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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1957-08-15, Page 3Mallard : ' ucks Are Such Fin 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 peed,, 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 reward to their hens for the long weeks spent gazing at, the narrow scenery around the hidden nests. 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 eight 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, and the old hen stands faith- ful watch lest something hap- pen. Any movement within miles such as slamming a milk -room door or yanking tie 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 repel 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 if 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 climb the flagpole, but old hands like 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 merely 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 HOT! -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- r pected: Electrical wiring had 7verheated. 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 cuaeks 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 thepro- duct of her love under her so sL 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. Havingar- 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 loin 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 is 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'llstay 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. CR' SWORD PUZZLE • ACROSS 1. Easy gait 5. Kind of horse 9, Likely 12. Organs or hearing 13. Hindu garment 11 Hawaiian wreath 16. Uneven 17, wild dunk 19. Kind of 1111 21. Eagle's nest , Cemilae[ii(1n 24.'10 a higher , point 9.5. BBod.v Of wale) 20, Puss 27. Impassiv-e 29. Mother 21. Calm 33, City in Pa. 35. Steamship (ab.) 36. Slave 38, Rather than 39. Tilt 40, Ourselves 4I, Crystalised Precipitation 42. Pollutes 44.Pits One inside another 46, Conflicted 41 Bay window 61. Atmosphere 52. Russian city 54. Singling voice 55. Neckpiece 66. Elephant's ear X57, Ieind of fuel DOW S. American - a general 2. Paddle 3, Attorney 4. Literary composition 5. while i. 'River 1n New .Tel•aey 7, 111.aeaw02. Philippine S. -Having two - 30. Again lips 82. Woes 9. wing -shaped 34. Ductile 10. Persian fairy, :7. Divide 11, Ebb and flow 39. headdress 1 Os Elevated 41. Leather railroad fastener 18. Coes ahead 42. Plant disease 20. Rubber jar 42. Medley rings 40. Therefore 22. no by 47, Age 2:), Roman dare 49, Or. letter 27..1ns antano0us 50. Ahrahani's exposure 1. nephew 23. 23.11,,) l 1 2 3 f .. 5' G 7 8 w.•9 !0 it `i• 111 • • I i i 2 z-: 23 cx t eat i 6 S:G IN .. - .53 54. SS 6 57 Answer elsewhere on this page. THE FEMININE TOUCH -Mrs. Beulah Leonard lures two of her wandering bulls home with a bucket of grain after the police emergency sq uad met their match. The squad received a complaint that "three cows"' Were molesting n eighbor's flowers and arrived on the scene With lariats, but. required Mrs. Leonard's expert help when they discovered two of the "cows" were bulls. £1'A1M F1ZONf Jaime. 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- veniently 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- lia, 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 - flees 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 Ontario 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 strictly 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 Ontario, 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 13ugon 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 - is 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 mill( snake or fox snake, is also Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking 16131110 s©®00© Ldd,;;9V2ib's'u3dO1 spotted. Like all other harmless snakes in Ontario, however,, it 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 pick 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 circulation -try hard to maintain a confident attitude -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 th"e eggs. Later Janny received a letter from Rome in which Emilio Manieri proposed marriage and enclosed a photograph of him- self. He explained that he had bought the egg in 'a Rome mar- ket. 1INDAYCI1001 LE,SSON By Rev. R. Barclay Warren B.A., B.D. The Foreigner in the Midst Ruth '2:1.12 Memory Selection: The stranger that dwelleth with you shall bi unto you as one born among yogi and thou shalt love him as tby, self. Leviticus 19:34. The story of Ruth is a bright gem shining in the troublesome period of the Judges. Naomi, her husband and two sons had left Judea for Moab in a time of famine. The sons married young women of Moab. Then tragedy. came. The father and 'sons died leaving three widows. Naomi de- cided to go back to Judea but advised her daughters-in-law to. remain in Moab. But Ruth loved her mother-in-law. She loved Naomi's God, too. She decided to go with Naomi. It speaks well for Naomi that she had so lived that Ruth was ready to forsake her gods and her people and fol- low the God of Naomi. We wish that relations. between mothers- in-law ' and daughters-in-law were always so harmonious. Ruth's industry, modesty and virtue soon won her a place among the people of Judah. Boaz, a near kinsman, redeemed the inheritance of Naomi and married Ruth. To this union was born a son whose grandson, Da- vid, became head of a line of kings. Centuries later Jesus was born of Mary in this direct line of descendants from Ruth. How highly honoured was Ruth! What is our individual atti- tude to those who come in 0111 midst from other lands? Do we snub them or do we welcome them? It is well for us to re- member that unless we are North American Indians our an- cestors came to this country as foreigners. Hence it is very im- proper for us to assume an at- titude of superiority toward newcomers t9our country. Let us remember that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." Acts 17:26. Can one be a Christian and fail to carry out the instruction Of the memory selection? The answer is, "NO,'' If 0185 dgesn't love his neighbour he doesn't really love God. See 1 John 4:20, 21. God's love embraces all. 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 Air- 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. HOUSING SHORTAGE - Looks like the housing situation is for the birds this year. The 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 the rest of its population She laid her eggs, right, only 50 feet from a runnway at La Guardia Field. Airport gardener. John Moloney examines one of the 14 eggs while the phea- sant's -Noway. Her chicks are going to think there are some awfully big birds in this world.