. St. Nicholas [serial] . UNWARY TRAVELERS. IT is that chatter-box the Honey-guide, whommy young hearers in Africa know pretty well. He is very fond of honey, and is glad to havehelp in getting it; and he is also very much afraidof the honey-makers. Those brave fellows havestung many a Honey-guide to death in the verynest he came to rob, and then have shut up hisbody, where it lay, in an air-tight tomb of wax. WHISTLES ON PIGEONS. One of your Jacks friends, in Pekin, China,says: Walking near this city, one day, I heard aharsh, long-drawn whistling in the air. Lookingup, I saw only a flock of p
. St. Nicholas [serial] . UNWARY TRAVELERS. IT is that chatter-box the Honey-guide, whommy young hearers in Africa know pretty well. He is very fond of honey, and is glad to havehelp in getting it; and he is also very much afraidof the honey-makers. Those brave fellows havestung many a Honey-guide to death in the verynest he came to rob, and then have shut up hisbody, where it lay, in an air-tight tomb of wax. WHISTLES ON PIGEONS. One of your Jacks friends, in Pekin, China,says: Walking near this city, one day, I heard aharsh, long-drawn whistling in the air. Lookingup, I saw only a flock of pigeons overhead. What,said I to myself; do Chinese pigeons whistle ! There was a Chinaman passing, so I asked himabout it. He took from his dress a set of smallbamboos, joined with fine wires,—as in the sketchwhich I send, —and handed it to me. It weighedonly a few pennyweights. That is what makes the whistling, said tie these on the backs of carrier-pigeons,near their tails, looping the strings around the roots. of the wings. When the pigeon is flying, the windrushes into the bamboos, and makes them scares away the hawks, so that the pigeon i88i.] JACK-IN-T HE-PULPIT. 331 can bring its message safely. Sometimes, there isonly one bamboo; but if there are more, they areassorted so as to make a harsh sound when blownall at one time. Now, my young American pigeon-keepers, whoof you will see if pigeon-whistles can scare hawksaway from your own beautiful messenger pets ? HOW MANY? Dear Jack-in-the-Pulpit: Will you ask the children aquestion for me? Perhaps you will say it is too easy. But Iwould caution them to investigate before they all answer know a family of sixteen persons, old and young, not one of whom?could answer it. How many toes has a cat? K. L. JOHNNY-CAKE PLANT. E. C. G. SENDS a letter with more informationabout the lovely Victoria Regia, of which yourJack told you, in November,that its leaves sometimes areused for cradles. She says : T
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidstnicholasse, bookyear1873
