[ 208 ] 
irt then lo6fened j and which they colled together 
into a little ball 5 and, having moiftened it to a kind 
of pafle, fpread it out with their talons and fore- feet, 
into its prefent form. 
Hence the marbling of this paper is the neceflary 
refult of the method of its conftrudion : for as each 
flieet confifts of a number of fafciae or breadths, 
equal to the reach of the animal, that fpreads them ; 
each of thefe fafciae will be of a difeent fhade, 
according to the feveral colours of the little bundles 
of fibres, colleded by fo many labourers from dif- 
ferent materials. 
Upon the whole, the fubftance before us is a true 
paper ; but, by the exad oeconomy of nature, wrought 
to that degree of perfedion only, which was necefiary 
to ferve the fingle purpofe it was intended for. Be- 
ing examined by the microfcope, it appears to be of 
a coarfer grain, a fhorter ftaple, and of a much loofer 
texture j and is a rare, though not a fingular inftance, 
of a natural produdion falling far fliort of the arti- 
ficial one of the fame kind. 
The infide ftrudure of thefe nefts is fo well de- 
feribed by Mr. de Reaumur, that we cannot hope to 
difeover any thing new in tlie opening it. 
XXXIII. 
