266 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



with -wliicli the violet carpenter bee works are chisels 

 — here shown — ^hard and keen edged, and most prac- 

 tical tools, however seemingly inadequate for the 

 work they do. 



But while the carpenter bees work with chisels, 

 there arc many insects that use saws. These saws, 



however, are much 

 better contrived, fin- 

 ished, and sharp- 

 ened, and more ef- 

 fective than any yet 

 made of steel. With 

 them the little crafts- 

 men undertake jobs 

 of work which, if 

 multiplied propor- 

 tionately to his size, 

 no human workman 

 would think of enter- 

 ing upon unaided. In the saw fly, which owns perhaps 

 the most perfect instruments of the kind, our invent- 

 ors might find a teacher whose suggestions would not 

 be valueless. The saw is in the head of the insect. 

 It is double, working alternately in the groove, the 

 two very cleverly strengthened by a thick plate of 

 horn at their back. The system of toothing is differ- 

 ent from any used by human beings, and the saw it- 

 self, instead of having the teeth in a straight line, is 

 curved into the shape of they hole in a violin. Like 

 the wonderfully effective cutting edge of sharks' 

 teeth, the teeth of the msect's saw are furnished with 



Saws of the saw lly, much enlarged. 



