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 
