PRICKLY PAIR

TWO sharp quillers from the Amazon Jungle moved in with Marion and Paul McMichael of Brooklyn two years ago just so the husband and wife could prove a point. You see, the quillers are prehensile-tailed porcupines named Gerald and Geraldine and the McMichaels had heard that all such animals were dumb—and dangerous. As a member of the New York Zoological Society, Paul didn’t think so and he brought a couple home to study..
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Making Fish Feel at Home in New York Aquarium

VISITORS to the famous New York aquarium are little aware, as they pass along before the amazing array of tanks containing fish of every shape and color, that behind the scenes of this remarkable institution there are thousands of feet of pipes, an intricate pumping system, a veri table hospital for ailing fish, and a staff of icthyologists whose task is to provide the fish with the most comfortable living quarters possible.

The hospital of the aquarium is equipped with microscopes, operating tables, a research laboratory, and even an ultra violet ray lamp for the treatment of afflicted fish. Here experts study all specimens of fish brought to them, and one of the results of their labors is that fish actually live longer in the tanks than they would in their native habitat. Read the rest of this entry »

Jet Noises Tried Out on Guinea Pigs

Jet engines make a lot of noise—enough to pain or perhaps harm your ears. To find out more about the effect of very loud noise on human ears, Air Force scientists at the Wright-Patterson Base are learning what it does to guinea pigs’ ears. The anesthetized animals (below) are placed in a soundproof room equipped with sound generators. Those are not earphones Dr. H. E. von Gierke is wearing, but muffs to protect his ears.

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Farms of Future to Have Giant Stock

WHAT will future ages do for food?

Some have suggested that the chemists will set up huge machines, to turn out proteins, starches, sugars, fats and vitamins, which will be taken in suitable “tabloid” doses daily by the population; that instead of farms, we will have only great chemical works, full of vats and tanks, while the outdoors is used for parking purposes exclusively. Read the rest of this entry »

Not that I think tarantula bites are actually fatal, but it doesn’t help make their case when they describe an arachnid as an insect. Not to mention that Prof. Fattig is way scarier looking than the spider.

TARANTULA’S BITE FAILS TO KILL

Professor P.W. Fattig, curator of the Emory University Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, made a large tarantula from Honduras bite him the other day. The professor said he tried the experiment partly out of curiosity and partly to prove his contention that bites of such insects are not necessarily fatal.

It took about half an hour’s poking to make the supposedly vicious creature bite. Then it hung onto the professor’s thumb with a bulldog grip for about three minutes before it was pried off. Professor Fattig said the bite was two or three times as painful as a bee’s sting and his thumb felt about three times its normal size. There were no other ill effects and the swelling soon disappeared.

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Do SHARKS Really BITE

Is It Possible to Learn the Truth About the Habits of Alleged Man-Eaters in the Semitropic Water? Here Is the Report of a Study Made for Popular Science Monthly by One Who Now Fears the Swift Monsters

By JOHN CHAPMAN HILDER

SOME years ago, I heard a celebrated naturalist state unequivocally that sharks would not attack men. As proof of his statement, he cited his own experience in shark-infested waters. Clad only in a bathing suit and a diving helmet, he had descended to the sea bottom, staying there for considerable periods while sharks and other fish swam negligently about, merely evincing a mild curiosity in his presence.

Further, this naturalist said that, though he had tried in various parts of the world to run down instances in which men had been attacked by sharks, he had failed to discover a single authenticated case. He gave it as his opinion that attacks hitherto attributed to sharks had in reality been perpetrated by that other killer of the sea, the barracuda.
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Brassiere for Bossy will increase the flow of milk into her udder from 25 to 35 per cent. Invented by a Phoenix psychiatrist, the canvas bra has four elongated sacks which cradle the cow’s teats.

Flashlights Reveal Frog Monsters

Camera Hunters Find Strange Reptiles EXTRAORDINARY flashlight photographs of strange barking and climbing frogs that inhabit the coral island of Santo Domingo in the West Indies form part of a valuable collection of reptilian life recently gathered for the American Museum of Natural History by Dr. and Mrs. G. Kingsley Noble.

In one of the most unusual scientific expeditions ever undertaken, the explorers used automatic flashlights to photograph frogs in their native haunts. Months of preparatory labor were spent in perfecting this method of photography, which Doctor Noble first practised in obtaining pictures of frogs that infest New Jersey meadows. Read the rest of this entry »

ZEBRAS USED TO HAUL ST. LOUIS MILK WAGON
Zebras draw a milk wagon on a regular St. Louis, Mo., delivery route. A pair of the animals were recently imported after their purchase from a German circus. The milk concern trained them to wear harness and pull a wagon just as horses formerly did. Comely milkmaids drive them and deliver the bottles to the customers along the route. The novelty appeals to buyers of the firm’s milk, and helps to advertise its products throughout the neighborhood.

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INSIDE STORY of the RODEOS

by ANDREW JAUREGUI

CHAMPION TEAM ROPER

FOR thirteen years I have been doing “setting-up” exercises —attempting, more or less successfully, to remain in leather on a plunging broncho or Brahma steer or to rope and tie elusive, wriggling bundles of calf meat. I am a rodeo performer and, with other cowboys, move from rodeo to rodeo each season, risking sound bones and excellent health for the roar of the crowds and the reward of gold.

Everywhere we hear these three questions: Isn’t it dangerous to ride wild horses ? How do you stay in the saddle ? What are the tricks of rodeo riding?
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Sorry about the image being a little cut off, it was a hard magazine to scan. According to the hard to read caption Chucky is also fond of beer. Drunk woodchuck, that just screams Youtube. I wonder if he’s a relative of dramatic groundhog .

A Tame Woodchuck
A WOODCHUCK that eats pretzels, climbs trees, and opens a screen door when it wants to come into the house, is the odd pet owned by L. G. Lessig, of Newark, N. J. Two summers ago, the baby groundhog was found near the Lessig summer cottage in northern New Jersey. Fed milk from a baby bottle, it grew rapidly and quickly expanded its diet to carrots, wheat, tomatoes, crackers, and clover. When the family returned to Newark in the fall, the pet woodchuck returned with them. Read the rest of this entry »

“TALKING” SCARECROW SAVES FARMERS FRUIT
A scarecrow that talks keeps fruit-eating birds away from a berry farm near Portland. Ore. When the farmer discovered that his berry patches were furnishing free meals for large flocks of crows and robins, he rigged a loudspeaker up inside his scarecrow. The scheme worked successfully so far as bird pests were concerned, and he has never been troubled with them since fixing up the “talking” scarecrow. This contrivance, however, is said to have attracted many song birds to the vicinity.