like sticks of ivory. The odds and ends mislaid by
man find a home in the bird's museum, where we see pipe-stems, metal
buttons, strips of cotton stuff and stone axe-heads.

The collection at either entrance to the bower is large enough to fill
half a bushel. As these objects are of no use to the bird, its only
motive for accumulating them must be an art-lover's hobby. Our common
Magpie has similar tastes: any shiny thing that he comes upon he picks
up, hides and hoards.

Well, the Eumenes, who shares this passion for bright pebbles and empty
snail-shells, is the Bower-bird of the insect world; but she is a more
practical collector, knows how to combine the useful and the ornamental
and employs her finds in the construction of her nest, which is both a
fortress and a museum. When she finds nodules of translucent quartz,
she rejects everything else: the building will be all the prettier for
them. When she comes across a little white shell, she hastens to
beautify her dome with it; should fortune smile and empty snail-shells
abound, she encrusts the whole fabric with them, until it becomes the
supreme expression of her artistic taste. Is this so? Or is it not so?
Who shall decide?

The nest of Eumenes pomiformis is the size of an average cherry and
constructed of pure mortar, without the least outward pebblework. Its
shape is exactly similar to that which we have just described. When
built upon a horizontal base of sufficient extent, it is a dome with a
central neck, funnelled like the mouth of an urn. But when the
foundation is reduced to a mere point, as on the twig of a shrub, the
nest becomes a spherical capsule, always, of course, surmounted by a
neck. It is then a miniature specimen of exotic pottery, a paunchy
alcarraza. Its thickens is very slight, less than that of a sheet of
paper; it crushes under the least effort of the fingers. The outside is
not quite even. It displays wrinkles and seams, due to the different
courses of mortar, or else knotty protuberances distributed almost
concentrically.

Both Hymenoptera accumulate caterpillars in their coffers, whether
domes or jars. Let us give an abstract of the bill of fare. These
documents, for all their dryness, possess a value; they will enable
whoso cares to interest himself in the Eumenes to perceive to what
extent instinct varies the diet, according to the place and season. The
food is plentiful, but lacks variety. It consists of tiny caterpillars,
by whic