One day at forenoon I heard a bird's call, "tit titee..tit titee." I was curious to locate its source and went on searching for the bird. But I could not. Suddenly I heard the cry of other common birds of the locality accompanied by their helter-skelter flying away. This is to avoid the attacking by a bird of prey. It had perched on the nearby tree - unseen: I saw it fly after a prey from my side! It is the Shikra (Accipiter badius dussumieri, 'Vairee' in Tamil).
In boyhood days I wondered how the Slender Loris lives with its slow movements. Later on, I viewed an animal that was more sluggish than Slender Loris and is having different and unusual body unlike that of other mammals. Luckily it lives on the tree tops escaping its predators like jaguar and eagles. I refer here only to this animal: Sloth (Bradypus variegatus, Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth).
Before 1960s, it was then a routine for the family members of the house to sit on the veranda or steps of the house at dusk and engage in gossips. Elders go on narrating about deeds and stories to the kids. In the midst of it they don't miss to point out at the bright stars shining on the sky. (My mom was then a guide to me apprising me about the 'Belt Stars' of the sky!). Messages about these wonders on the sky were passed on by mouths in such a way. At present also such wonders are shown to the public through daily news papers.
On walking along the one foot path in rural areas, I often find black beetles moving hurriedly with a small ball of earth. They actually rolled back the ball with their hind legs placed on it; at the same time they also walked back with their fore legs on the ground! These beetles are the Dung beetles (Orthophagus gazella, Scarab beetle, 'Piee vurutti vandu' in Tamil). The ball is nothing but bits of faeces or dung of cattle rolled into a sphere!
In school class room it was taught that transpiration is one of the plant's physiological functions. But do we know that 'reverse transpiration' is also a physiological function? Yes, it is so - in certain plants! In them leaf takes in water and sends it to the stem - reverse of what we learnt and expect - root takes in water and sends it to leaves via stem. These plants are described as 'Leaf - drinkers,' as their leaves are 'drinking' water.
