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Birds
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A bird doesn’t receive a
shock when it lands on an electric wire because it lands on only one wire. Electricity takes the path of least
resistance—it flows through some materials much more easily than others.
It is simply easier for the electricity to
continue along the metal wire than it is for it to detour through the
bird. If the bird landed on two wires
with different voltages, however, the electricity would flow through the bird
from the wire with the higher voltage to the wire with the lower voltage, and
the bird would be electrocuted.–Dick Rogers
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Bird
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Most birds are well suited for
flying. First of all, a bird has
feathers and wings, and powerful muscles in its breast with which to flat them. A bird’s body is streamlined to other little
air resistance. Its bones are light in weight. Many of them are hollow and
filled with air.
When a bird beats its wings downward, it produces a lifting
force that holds the bird in the air. As
the wings flap downward to flight, the long wingtip feathers twist and push
against the air, moving the bird forward.
The bird uses its tail feathers as a brake and as a rudder for steering.
– Dick Rogers
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Owl
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Owls are creatures that few people
ever see. This is because most owls,
like many animals, are nocturnal in their habits—they are most active at
night. Most owls hunt at night because
they feed on mice and other small creatures that are also nocturnal. The owl is well equipped for night
hunting.
It has large eyes and can see well in
the dark. Its ears are so sensitive that it can hear a mouse scamper over the
ground many yards away. And its feathers
are so soft that there is hardly a sounds as it swoops down to capture its prey
in its talons.– Dick Rogers
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| Insects |
If you could look inside an insect’s
body, you wouldn’t see any bones. But insects do have skeletons! Insects differ from creatures with
back-bones, such as humans, horses, dogs and fishes. These animals have hard skeletons inside
their bodies. Your skeleton is made of bone, and the rest of your body is
shaped around it.
An insect’s skeleton though, is a
tough outer shell. It provides support
and protection for the insect’s soft insides.
Some insects, especially beetles have hard, heavy skeletons. Others, such as butterflies have light, thin
skeleton. – Dick Rogers
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| Elephant and Mice |
It is amusing to think that a tiny
mouse can frighten the huge elephant.
The reason, supposedly, is that a mouse could crawl into the elephant’s
trunk and this might suffocate the elephant.
The truth is, that although mice are often seen running about in an
elephant stall, the elephant shows no fear of them at all.
Since the elephant’s nose is a double
barreled tube, it would be impossible for a mouse to suffocate an elephant by
crawling into its trunk. But should a
mouse ever try, the elephant would simply blow the mouse out with a might
sneeze. – Dick Rogers
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| Spider Web |
Spiders build their webs to trap flies
and other insects for food. An insect is
unable to escape once it has become caught in the spider’s web. The more the insect struggles, the more it
becomes entangled in the sticky threads. A spider’s silk is strong enough that
most insects cannot break through it.
A web-spinning spider does not become
caught in its own web. When walking across
the web, it grasps the silk threads with special hooked claw on each foot. The spider also secretes an oily liquid onto
its legs and feet that prevent the sticky silk from sticking to its body. – Dick Rogers
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| Piranha Fish |
In South American rivers swims one of
the world’s most dangerous fish—the piranha.
This savage fish is only ten or so inches long, but its teeth are so
sharp and its jaws are so strong.
It can chop a piece of flesh from an animal
or a human as neatly as a razor. Piranhas often travel in schools of several
hundred.
Their diet usually consists of other
fish. But if an animal happens to be in
the water near a school of hungry piranhas, they attack and devour it
instantly. Animals as bit as a horse
have been eaten down to a bare skeleton in only a few minutes. – Dick Rogers
