NATURE'S REALM. 49 
Nature’s Realm. 
To those who never study Nature, 
Never see a landscape fair, 
Never note the wave of beauty, 
Never feel a balmy air, 
These, I say, miss half the pleasure 
Of this life, and in a measure 
Lead a lite of stupid care. 
If we could teach them what a pleasure 
Nature’s study brings to us, 
Us who love each lake and fountain, 
Babbling brook and shaggy mountain, 
If we could teach them this, I know 
The world to them would better grow. 
In Nature’s REAcM, when hope is dead 
And death with hovering wings is near, 
Amid some green and lovely vale 
They’d find a fount, whose waters clear 
Their fleeting life would stay. 
Take my advice, in NATURE’s REALM 
You'll find a cure for every care, 
You'll view the landscape bright and clear, 
‘ You'll hear the fountain murmuring near, 
And breathe a balmy air. 
W.R. W., 9. 
Answers to Correspondents. 
L. B. SranpisH.—Your subscription to Nature, which was 
suspended last February, will be completed by copies of Na- 
’ TuRE’s Reav to the full amount due you. The thirteen num- 
bers of Nature which were published constitute the first 
volume of Nature’ REAM, which is, however, issued under a 
new proprietorship and occupies a field of its own, no other 
publication in America being devoted entirely to natural history 
popularized in all its branches. 
J. W. Witcox.—We beg to ask consideration from you and 
our other esteemed correspondents named in this column for the 
delay in responding to your queries sent to Nature some 
months ago. See above answer to L. B. Standish. We now 
give the information you ask for. The gaur, which extends its 
range from Hindostan through the Indo-Chinese countries to 
the Malay Penmsula, is the largest and fiercest of wild cattle, 
and is said to be not only untamable, but so fierce that it will 
hold its own against the tiger. It grows to an enormous 
height, bulls measuring eighteen hands at the withers being 
apparently not uncommon, and specimens have been recorded, 
on the authority of well-known sportsmen, which far exceed 
even this great height. The back 1s curiously arched, forming 
a fairly continuous curve from the nose to the base of the tail. 
The skull is massive, and is surmounted by a large semi-cylin- 
drical crest, rising above the base of the horns. The muzzle is 
large and full. The horns in the adult bull are, like the skull 
that bears them, very strong and massive ; they extend out- 
ward from the head, and the points are turned upward and in- 
ward. The color ofthe animals is a very deep, brownish black, 
with the exception of a light tuft on the forehead between the 
horns, and four ‘“‘ white stockings.” There is no dewlap in 
either sex. There is a young gaur at present in the London 
Zodlogical Gardens. 
S. H. Depman.—You are correct; the bull bat feeds upon 
gnats and other small insects which it catches while flying. In 
fair weather these ascend into the upper regions of the atmos- 
phere, and the bird flies high to catch them; but, as the 
weather changes from fair, the insects descend near to the 
earth, and the bird follows them down in pursuit of food. 
Picknickers and others may expect rain or falling weather when 
the bull bat flies low, but can leave umbrellas at home when 
everything is lovely and the bull bat flies high. 
B. W. THomas.—The shell of the crab and lobster owes its 
bluish-gray color to the superposition of two pigments or color- 
ing matters which have been isolated—a red pigment and a 
blue one. As long as these two pigments exist simultaneously 
the crustaceans remain gray. But the blue pigment is very 
fugitive, and sometimes, under the influence of disease, it is 
destroyed, and crabs are found with portions of their shell 
more or less reddish. When the crustaceans are immersed in 
boiling water the blue pigment is entirely destroyed, and the 
red pigment, which is very stable, appears alone in all its bril- 
liancy. 
G. W. Gires.—In the southern part of Russia the peasants 
put entire faith in the virtues of two small, round stones, found 
in the head ofa native fish, as a preventive to the ayacks ot 
colic ; hence the term ‘‘ colic stones,” the origin of which you 
are interested in. The fresh-water drum [Aflodinotus grun- 
niens), found in our Western States, has two symmetrical stones 
in its head, which are often carried as pocket pieces by anglers, 
but we have never heard that medical or prophylactic qualities 
are attributed to them. In Russia these bones, handsomely 
mounted, are often worn as jewelry, especially in necklace 
orm. 
Ontario.—About two hundred pounds seems to be the 
maximum weight of an elephant tusk. 
B. L. Lonpon.—The “‘ nine-pronged wheel bug,” of which you 
desire to get some information, is described by Prof. Lock- 
wood. Hesays: ‘‘Such is the value of this bug to the farmer 
that, a very few put near a caterpiller’s nest in a fruit tree, 
would kill every one of them. Its‘Scientific name is Reduvius 
novenarius, the last word alluding to the toothed crest or 
prominence having nine projections on the body just behind the 
neck, like a segment of a cogwheel. ‘The insect has a curved 
proboscis, being, in fact, a tubular beak, which it inserts like a 
stab into its prey. It then injects a poisonous fluid, so active 
that its victim soon dies, and then the bug sucks out the juices 
in a leisurely way. The color of this insect is gray, and the 
specimen before me measures a little over an inch and a quar- 
ter from the head to the tip of the broad abdomen. The 
Reduvius is highly carniverous, attacking any larva in its way. 
It 1s among insects what the tiger is among beasts, and it would 
be a gain to agriculture if we could multiply their numbers. 
Their eggs are often found on fence rails and the bark of trees. 
Each tiny egg has the shape of a four-sided flask, attached by 
the bottom to the bark, and all fitting or standing close to- 
gether, so making an even surface at the top. Curiously this 
flat mass of eggs, numbering about seventy, is a perfect hexa- 
gon or six-sided figure. ‘The eggs are deposited usually in the 
early fall, thus hatching out next summer. Of the voracity of 
the wheel bug it will suffice to say that one insect will devour 
the juices of five or six caterpillers in a day.” 
