Page 21 - Stories for Thinking Children 2

D ear children, have you heard of a kind of bird known
as megapode? When these birds have chicks to raise,
D it is always the male birds which look after them. First
the mother bird digs a big hole to lay her eggs in. After she has
laid her eggs, the male has to keep the nest at a temperature of
92 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius).
In order measure the temperature of the nest the male bird buries
its beak in the sand which covers it, using its beak like a ther-
mometer. The bird repeats this operation over and over again. If
the temperature of the nest goes up, it immediately opens air
holes to bring the temperature down again. Also, the bird's beak
is such a delicate thermometer that if somebody throws a handful
of soil on top of the nest and the temperature rises even the tini-
est bit, the bird can detect this. Such measurements are only pos-
sible for us to make by using a ther-
mometer, and yet megapodes have
been doing this for centuries, and
never make the slightest mistake.
This is because Allah taught them
everything, and it is the Almighty
Allah Who created a beak with the
sensitivity of a thermometer.

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