Is it possible to distinguish the sex of fowls by the noises they make?
Subscriber.
Answer.—An experienced poultry-raiser gives the following rules, which he says a close observer can soon learn to apply without mistake: The drake wheezes, the duck quacks. The Guinea cock and hen both have a peculiar, disagreeable chatter, but the hen sometimes says “buckwheat” or “go back” which the cock never does. The peacock can be distinguished, even when only a few months old, by the foxy red pinion feathers of his wings. In the case of turkeys, the breastbone of the cock is turned out at the front point, while that of the hen is straight. As to geese, the gabble of the common, the Embden and the Toulouse ganders is faster, finer, and higher than that of the goose, which is a slow, low bass; and the screech of the gander is fine, loud, and clear, while that of the goose is a rough bass. Both gander and goose of the English gray geese have a coarse screech and gabble, but the screech of the goose is lazy and seems to be partly broken, making two sounds, while the gander gives one clear, loud screech without any break in it. The screech of the African gander is loud and hoarse, while that of the goose is clear and stops abruptly, as if bitten off at the end. The Chinese gander gives one loud, clear screech, but that of the goose seems to be broken, making two different sounds, as if the first were made by forcing her breath out and the other by drawing it back.
INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE.
St. Paul, Minn.
What is meant by “an international date line?”
Constant Reader.
Answer.—Every person traveling around the world from west to east, with his watch or chronometer set to the time of the place at which he started, will note that the sun comes to his meridian, or noon, four minutes earlier than his chronometer time for every degree passed over, one hour for every 15 degrees, and twenty-four hours for 360 degrees, the total circuit of the earth. In other words, every one who completes such a journey gains a day, and to dispose of this superfluous day so as to make his reckoning correspond with that of his starting place, he must call the day on which he gets back (or on which he passes some certain point or meridian line) and the next following day of the week and month by the same name and date; thus having two Mondays, for example, together. On the other hand, every person traveling from east to west loses a day in making a complete circuit of the earth, and to correct his calendar must skip one day of some week.
Suppose it were universally agreed that this correction of the navigator’s reckoning should be made at the 180th degree of longitude west and east from Greenwich, Eng., then this would be the international date line. Unfortunately, now, there is no such universally accepted line, although most merchant vessels of all nations do make the correction at the meridian above named. So it often happens that sailors in the Pacific Ocean, because their vessels reach the 180th meridian coming eastward on Sunday enjoy two Sundays together, and going westward have two weeks without any intervening Sunday. It has been proposed to fix by international agreement upon this or some other line for this correction of dates so as to make all ship calendars agree, but thus far a silly national pride and other insufficient reasons have prevented such an agreement. The meridian of Rome, as the center from which Christian civilization was disseminated both towards the East and West, has been proposed by some. It has the advantage of being nearly upon the meridian of the most of the great observatories of Europe—those of Modena, Verona, Naples, Palermo, Padua, Venice, Munich, Leipsic, Prague, Berlin, Gotha, Copenhagen, Uraniburg, and Christiana. This would locate the 180th degree of longitude in Behring Straits.