussels.

To open a clam shell, the starfish wraps its arms around it.  Under each arm are rows of tube like feet that stick to the shell like suction cups.  The starfish then pulls the two section of the clam’s shell assist with its powerful arms.

A starfish’s mouth is under its body.  As soon as a starfish has pulled open the clam, it opens its mouth, turns it stomach inside out and pushes it inside the clam’s shell and digests the clam’s soft body.

Once the meat is finished, the starfish pulls back its stomach, leaving only an empty clam shell behind.  Most starfish have five arms, but some have seven arms or more.  If a starfish loose an arm, it can grow another. - Dick Rogers