Camera Trap Catches Unusual Poses of Smaller Forms of Wild Life

AN ORDINARY mouse trap and a few feet of 1/2″ x 1-1/4″ stock are all the parts required to make this automatic shutter release for your box camera. The device, which should be painted green, is unique in catching unusual poses of small forms of wild life.

At one end of the 51-in. base, construct a mount for the camera. The rear of the mount is 5-3/4″ and the front is 5-1/2″ to allow the lens to point down into the camera field. Screw the trap to the base of the device directly below the lens. A short length of wire connects the camera lever to the trap spring. Another length runs from the trigger through wire screw-eyes in the base to the opposite end where a nut or morsel of food is fastened as bait.

Mother Hen Eats Dye, Chicks Hatch Out Freakish Colors

THE chickens seen in the photo at the left may look just like any brood of infant barnyard fowl but that is because Modern Mechanix couldn’t print them in colors. In the flesh, however, they are a deep pink in hue with bills and toe nails a resplendent rose color.

The chicks were produced during experiments in which the mother was fed red dye. Further experiments are under way with other dyes and soon purple and green hens may be as common as white and brown ones now. The chickens otherwise are normal in every respect.

Combination Cat, Fish Globe Affords Unique Spectacle

HOW to exhibit prize winning kittens and butterfly goldfish to the best advantage was the problem of Mrs. J. T. Mopham, a cat and fish fancier of Los Angeles. She left the task up to a large glass company of her town who proceeded to turn out the specially built fish globe with an inside compartment for kittens.

The result, as illustrated in the photo at the left, was really startling. The outside compartment, filled with water, houses the goldfish with the kittens occupying the special bowl inside. Onlookers are bewildered when they apparently see the kittens and goldfish living in peace and harmony in the same bowl of water.

Animal Lending Library

KIDS today get all the breaks. Now they’ve even got a lending library in Sacramento, Calif., where Junior can borrow almost anything from a snake to a skunk (deodorized, natch) for a temporary playmate.

At this novel pet-dispenser, instead of taking home a book of stories about Reddy the Fox or Hoppy the Rabbit, boys and girls can borrow the real thing. Only stipulation is that the kids must be at least seven years old and must guarantee to give the pet first-class care and affection.

The library only stocks “light” reading matter, though. No elephants, for instance.

I’m sure the elk would be quite honored if there were any left.

PILE OF ANTLERS A MONUMENT TO THE ELK

Elk antlers have been gathered and formed into an unusual monument in Yellowstone National Park. The monument, which is twelve feet high, marks the place where thousands of elk once roamed, before the large herds were wiped out by hunters. Rangers in the park are responsible for this tribute to the departed elk.

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Secrets of FAMOUS DOG TRAINERS

HAVE you ever murmured “impossible” while watching the antics of famous dog performers at the theater or movies?

If so, were you correct in your assumption? It all depends on the stunt and who was doing it.

In movie comedies, dogs frequently are called upon to do the “impossible,” according to Harry Lucenay, who has spent fifteen years in training canine movie stars, including the renowned Pete of “Our Gang” comedy fame. Veteran of more than 200 comedies and feature pictures, this dog has made a fortune before Hollywood cameras. But natural born actor and comedian though he is, Pete himself would be amazed at some of his screen antics.
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Beavers Staging a Comeback

BEAVERS may once more become the basis on which all furs are valued if experiments now being conducted by the National Parks branch of the Canadian government are successful. Once the coin of the realm, beavers became so scarce that today no white man may trap them in the Dominion, and Indians may do so only in limited areas. Beaver fur is scarce, where once it was the standard on which all fur dealings were based.
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Hatching House Flies For Profit

IN AN ODD SKYSCRAPER FARM, DOMESTIC PESTS ARE RAISED FOR MANY CURIOUS PURPOSES

By FRANK CAPORAEL

SEVENTEEN stories above one of the busiest streets in New York City, America’s strangest livestock farm has its barns and pastures. The barns are glass jars. The pastures are mesh-inclosed cages. And, the product of this skyscraper ranch is house flies—5,500,000 flies a year!

The unique enterprise started ten years ago when scientists of an insecticide company wished to make exact tests of the effectiveness of their product. They needed normal, healthy flies on which to test the sprays. From this small beginning, the fly farm has grown to the mass-production activity of today.
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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.

Auto Racer Carries Pet Lion

IN ORDER to carry his pet baby lion around with him while motoring about town, a prominent San Francisco sportsman built a special side car device on his runabout, as shown in the photo below. The lion has been trained to “stay put.”

Fish Are Taught Tricks
Fish have memories, and can be taught to perform tricks, according to Dr. Mieczyslaw Oxner, ichthyologist at Europe’s oldest aquarium, in Monte Carlo. Two months are required to train a fish to eat out of your hand, Dr. Oxner declares. Below, some of his finned pupils are shown “jumping” through a hoop.

Pigeons Are Bred with Camouflage for War Service

Camouflaged pigeons, with a mottled plumage to make them almost invisible to an enemy’s waiting gunners, have been developed for emergency Army communication by Capt. Ray R. Delhauer, a retired United States Army pigeon expert, at Ontario, Calif. Most of his flock of several hundred birds are descendants of the hardier strains of pigeons used by the Allies and Germans in the last war.
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