BlO—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 4,1984 Did You Know? —Little Miss Muffet not only sat beside spiders, says National Wildlife’s Ranger Rick magazine. She lived with them. Miss Muffet’s father, a medical doctor who lived in the 1500 s, let spiders drape all over his house in the belief that spiders would protect his family from diseases. Dr. Muffet even gave his daughter pills made from spiders when Miss Muffet got sick. —Lightening can strike more than once. According to National Wildlife’s Ranger Rick magazine, the Empire State Building in New York City is struck more than 100 times each year. —Bats are the only major predators of night-flying insects, and they’re good at it too. A single gray bat may consume 3,000 or more insects during a night’s feeding; and a single cave of free tailed bats in Texas may eat 500,000 pounds of small insects nightly. After spending millions of dollars to stop erosion along creeks in the West’s arid sagebrush hills, engineers turned to beavers for help, reports National Wildlife magazine. Gjass is now growing and trout have returned to Wyoming creeks, thanks to dams built by eight beavers that were trapped and then released there two years ago. —The white shark is known to spit out human victims after an attack, but it apparently has nothing to do with the shark’s distaste for flesh. It’s simply a clever protection technique. By first retreating, giving the victim time to go into shock, the shark can then dine in leisure without risk of attack. —Despite common belief, most monkeys cannot swing by their tails. But some monkeys can use their tails almost like an extra ■vSW BLACK REP iBUOW BLUE BROWN RATBL : TH& SMALL ANI- MAL LIUBS IN INDIA, ASIA, AND AFRICA. 7HBRATBL HAS A PISTINCVUB PAT TERN, PARNUNPBRN6ATH ANP MUCH LIGHTER ON ITS BACK. /T/SPONPOF HONBy ANP BBBS ANP ITIS 9PMBT/MBS CAUBP " THa HONBY BADGBR'.'THB LONG FUR PROTECTS /T FROM BBS STINGS. To find the hidden animal, fill in each space that contains a letter from word ARCTIC. hand. A spider monkey, for example, can open a door with its tail. —The heroism of the tiny min now is especially noteworthy. While in the jaws of an enemy, LT. GRAY 6REEKJ LT BROWN) LT BLUE LT. GREEN li Jl H A/l minnows release a scent to alert other minnows to flee for their lives. —Hummingbirds are being electrocuted in increasing num bers by mistaking red insulators w , ' 9 * V 5 J Bl£NO COLORS 5 ' I c A on electric fences for flowers. So the manufacturer of the “Red Snap’r” insulators has taken ac tion. The company has advised farmers and landowners to stop using its red insulators or to paint > A S t /- s - the yO them a color, such as black oi white, that will not attract hum mingbirds. —The oldest tree in the world i! over 4,000 years old. It’s tin bnstlecone pine in California.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers