100 NATURE'S TEACHINGS. 



head. The hunters allow him to exhaust his strength by his 

 struggles, and then kill him, or, if possible, capture him alive. 



Both these scenes are represented on the right hand of the 

 illustration. 



On the left hand are several examples of natural birdlime, 

 if .we may use the term. The upper represents the Ant-bear, 

 or Great Ant-eater. This animal feeds in a very curious manner. 

 It goes to an ant-hill, and tears it rpen with its powerful 

 claws. The ants, of course, rush about in wild confusion. 

 Now, the Ant-eater is provided with a long, cylindrical tongue, 

 which looks very like a huge earth-worm, and which is covered 

 with a tenacious slimy secretion. As the ants run to and fro, 

 they adhere to the tongue, and are swept into the mouth of 

 their destroyer. 



Eelow the Ant-eater is the common Drosera, or Sundew, one 

 of our British carnivorous plants. It captures insects, just as 

 has been narrated of the Dionea. But, instead of the leaf 

 closing upon the insect, it arrests its prey by means of little 

 globules of viscous fluid, which exude from the tips of the hairs 

 with which the surface of the leaf is covered. As soon as the 

 insect touches the hairs, they close over it, bind it down, and 

 keep it there until it is digested. Several species of Drosera 

 are known in England, and are found in wet and marshy 

 places. 



Another plant, the Green- winged Meadow Orchis (Orchis 

 mono), has been known to act the part of the Drosera. A fly 

 had contrived to push its head against the viscous fluid of the 

 stigmatic surface, and, not being able to extricate itself, was 

 found sticking there. 



Next comes a portion of the web of the common Garden 

 Spider (Epeira diadema). We have already treated of this 

 web as a net, and we will now see how it comes within the 

 present category. 



In the web of the spider there are at least two distinct kinds 

 of threads. Those which radiate from the centre to the cir- 

 cumference are strong and smooth, while those which unite them 

 are much slighter, and are covered with tiny globules set at 

 regular intervals. When the web is newly spun, these globules 

 are found to be nearly as tenacious as birdlime, and it is by 

 these means that an insect which falls into the web is arrested, 



