Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1900-08-03
EkMsaSclenCe
ssgI1vention :

A most remarkable case Of migration
among birds is that of the plovers,
which start from Nova Scotia and go to
the northern shore Of South America
in practically one continuous flight.
Comparatively few of these birds rest at
Bermuda and the Barbados.
In some interesting experiments by
English botanists, sleeping" plants, or
those which had taken their nocturnal
position, were placed in a dark room.
On "awaking" next morning they took
In the darkness their usual positions
by day, even when that position had
been made obliquely by one-sided illu-
mination.
Studies OF the zodiacal light made at
sea lead j. f. Bayldon, formerly Of the
British navy, to remark that the air
over the Pacific Ocean appears clearer
and better adapted for celestial obser-
vation than that lying over the Allan
tic Ocean. Honolulu is admirably situ-
ated for clearness of air, and it may
become an important outpost in astron-
omy. 1t has already been selected as
one of the chief points for the study of
the vibrations of the earth.
Water rises in an artesian well be-
cause the source of supply Is porous
rock stratum which lies at higher
level than the well. Although the
difference in height may not be notice
able, it is always the case that there
is rise Of ground off to one side, and
fhp u lot in,
layer somewhere up the slope. Its
weight eXerts a pressure at the point
where this stratum is tapped, and the
fluid seeks to rise there to the same
height as it's source.
Capt. &. z. Shelley, an English orni-
thologist who has devoted special at
tention to African birds, says that
Africa may fairly claim to be 1.-The
metropolis of song birds.' 1t is the
winter home of a large proportion of
the most attractive small birds of
northern Europe, including the night
ingale, the swallow and many of the
warblers, and the bush resounds with
their melody. Africa also possesses
great number of remarkable and beau
tiful birds of it's own.
Among the curiosities of migration
among birds is that OF the bobolink,
which originally nested in the Eastern
United States and wintered in valleys of
the Amazon. Now these birds have ex-
tended their summer distribution west
of the Rocky Mountains. The birds
which nest in the far West do not go
INV ha cI cIa
Rocky Mountains, but fly eastward to
the original summer area of the spe-
cies. then south by way Of Florida,
Cuba and eastern Yucatan.
Before the Biological Society in
Washington recently II. w. Olds pre-
sented the results of his studies of bird
music. Wonderful as it seems, he said,
it is a fact that some of the birds use
the human musical scale. He showed
by examples how the songs of certain
birds are Enthusiastically governed by
the intervals that compose our scale.
Sometimes bird musicians, like their
human compeers, wander from the key.
He thought that there was no escape
from the conclusion that birds are SUBJ
ject to a musical evolution which par
allels our own.
The application of scientific irriga-
ton methods has recently given a new
development to rice culture in south
western Louisiana, as explained in a
bulletin of the Department of Agricul-
ture. Rice requires wet lands, but on
such lands harvesting machinery can
not be used. The difficulty has been
met by flooding the dry prairie lands
during the growth of the rice, and then
draining them, by system of pumps,
canals and levees, when the crop is
nearly ripe. On the drained lands it is
possible to use reapers to harvest the
rice; thus the cheap labor employed in
foreign ce-growing countries can be
met by American machinery.