592 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. ■ 



gradually to the tip. The whole of the body is clothed with 

 long, dense, and soft hair, of a pale brown, and having a silken 

 lustre. These beautifal nests were brought to the Museum by 

 E. H. Armitage, Esq., who kindly presented me with the speci- 

 mens which have been described. 



A SOMEWHAT similar nest, but of a much more formidable 

 aspect, was discovered by W. B. Lord, Esq. RA., and has beisn 

 figured in the Boys' Own Magcudrie for August, 1864. The shape 

 of the nest is very remarkable, and is exactly that of a soda- 

 water-bottle, suspended by its neck. A very tolerable imitation 

 of this curious nest could be made by coating a soda-water 

 bottle with clay, and sticking it full of porcupine quills, with 

 the points radiating on every side. The following is Mr. Lord's 

 own description : — 



" On looking closely at the .thorny, sinuous branches, we shall 

 see a number of little pendent prickly things, each hanging to 

 its own silken cord, like juvenile hedgehogs ' lynched ' by the 

 fairies of the spring. 



" These are a peculiar species of ' tree-caddis,' which, as far as 

 I know, are as yet undescribed by any one. Their cases are 

 curiously armed with thorns, nipped £rom the tree on which 

 they hang. The thorns are all disposed with their points out- 

 wards, and are stuck into a strong, glutinous material of which 

 the body of the case is composed, and they look for all the 

 world like the spikes of chevaux-de-frise. A web-like skein of 

 singularly strong material serves as a rope whereby to swing the 

 caddis-case from the branch to which it is attached. And a 

 nest more difficult to swallow, and hard to digest, its enemies 

 would be rather puzzled to find." 



As is frequently the case with such nests, the peculiar form 

 serves a double purpose, namely, protection and concealment, 

 the sharp points of the thorns performing the former duty, and 

 their similarity to surrounding objects the latter. Acacias are 

 conspicuous for the thorns with which their branches and some- 

 times their trunks are studded, and in several species the 

 wooden bayonets are several inches in length, and as large and 

 sharp as porcupine quills. These thorns are crowded thickly on 

 the branches, and always diverge from each other, so that the 

 hand can scarcely be insinuated among the boughs without 



