128.DOES THE NIGHTINGALE SING ONLY AT NIGHT?
No bird has been written about so much by poets as the nightingale. Its song is supposed to be the most beautiful of all and nobody has been quite able to describe it. As a matter of fact, this attempt at describing it goes back to Aristophanes, the ancient Greek writer!
127.DOES THE MOCKINGBIRD HAVE A CALL OF ITS OWN?
Because of its name, and because this bird does have a remarkable ability to imitate the songs and cries of other birds, most people think of it only in this way.
As a “mocking” bird, this creature is amazing. There is a case where an observer once heard a bird mimic the notes of 32 different birds within 10 minutes! The mockingbird may improve on the other bird’s song by making up trills and runs of its own.
126.DOES A CENTIPEDE REALLY HAVE A RED FEET?
Have you ever turned over a flat stone or a rotting log, and seen a little wormlike creature running quickly away from the light? The chances are it was a centipede.
Of course you didn’t actually have a chance to count all its feet to see if it really had a hundred of them! The name “centipede” means “100-footed,” and some species of this creature actually have 100 feet. Some, in fact, even have more legs than that! And some have only 30 legs.
