SUMMER INDUSTRIES 



the tunic of a sea-squirt and use it as a cloak. 



Of making shelters there is great abundance of 

 illustration. They are often hollowed out in earth 

 and wood, and vary from rough burrows like a 

 rabbit's, to a beautifully finished structure like the 

 tube of the female trap-door spider, with its hinged 

 door and its side-room with a curtain over the en- 

 trance. Or they may be made of light materials, 

 woven or sewn or somehow fastened together, one 

 of the most striking types being the decorated bower 

 of the bower-bird, since it is a house rather than a 

 cradle, as most nests are. Or they may be genuine 

 buildings of clay or other material. At one end 

 we may place the substantial termitary, sometimes 

 ten feet high and strong enough for a man to stand 

 on ; at the other end the dainty nest of the wasp, 

 almost as light as a feather. 



Let us take one instance of the manner of working 

 the behaviour of the tailor-ants, common in hot 

 countries. They draw leaves together to make a 

 shelter, and sew them with silk. But as they have 

 no silk of their own they use their silk-secreting 

 larvse to furnish the thread. They sometimes find 

 it difficult to bring two rather distant leaves close 

 enough together to be sewn, and then five or six will 

 form a living chain to bridge the gap. The waist 

 of A is gripped in the jaws of B, who is in turn 

 gripped by C, and so on a literally living chain, 

 a notable gymnastic feat. Several chains will 

 work together for hours on end trying to draw two 

 leaves close together. 



We see that there are many kinds of animal 

 97 G 



