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° BE Sar gh Lh led PRR Ft Mallard Ducks Are Such Fun There comes a time every summer when the ducks start roaming, and I think I've fig- ured out what goes on. While the hen ducks are on their nests, which with mallards are always some distance from the water, the drakes keep lonely vigil in the pond, and do a lot of talk- ing among themselves. They no' doubt brag some, and I think they outline things they would do if they were single and could get away. ; They begin to moult their spring foliage and sprout more. somber suitings for the fall trade. Their small quacks seem to be lining up some secret venture when they get looking decent again--which they may justify as a weward to their heng for the long weeks spent gazing at the narrow scenery around the hidden nests. i The debut of a clutch of mal- lard ducklings is an orderly and magnificent event. The eggs pip and the babies come out, and presently the old lady moves off the nest and stands akimbo to one side. The little ones, usually elght or nine, move over under her and the first night is spent in a frenzy of excitement. The little ones peep and push, and dispute among themselves, = the old hen stands faith- ful watch lest something hap- pen. Any movement within miles such ag slamming a milk-room door or yanking the cover off a jar of peanut butter, causes the mother to assume the atomic bomb has landed, and since no- body blew the .whistle she must take over." She swells her fea- thers out, thinking it makes her gruesome, and should that not epel any and all invaders she hisses like Milton's evil char- acter at the temptation, This is directed at the rosebuds, or the moon--or anything handy--and it she gets the slightest move- ment in return she will fly at it. A goose or swan can make you change your mind, but a duck is all fury and no great amount of slam. Her whirlwind sally will astonish ladies walking by, and' sometimes cause them to ""¢limb the flagpole, but old hands ike myself merely reach down and grab the silly thing by the bill and hold her to one side while we count the little ones. "The little ones are at this time mee putting in a hesitation period between the hatch and the dunk. Nature seems to have fashioned the routine so a day elapses for them to digest their beestings and get their legs lim- bered before they get wet. After the stated interlude, the mother gazes about and satisfies herself. that the world has be- come depopulated and nobody \ HOTI --It wasn't really. 185 de- grees in Beverly, Mass.,, when this' picture was taken. It just felt that way. Mechanics in- vestigating the trouble found what perspiring residents sus: pected: Electrical wiring had overheated, ~ is around to watch what she does. The intellectual capacity of ducks is such that twenty people may be lined up on the porch to watch, but the duck can't see them. She runs her neck out along the ground until it is twice as long as it is, hisses some, and then makes a series of guttural quacks which - alarm her offspring and alert them to the grand processional, They are about to go to the pond. A duck can't walk without stepping on everything, and at this point the mother becomes even worse, and herds the pro= duct of her love under her so she can keep clipping them with her great big flat feet. If the pond is 75 feet away, the mother will plot a devious route of about a quarter of a mile. She always comes out on the far side of the pond, and gazes furtively from the weeds to see if the coast is clear, Having ar- rived, she now lunges into the drink with wild quacks of proud parenthood, and alerts every hawk, owl, fox, raccoon, and pussycat within the township. She threshes around and splashes water, and the little ones join her. - Then the flotilla, about as de- lightful a sight as you'll ever see, swims across to join the other ducks. The drakes whack and the other ducks whark, and all the little ones peep, and it is a gay reunion. The aloneness of incubation is over, and the dramatic appearance of another clutch, staged better than Ring- ling could do it, has brought an end to the act. The old duck will hiss a little, and acts' pos- sessive, but most of the big front ic gone. The pomp and ceremony are over, It doesn't take long for baby ducks to add on the poundage, and before many days they are big enough to fend for them- selves. They don't always come, now, when Mother calls, and all the clutches mingle indis- criminately,. When I fill the hopper each morning they almost smother me, At first the drakes push the little ones from the feed, but the little ones soon get wise to this and, getting bigger, crawl under the old man and upend him. This makes him quack, and I enjoy watching it. Then comes this seasonal urge to go on a trip. Mallards, no matter how many years they've been domesticated, "can fly as well as their wild cousins. The difference is that they don't. Now and then a stray dog will put them into flight, but otherwise they stay put. Blacks, canvas- backs, teal, and other wild water- fowl have never been success- fully domesticated, because they will fly away unless you clip their wings . A mallard could go south in the fall, but he won't. He prefers to walk. But every summer, one fine morning, the drakes will line up the whole flock, like a boys' club on a hike, .and away they will go across country. Some years I have a time finding them. This year I found them in the back pasture, holding witan in a circle under a beech, all talking at once and none knowing where to go. They were glad to see me, and lined up again and walk=- ed home with me. I showed them the pond and they were over- . joyed. They plunged in and chased each other and dove and swam, and they'll stay there now until cold weather when I chase them into the duckhouse for winter. But next year it will happen again--the incubation, the re- union with the new members of the tribe, the plans for a hike, and I'll be out looking again. Mallards are such fun. « --by John Gould in "The Christian Science Monitor" When a feller says it aint the money but the principle of the thing, it's the money. ~ CROSSWORD PUZZLE = general . Paddle . Attorney ACROSS 1. Easy galt b. Kind of horse 9. Likely 12. Organs of hearing 13. Hindu garment 14. Hawallan Literary composition . While . River in New Jersey SOY eID 1 1 1 1 2 2 17. Macaw 29. Philippine 8. Having two 30. Again Hips 32, Woes 3 i 9, Wing-shaped 34. Ductile 0, Persian fairy 37. Divide 1. Ebb and flow 39, Headdress 6. Elevated 41, Leather railroad fastener 8. Goes ahead 42. Plant diseases 0, Rubber jar 43. Medley rings 45. Therefore 2. Go by 47. Age : 23. Roman date 49. Gr. letter 27, Instantaneous 50. Abraham's 23. Rent nephew exposure 53. Behold wreath 156, Uneven ' 2 BPI 6 [7 8 Ei 0 \n 17. Wild duck 19. Kind of Illy 12 21. Eagle's nest 22. Compassion 24, To a higher olnt 25. Body of wale: 19 26, Fuss <l 27. Impassive 29, Mother 321. Calm 33. City In Pa. 26 26. Steamship (ab.) A 36. Slave 38. Rather than LTH 40. Ourselves 41, Crystallized precipitation 42, Pollutes 44. Fits one inslde another 48. Confllcted 48, Bay window 51, Atmosphere 54, Binming volece 68, Neckplece B6. Nlephant"s ear 87. Kind of fuel 81, Yassian city : DOWN 1. Amerlean Answer elsewhere on this page, Flamingoes Form Arrow Of Fire Between Dar-es-Salaam and Cape Delgado the littoral is flanked by an endless succesiosn of islands both large and small For the most part they are une inhabited, and only marine birds frequent their shores and vege tation. There are hundreds and hun- dreds of these islands, with the result that progress by this route Is painfully slow; never- « theless, schooners and similar small craft prefer it because of the comparatively calm water. They sail without the ald of instruments, and when the sun sets they have to find an anchor- age for the night. The pilot acg- cordingly makes for land, head- ing for the leeward side of the nearest island. Our favourite island, the one whose name always crops up when we recall those days, was Songa-Songa -- not because it looked any different, nor be- cause, having explored it from end to end, we knew "it better than the others, but simply be- cause of the impression it made on us at the moment of land- ing. ) When we arrived there it was late evening and the low clouds that veiled the horizon were tinged with the colours of sun- set. From the island, at right angles to the beach, there pro- truded towards us a tongue of sand, culminating in a promon- tory -dotted with clumps of shrubs. On the shore a flock of sea-birds had gathered--puffins, sea-gulls, plovers, herons, grebes, godwits and various other species. - Standing well apart from the rest was a group of flamingoes, the first we had seen since our SPECIAL DELIVERY -- Residents of Manhasset, L.l., probably don't even mind receiving bills through the mail as long as pretty Sue Voight is on the de- livery end. Sue got her unusual summer job merely by apply- ing at the Manhasset Post Of- fice. We'll bet the six-foot lovely is: one postman who needn't ring twice. arrival in Africa, Their gleam- ing white bodies were supported by incredibly long legs, but the gracefulness of their carriage lent harmony even to the move- ments of their ill-proportioned limbs. We beached the dinghies and walked quite openly towards . them. As we drew nearer they closed their ranks, huddling to- gether and lifting their heads to watch us. Flamingoes are timid crea- tures, and these would not allow us to come within fifty yards of them. Wtih a great flapping wings they rose into the air, and it was then that the miracle occurred. The white of their feathers turned to brilliant red, and suddenly the whole sky seemed to burst in flame. Never had we seen such gorgeous colouring, never had we seen a dawn or sunset of such breath- taking splendour, never had we seen a flower unfolding petals of such fiery red. The extraordinay phenomenon was explained by the sudden appearance of the scarlet fea- thers which until a moment be- "fore had been completely hidden by 'their wings. The cloud of birds, whose colouring varied continually between «pink and crimson, was rapidly transform= ed into an arrow of fire that flashed across the sky. The fla- mingoes arranged themselves in line, one behind the other, and passed over our heafs in a southerly direction, Meanwhile the sea, very calm now that the wind had dropped, had acquired an oily consistency and the sparkle of mother-of-pearl, and we could see the flight of the birds mirrored in the water. -- From "Vanished Continent," by Franco Prosperi, translated by David Moore, THE FEMININE TOUCH~Mrs, Beulah Leonard lures two of her wandering bulls home with a bucket of grain after the police complaint that "three cows" with larlats, but required Mrs. Leonard' were bulls. emergency squad met their match. The squad received a were molesting neighbor's flowers and arrived on the scene s expert help when they discovered two of the "cows" THE FARM FRONT The chance of receiving a rattlesnake bite in Ontario is one in several million. But the On- tario Department of. Health has made sure that, should it happen, it will not mean certain death. According to Health Minister Mackinnon Phillips, treatment units of anti-venom--the active substance In rattlesnake venom ~ antiserum--have been supplied to a number of hospitals and other depots free of charge. Speedy treatment at these con- venlently located depots will minimize the danger of the bite being fatal. Here are the hospitals at which anti-venom units are kept on hand: Little Current, Espanola, Parry Sound, Bracebridge, Oril- lla, Midland, Penetanguishene, Barrie, Collingwood, Meaford, Owen Sound, Wiarton, Lion's Head, Southampton, Kincardine, Goderich, Sarnia, Chatham, St. Thomas, Welland and Hamilton. Units are also stocked at the municipal health department of- fices of Sudbury and Windsor, and at the District Forester's of- fice (Department of Lands and Forests) at Parry Sound. Reserve supplies are maintained at the Provincial Control Laboratory, Toronto. The mere fact that rattle- snakes are found occasionally in Ontarlo need not spoil any- one's holiday. any more . than the fact that there are forest - fires and automobile accidents. Rattlers are rarely reported and it is doubtful if anyone living in or visiting the areas in which rattlesnakes do occur ever worry about them----except that they leave spotted snakes alone. For they know that two snakes in Ontario are spotted and one is a rattler. They know also that it will not attack and will not or cannot bite as long as a discreet distance is main- tained. : Of course, if. a rattlesnake is picked up or stepped on it will bite, or attempt to. But there is only one record in the Royal Ontario Museum's files of a rattler being stepped on and one in which the snake was pre- sumably kicked. A recent un- fortunate fatality was the re- sult of a rattlesnake being pick- ed up. It was the first instance of death in Canada resulting from rattlesnake bite, which might not have been fatal ex- cept for some delay in seeking adequate medical attention. It was only the second known death in North America from rattle- snake bite. Although a few rattlesnakes survive In Ontarlo, only about one person per year on the aver- age is bitten. Their range is the Niagara River gorge and the shores of Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Georgian Bay but not more than 25 miles inland nor north of Killarney. There are two kinds, one a "real rattler, the other so-called. The dangerous fellow--the one to leave strictly alone--but not to kill unnecessarily, because he consumes a great many rodents in a year--1is the Massassaga' rattlesnake or pit viper, The "alternative name stems from the pockets or pits in the snake's cheeks which are readily visible from outside striking range. Other identifying features are the Massassaga's eyes, which have cat-like "split" pupils, and its spotted body, dark on light. But the harmless Hardwood Rattler, otherwise known as the milk snake or fox snake, is also strictly - Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking spotted. Like all other harmless snakes in Ontario, however, {t has a pointed tail. The Massas- saga's 'tail is blunt, and does not always have rattles. Nevertheless and apparently, the best way to avoid rattlesnake bite is to steer clear of and certainly never try to plck up any spotted snake, Should the unforeseen happen, however, apply a tourniquet a few Inches above the bite, tight enough to prevent the spread of venom but not tight enough to stop the blood clrculation--try hard to maintain a confldent attituide--and hurry to the near- est doctor and arrange to be taken as quickly as possible to the nearest anti-venom depot for treatment. CUPID WAS AN EGG Busy packing eggs In a dairy at Vromshoop, Holland, 17-year- old Janny Hakman was seized with the urge to write her name and address on one of the eggs. Later Janny recefved a letter from Rome in which Emil Manieri proposed marriage an self. He explained that he had bona the egg in a Rome mar- et. AES aa a .e_ tipi. enclosed a photograph of him- N "By Rev. R. Barclay Warren B.A., B.D. The Foreigner in the Midst Ruth 2:1-13 Memory Selection: The s that dwelleth with you shall unto you as one horn among and thou shalt love him as thy! self. Leviticus 19:34. { The story of Ruth is a gem shining in the troubl period of the Judges. N her husband and two sons left Judea for Moab in a time famine. The sons married yo women of Moab, Then came. The father and sons di leaving three widows. Naomi clded to go back to Judea advised her daughters-in-law remain in Moab. But Ruth lov her mother-in-law. She '1 Naomi's God, too. She decid to go with Naomi. If speaks for Naomi that she had so liv that Ruth was ready to fors her gods and her people and ¢ low the God of Naomi, We that relations between motherg- in-law and daughters-in-law were always so harmonious. Ruth's industry, modesty ang virtue soon won her a plac among the people of seme] Boaz, a near kinsman, redeem the inheritance of Naomi an married Ruth, To this union wat 'born a son whose grandson, Da. vid, became head of a line of kings. Centuries later Jesus wat born of Mary in this direct ling of descendants from Ruth. How highly honoured was Ruth! What Is our individual atti. tude to those who come in ow midst from other lands? Do wi snub them or do we welcomt them? It is well for us to re member - that unless we art North American Indians our an- cestors came to this country ai foreigners. Hemce it is very im- proper for us to assume an at. tltude of superiority toward newcomers to our eouiitiy, Lat us remember that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all tha face of the earth." Acts 17:26. Can one be a Christian and, fail to carry out the 'instruction of the memory selection? Tha answer is, "No." If one doesn't love his neighbour he doesn't really love God. See 1 John 4:20, 21. God's love embraces all, is -- SRST Lo RAY MAKING A CLEAN SWEEP--The world's largest vacuum cleaner, designed to protect jet aircraft by leaving runways cleaner than a kitchen floor, is prepared for a test run. The JARC (Jet Alr- craft Runway Cleaner) cleans an eight-foot swath of runway with each pass, removing sand, pieces of machinery, nuts, bolts, assorted hardware, and chunks of rock and gravel. The vacuum developed by the JARC is more than 1,500 times more power- ful than the most efficient home vacuum cleaner. The volume of air handled each minute would sustain the breathing of 40,000 men. The reason for all this power is that the Air Force, in many tests, has proved that even a quarter-inch steel bolt, sucked into the intake of a jet, can cause an explosion and the disintegration of the engine. a nl HOUSING SHORTAGE ~ Looks like the housing situation is for the birds this year. Tho robin, left, was so hard pressed she settled down on the pulley of an overhead crane at Marietta, Ohio, Workers there used another crane until the blessed event took place. A hen pheasant found New York just as crowded as pi ' x Ph Em a Pall Fata 3% SAE YA Bs 4 the rest of ils population, Sh feel from a runway al la laid her id right, only 5 vardia Field. Al rport gardene John Moloney examines one of the 14 eggs while the phea- sant's away. Her chicks are going # think there ars some awfully big birds in this world. a semt 3 " 3 : | LIE \ fe a { -- tN Ve be a Jr ht AE WE rain. J Te A he " Mo aa a o£ Er ho ey . ro, - a fo Cd a