

L I 



PREFACE. 



IN the following pages I have tried to present to my 

 readers a point of view of the great realm of animal 

 life which has not received so much attention as 

 some others, and which I venture to believe will be 

 found of considerable interest -namely, animals as 

 craftsmen : as the builders of imperishable monuments 

 that will long outlast the most magnificent ever con- 

 ceived and executed by man ; and as the artificers of 

 the daintiest, most fairy-like structures, so frail as to 

 last but a few short hours. Some of the most beau- 

 tiful of these works are accomplished by creatures 

 quite low down in the scale of animal life creatures 

 destitute of brain or vision, little better than mere blobs 

 of protoplasmic jelly, yet gifted with selective powers 

 of a high degree in the gathering of their building 

 materials, and of extraordinary skill in the construc- 

 tion of their exquisite homes. The animal craftsman 

 has many lessons to teach, and at the same time pre- 

 sents many interesting problems that have yet to be 

 satisfactorily answered ; while careful observations of 

 the methods of working, of the materials used, and the 

 design of the completed structure, as peculiar to closely 

 related species, will often reveal unsuspected steps in 

 the history of their evolution. 



