432 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
must, therefore, thrust their tongues into 
about 6000 different flowers. 
According to Lubbock a bee will make 
cue hundred trips a day, and thus will 
draw the sugar from 600,000 different 
flowers in the course of a single day’s 
work. 
JjOCUST-EGG oil, a commodity which is 
to be obtained from the eggs of the locust, 
is used considerably in Algeria for house- 
hold purposes. 
Of late years the French Government has 
annually employed the natives of the pro- 
vinces to collect and to destroy the eggs of 
these destructive pests. 
Now that a new use has been found for 
the eggs it is proposed to establish centres 
for their treatment for industrial purposes. 
The oil is of the consistence and appearance 
of honey; it burns well; and makes a good 
soap with alkali. 
Iff ONTPELLIER the rock city near 
Millan, France, is a singular piece of 
Natures carving. It is an isolated mass 
of stone, abost 2500 feet above the sea and 
includes a section wonderfully like a tower- 
ed citadel, around which are depressions, 
300 or 400 feet deep, resembling respectively 
ar. amphitheatre, a necropolis, a parade 
ground, and a well-built city quarter, 
with monuments, gates and straight 
streets. The whole, about 500 acres, is sur- 
rounded by a natural wall. 
IT has never been clearly ascertained what 
was the original parent of the peach, says 
Meehans Monthly. It is, however, well 
known that the peach, the almond and the 
nectarine can all be developed, the one from 
the other; and it is, therefore, reasonable 
that all had the same origin. It has been 
supposed that the almond was really the 
antecedent of the other two. Recently, 
however, there has been found a wild plant 
in the north of China, which is considered 
a good species, and has been named Amyg- 
dala* Davidiana and it is believed that 
this is really the parent of the peach and 
its allies. All that is known of the peach 
and almond is that they were in cultivation 
as garden plants as far back as written 
history goes. 
fjlRDS as a rule, cannot focus their eyes 
on an object save at a considerable distance, 
and then only with difficulty, The reason 
for the singular fact is found in the posi- 
tion of the eye in the head, one being 
placed on each side and looking directly 
outward, so that' they cannot be brought 
I to bear on one object save, perhaps, at a 
very long distance, and directly in front. 
The truth of this statement may readily 
be demonstrated by anyone who has obser- 
ved the ordinary fowls turning their head 
head on one side, when desirous of more 
closely examining some object which has 
attracted their attention. When excited by 
! the presence of a strange object chickens 
| will often be noticed examining it, first 
with one eye and then the other, turning 
their heads for that purpose, thus showing 
that they cannot bring both eyes to bear 
| upon it at once. The only exception to the 
general rule is found in the case of the owl 
whose eyes are placed in front of the head, 
and are capable of being brought to a focus 
on an object at a very short distance in 
front. 
J|,T the Agricultural Experiment Station 
of Maine State College, observations cover- 
ing the period of growth of four years have 
shown that the excess of moisture in forest 
above that of open fields averages 10 per 
cent, reaching 14 per cent in the middle of 
the day. The excess would undoubtedly be 
greater in a very dense forest, The presence 
of patches of forest in any region exerts a 
marked influence on the hygroscopic con- 
ditions of the atmosphere, and this con- 
