Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/84

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��Popular Science Monthly

���Portion of a motion picture taken through periscopes at the bottom of the sea in the crystal-clear West Indian waters

��Seeing the Wonders of the Ocean Through an Inverted Periscope

AS is well known, the periscope enables ±\ the submarine, while submerged, to see above the surface of the water. Why not invert the periscope, attach it to the side of ocean liners, and thus enable the passengers to study marine growths and fishes ? Provided there was sufficient light beneath the water, the inverted periscope might even be used to search for sunken treasure!

This is exactly the use to which it is put in the latest underwater motion picture film of the Williamson Brothers, "The Sub- marine Eye." It will be recalled that the thrilling underwater scenes in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," were photographed by the Williamsons. In "The Submarine Eye," the new under-sea thriller, the invert- ed periscope, as shown in the illustration above, is used to lo cate a safe containing treasure. In the crystal-clear waters of the West Indies the audience is shown the marvels of Nature at the bottom of the sea where the light from above is reflected from the dazzlingly white sand. Finally, after a series of harrowing adventures many fathoms under water, the safe is located by the inverted periscope.

��Importing Japanese Mos- quitoes for Bird Food

THE delicate vocal organs of song birds respond magically to special care be- stowed upon the diet. For this reason birds that are cultivated in captivity are fed specially prepared foods de- signed to furnish maximum nourishment with minimum labor of the digestive organs. A food which has been found especially valuable to bird-breeders has for its prin- cipal ingredients Japanese mosquitoes and ants' eggs. It is prepared by George Jenkins, of New York city, an expert on the care and feeding of birds. The na- tionality of the mosquitoes is not supposed to make a dif- ference in the taste or digest- ibility of the food. The reason the insects are imported from Japan is that the Japan- ese have a method of catching them in large quantities which as yet Americans have not discovered.

In the photograph below, Mr. Jenkins is shown inspecting a shipment of twenty- eight pounds of mosquitoes. The food is intended for soft-billed birds that do not feed on seeds. Among these are the thrushes, mocking birds, nightingales, tan- agers and many others. In the oval photo- graph an American thrush is shown feeding her nestling with the prepared food. She takes the food on her bill and thrusts it far down the youngster's throat.

���Twenty-eight pounds of Japanese mosquitoes to be used as an ingredient in the bird-food

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