Bl2~Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 21,1981
WKP
I . GREY
2. REP
3. iBUOW
4. BUJE
5. &ROWM
TAB PILGRIMS LAMPED IN
AMERICA IN DECEMBER IG2O.
THERE lA/BREIOZ ENGLISH
PEOPLE, WOMEM,AI£N,AMP
CHILDREN. THEY SAW THE
PBEP FORESTS AMPTUE ROCKY
MASSACHUSETTS HILLS. FOR
BIGHT WEEKS THE PILGRIMS
MAP BEEN SPILING ONTHE
"MAYFLOWER"SUFFERING
Fierce storms amp sea
sickness. THEY CAME TO
America To Worship god
ihths/r own wav.
Here’s a book
LANCASTER Ever wonder
why crows put ants under their
feathers? Can you guess which
plant has a seed the size of a
basketball? Baffled as to why
hyenas laugh?
Give up? Then turn to Ranger
Rick’s Answer Book for the ex
planations. This new hardcover
anthology of nature lore is written
for children five to 12. Its 96 pages
are filled with questions and an
swers about geology, plants,
weather, and animals and they’re
illustrated with full-color
photographs, diagrams, and
cartoons.
So why do crows put ants under
their feathers? Other birds behave
in this unusual manner too, and
scientists guess that the ants may
eat lice and other pests which live
in the bird’s feathers. Another
explanation: Many ants’ bodies
contain a sharp-smelling liquid
called formic acid. When a bird
Thankful
H||OR OUR BLESSINGS
6. PINJK
7. GREEKI
8. ltbedwnl
9. LT BLUE
10. LTGREEM
crushes an ant and puts it under its
feathers, the formic acid may
clean the feathers or kill small
pests.
According to Ranger Rick’s
Answer Book, the world’s biggest
seed is the rare Coco de Mer
coconut, which grows on islands in
the Indian Ocean. Hundreds of
years ago, it was believed that
liquid drunk from a goblet made
from a Coco de Mer would be free
of poison. Those days, monarchs
worried a great deal about being
poisoned by ungrateful subjects, so
they were willing to pay thousands
of dollars for a magic Coco de Mer
goblet.
If that's got you giggling, the
hyena’s howl is really no laughing
matter. The spotted hyena lives in
Africa and prowls in packs during
the night. The mammals call to one
another with raucous barks and
hysterical howls that sould just
weire
I*-*/ \
//-
you might want
like crazy human laughter.
Young readers of Ranger Rick’s
Answer Book will also learn that
all fish have ears, that snakes are
deaf, and that the bald cypress
tree has bark-covered knees,
which grow upward out of long
shallow roots that spread out from
the tree.
The book will also lay to rest
some common misconceptions.
For example, racoons don’t really
wash their food. It just looks that
way. These masked animals catch
most of their food in shallow water,
feeling around with their paws for
crayfish, tadpoles, and small fish,
which they then pop into their
mouths. And crocodiles don’t
really eat them babies. The mother
crocodile gently cames her just
hatched litter in her mouth and
deposits them in the water. This
protects the baby crocs from
hungry hawks and herons.
Finally, there are some answers
in the nature book for parents, for
almost every child asks sooner or
later such questions as, “Why is
the sky blue?” Ranger Rick’s
Answer Book explains that when
light leaves the sun it is a mixture
of several colors, including red,
yellow, blue, and violet. But when
these colors hit the earth’s at
mosphere, the red and yellow pass
through in a fairly straight line,
while the blue and violet get
bounced and scattered by the air’s
molecules. So the sun looks yellow
because that color comes to our
eyes almost directly, while the
blue and violet approaches us from
all directions, making the sky look
blue.
Ranger Rick’s Answer Book is
available for $8.95 from the
National Wildlife Federation, 19223
DV, 1412 16th Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20036. Include
$1.15 per order for handling.
“Kids, happy Thanksgiving
and make mo handsome."
to you. Please color me