4 INSECT MANUFACTURES. 



unfrequently, a higher purpose, in administering 

 to the wants of mankind. 



In reading the history, or in watching the pro- 

 ceedings of birds and insects, how many remark- 

 able instances do we meet with of that which may 

 be called manufacture, though performed without 

 hands ! How curious to watch in the early spring 

 the proceedings of those busy basket-making birds, 

 the rooks ! Rude and clumsy as their nests may 

 at first appear, it is just the sort of workmanship 

 best calculated for their wants. They do not, 

 indeed, choose the smooth and flexible osier-twigs 

 which we should think necessary for basket- 

 making, but they contrive by means of brittle, 

 dead, forked sticks, to plait together a strong 

 bristling out-work, within which they interweave 

 a finer basket-work of fibrous roots, rude indeed, 

 but not inelegant or unsuitable. Then, among 

 birds and insects too, what persevering and indus- 

 trious carpenters, masons, tailors, miners, and 

 weavers may we not find. Perhaps there are not 

 many persons who have watched the mason-wasps 

 boring their galleries in brick or sand, or building 

 the round towers which serve them as out-works ; 



