The Bear Larinus 



applied to the opposite orifice, carefully 

 collecting the granules as these are evacuated 

 by the intestinal factory. It is precious stuff, 

 this, very precious; and the grub will be 

 careful not to lose a scrap of it, for it 

 has naught else wherewith to plaster its 

 dwelling. 



The dropping seized is therefore placed 

 in position at once, spread with the tips of 

 the mandibles and compressed with the fore- 

 head and rump. A few waste chips and 

 flakes, a few bits of down are torn from the 

 uncemented ceiling overhead; and the plas- 

 terer incorporates them, atom by atom, with 

 the still moist putty. 



This gives, as the inmate increases in size, 

 a coat of rough-cast which, smoothed with 

 meticulous care, lines the whole of the cell. 

 Together with the natural wall furnished 

 by the prickly rind of the artichoke, it makes 

 a powerful bastion, far superior, as a defen- 

 sive system, to the thatched huts of the 

 Spotted Larinus. 



The plant, moreover, lends itself to pro- 

 tracted residence. It is slightly built but 

 slow to decay. The winds do not prostrate 

 it in the mire, supported as it is by brush- 

 59 



