Q.Why do pickled onions have an illuminous speckles in them sometimes?
A.The iridescent specks on pickled onions are crystals of quercetin, formed as water is displaced. Quercetin is a flavonoid also found in citrus fruit.
A.The speckles, or protoporphyrin pigments, on hens eggs are to strengthen thinner egg shell, which has been caused partly by calcium deficiency.
Q.Wot is the fastest animal on earth?
A.The fastest land animal, the cheetah (from the Sanskrit word Chitraka meaning speckled) can run at 114kph/71mph over 400m. It does 0-70mph in 3 secs.
Q.What is the history of the beer, Speckled Hen, and the origins of the name?
A.Old Speckled Hen was brewed in 1979 by Morland Brewery to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the brewery's MG car - the mud splattered Ol' Speckled 'Un.
Q.Why do cigarettes have a speckeled pattern on the filters?
A.The end of a cigarette used to be wrapped in cork to stop the smoker tearing the paper. New techniques make this unnecessary, but the pattern has stayed.
Q.What colour is a female blackbird
A.A female blackbird has dark brown, speckled feathers and an orange beak. Eggs take 14 days to hatch. There are around 4,400,000 blackbirds in Britain.