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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wliicli the surface is thickly beset, of various size, and most 

 pointed where they are least exposed. Their disposition is in 

 horizontal zones, seeming to correspond more or less with the 

 comb tiers. While at the top of the nest they are comparatively 

 few, gradually the numbers increase toward the lower end, and 

 on the bottom they are so numerous that one's finger can scarcely 

 be laid between them. Like the envelope, they are made up of 

 several papery layers so closely blended as to be hardly distin- 

 guishable, forming a substance astonishinglj'- thick, hard, and 

 firm, in color of a dull dark brown, and of very coarse texture. 

 Of what use they are it is difficult to decide ; they may be simply 



Fio. 5. View of Interior of Nest of Mtrapetra scutellaris. 



freaks of Nature. Although their tips are not acute, they may 

 defend the abode against the attacks of tigers, jaguars, kuguars, 

 and other mammalia partial to honey and the grubs of the hive. 

 The nest always hangs low, seldom more than three or four feet 

 from the ground, and protection would appear much needed. It 

 seems hardly possible to deny that they are for the double pur- 

 pose of concealing and of sheltering the entrances, which are in- 

 visible when the nest is looked at from above. Examination re- 

 veals them beneath a row of the projections, which overhang 

 them and keep off the rains like the eaves of a house ; the pas- 

 sages are also intricately twisted, so as to prevent the ingress of 



