252 CURIOUS HOMES AND TIIEIU TENANTS. 



The fact is that these birds, like the bower birds 

 of Australia whicli they so little resemble in size, 

 looks, or in many of their habits, love to embellish their 

 dwellings with any glittering or bright-colored thing 

 they can pick up. 



The strange actions of these birds, and the won- 

 derful skill they show in building their curious 

 homes, serve to protect them from the savage na- 

 tives, who indeed are much in awe of them, and dare 

 not hurt them or destroy their dwellings, thinking it 

 very unlucky to do so, for they say " these crea- 

 tures are not really birds, but spirits, that have the 

 power and will to punish severely any who injure 

 them." It is a curious fact that the natives of Aus- 

 tralia have the same fear of injuring the bower bird 

 or its work, and for exactly the same reason. 



SPIDERS AND COBWEBS. 



FLYING WITHOUT WINGS. 



Exposed to every attack, easily crushed, soft-bodied 

 as they all are, wingless, and in most cases possessing 

 no great speed in running, or the power — belonging to 

 grasshoppers and their kind — of swiftly springing out 

 of harm's way, spiders, were it not for two gifts be- 

 stowed upon them by ISTature, could neither defend 

 themselves nor capture the prey upon which they de- 

 pend for subsistence. 



Both of these gifts are fluids, one a poison and 



