The Romance of Animal Arts and Crafts; Being an Interesting Account of the Spinning, Weaving, Sewing Manufacture of Paper and Pottery, a Ronautics, Ra

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXIV WORKERS IN SECRETORY AND EXCRETORY PRODUCTS Nature's cement-- Edible swifts --Birds'-nest soup--A weird company--Laying the foundations--Birds'-nesting in Java--Deceptive architecture--An inadequate cradle--Nest-building shrimps--Praying insects--A saintly appearance--The soothsayer--A wolf in sheep's clothing--The soothsayer's true character--A deadly weapon--Coming to grips--The perils of courtship--An elaborate egg-case--Arts of peace--The mother cockroach's little bag--Nature's economy--Beetle hunting--The initiation--An unattractive covert--A busy scene--Fighting with prejudice--The sacred scarab--Shovel and rake--How the scarab lost his feet--Important news--Hastening to the feast--The immortal Fabre--The beetle's callipers--Shaping the ball--Feverish activity--The journey--The beetle's mate--Highwayman and diplomat--Fighting for the spoils--Lending a hand--Travelling extraordinary--A perplexing situation--Ways and means--Calling a halt--Preparing the banqueting-hall--An unscrupulous guest--A Gargantuan feast--The scarab's nursery--A chip of the old block. WE have already seen that many animals make use of saliva in their building operations in order to bind the materials together and give strength and solidity to the whole structure. It is employed by mason bees to make cement from dust; wasps utilize it in forming the paper of which their nests are composed; many birds when building glue together shreds of vegetable substances by the same means, and it adds to the hardness and coherence of the mud and clay of the swallow's nest. It appears also in the form of silken threads, of which caterpillars make such BIRDS-NEST SOUP ingenious use in a variety of ways. But the most striking instance of all is furnished by the Edible Swifts...