230 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



and being even more than proportionately thick. The cotton is 

 of very trifling use in commerce, the staple being not much more 

 than an inch in length, and is chiefly employed for stuffing mat- 

 tresses and pillows. The native tribes of Guiana use it for the 

 tiny arrows which they project through their long and slender 

 air-guns, fastening it upon the head of the arrows so as to make 

 them lit the tube. A quantity of this cotton is now before me, 

 and it is evident that the very qualities which render it useless 

 for commercial or mechanical purposes are precisely those which 

 are best adapted for the structure of the nest. It is remarkably 

 fine in texture, being almost silky to the touch ; and, instead of 

 becoming inextricably entangled, as is the case with ordinary 

 cotton-wool, it can not be handled without leaving a number of 

 short fibres on the fingers. Its usual color is yellowish, but occa- 

 sionally it is nearly white. 



Several nests are often found in each spathe ; and it is a cu- 

 rious fact that, in such cases, they are agglutinated together with 

 the same substance that fastens them so firmly to the leaf, and 

 are connected by a kind of gallery, which runs along the side, 

 and communicates with each nest. It is thought that the bird 

 occupies the same nest repeatedly, after the manner of swallows 

 and martins, and that it does not desert the tenement until the 

 spathe becomes detached and falls to the ground, after the custom 

 of its kind. Fallen spathes are plentiful under the palms, and in 

 them the nests of the Palm Swift are frequently seen. 



Sometimes the Palm Swift chooses another tree, and builds its 

 nest in the palmetto, a palm belonging to the genus Chamtzrops. 

 In such cases, the nest is of a different shape to that which is 

 found in the cocoa-palm, something resembling in form the India- 

 rubber tobacco-pouches which are now so common. The exte- 

 rior of the nest is loose and woolly, instead of being firm and com- 

 pact; and in some instances it is so very loose, that it looks just 

 like a doll's wisr. The earffs of the Palm Swift are white. 



The man who first invented sewing in all probability thought 

 that he had discovered, or rather created, an art which was en- 

 tirely new, and that to him alone was due the credit of perceiving 

 the virtues of a fibre thrust through holes. 



The capabilities of his invention he could not be expected to 

 foresee, inasmuch as he would in all probability limit its powers 

 to the decoration rather than the clothing of his own person. In 



