120 BOMBAY DUCKS 



Nothing shoddy is turned out in Nature's workshop ; 

 even organs which will be used but for an hour are 

 finished with the utmost care. The mayfly, the winged 

 life of which endures not a whole day, could not be 

 more accurately constructed were it intended to last for 

 a thousand years. The mollusc, that spends its whole 

 life buried in the mud at the bottom of the ocean, 

 secretes for itself a most beautiful shell — a shell which 

 man does not see to admire until it is cast up on the 

 shore by the waves, long after its possessor has passed 

 away. 



The birds and the lizards, however, care nothing for 

 the workmanship of the wings of the termites. To 

 them the insects are merely so many fatted calves 

 waiting to be eaten. The day that sees the swarming 

 of the termites is for the birds and the lizards a red- 

 letter day, it is their joiir de Ian, the one day in the 

 year when they are provided with more food than they 

 can eat. 



Hagen tells of a swarm of termites in America where 

 the insects formed a dark cloud, preyed upon by hundreds 

 of birds, which so gorged themselves that they could 

 not close their beaks ! Yesterday the swarming of the 

 white ants took place in the evening, so the lizards 

 devoured the lion's share. Many of these reptiles must 

 to-day be suffering from internal pains similar to those 

 endured by many a schoolboy on Boxing Day. Tiny 

 little lizards were to be seen running about the walls of 

 the bungalow, seizing and devouring termites not very 

 much smaller than themselves. They found the wings 

 most difficult to negotiate, and most ludicrous did they 



