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***ELuSiVe*** · 02-29-2008, 07:43 AM

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Flashing Fireflies

Many animals depend more on sight than sound to get messages across. The sparkling flashes of fireflies across a nighttime meadow are beautiful to us. But they provide important information to the fireflies.

During the mating season, female fireflies often perch on the tops of plants, while the males fly above them, flashing bright signals.

There are many kinds of fireflies, and each kind has its own special flashing code. When a female sees the proper code, she waits just the right amount of time. Then she flashes back.

When a male sees a flash from the grass at the right time, he turns and heads to the spot. Here is a female of his kind, ready to mate with him. As he approaches, he flashes again and she answers. When he gets close, he lands on the grass and walks toward her, flashing as he comes. Then they mate.

Trailing Ants

Have you ever watched a trail of ants marching across the kitchen floor toward a bit of food, or heading out from a woodland nest? The ants are traveling in both directions, hurrying along their way. Some of them are going out from the nest. Others are returning with something to cat.

How do the ants know where to go to find the food?

Many ants live in big nests underground, or above the ground in wood. There are thousands of them in each of these big family homes. Some of the ants wander away from the nest looking for food. They are called scouts.

When a scout finds a juicy piece of fruit, a dead grasshopper, or some other food, it heads for home. As it returns, the scout leaves a trail with a special chemical released from the rear end of its body.

Back at the nest, other ants smell the fresh trail left by the scout. They follow it back to the food.

After collecting as much as they can carry, they scurry back to the nest, leaving more of the chemical trail as they go.

Every ant that returns with food leaves a trail, just like the scout. More and more ants head out and return with good things to eat.

Once all the food is gone, returning ants no longer leave any scent on their way home. The trail smell gets weaker and weaker, and soon the ants don't waste any more time following it.

A Loving Touch

Wolves live in very close groups called packs. They have many different ways of communicating with each other.

They do so by howling, moving their ears and tails, and using smell. But for wolves, touch is also a very important way of expressing feelings.

In each wolf pack, one male and one female are the leaders. The other wolves are usually their offspring from different years.

When one of the leaders has been away for a while and returns, the other wolves dash over to greet the returning wolf,

They nuzzle the leader. They lick at his or her face and push their bodies as close together as they can. Their greetings seem much like humans' hugs and kisses.

Ways of "Talking"

You can see that animals communicate in many ways. They use sight, sound, smell, and touch. Next time you go for a walk in the park or to the zoo, see if you can figure out how the animals you see are "talking" to each other.

***ELuSiVe*** · 02-29-2008, 07:43 AM

10

HEADLINES

My father works hard at his office. He is the head of a computer lab. He works all the time. And when he gets home after work, he disappears.

Where?

Behind his newspaper!

He reads every inch of that newspaper-current events, crime articles, sports, and weather. He even reads the movie reviews and the gossip column.
Father enjoys that newspaper! But I don't like it. Why? Because he gets lost in it! Once we were late for the school play because he did not stop reading. Once his beeper rang and rang. He didn't look up. Once I said,

"Father, the dog is flying," just to see what he would do.

"Just a minute," he said. "I'm reading the book reviews."

I can shout! I can cheer! When he reads the newspaper, he cannot hear me.

So today I played a little trick. I got some paper. I printed some headlines - different headlines. And I glued them to Father's newspaper.

What did he do?

Father picked up the newspaper. He opened it. I waited.

The newspaper began to shake. I heard a giggle. Then I heard a laugh. My trick was working!

"Very funny!" Father said. "Now I am hungry. Do you want to get some ice cream with me?"

"But you didn't read all of your newspaper, Father," I said.

"I will do that later," he said. "Come on."

My father is wonderful!

by F.M. Bright