The Breckenridge news., 1906-03-07
NATURAL BUILDERS.
6oASTFUL MAN SHOULD CONSIDER
THE WORK OF ANIMALS.


ders They Have Performed.
Man prides himself upon his marvel
Gus inventions. He holds up to the ad-
miration of the world the wonderful
buildings which he has constructed and
thinks himself unrivaled as an archi-
tect, but ''he who teaches man knowl-
edge has instructed the smallest insects
in the art of building and has thus an
ticipated the works of man as an archi-
tect." They who builded the tower Of
Babel thought their invention of turn
ing earth into stone a most wonderful
discovery, but the white ant and the
busy little bee had practiced this art
from the earliest days. The great math-
ematican instructed the tiny bee how
to build its first cell in the manner
which combines the greatest amount of
strength with the least material. In
stinct, which may be called perpetual
memory, has preserved the knowledge
thus communicated, and the art has
been practiced by the countless myri-
ads of their descendants in all climes
and countries. The little bee has been
engaged in storing away the honey in
these hexagonal cells. constructing the
cells of wax and placing within them
the bee bread, a paste made of pollen
and honey, for the food of the young.
In each of these cells the queen bee de-
posits an egg. Some of the bees sur
round their nests with down collected
from the leaves of plants to serve as a
nonconductor of heat, to guard against
changes of temperature.
Nature taught the inferior orders OF
animals carpentry, taught them to di-
vide their houses into various apart
ments, to construct domes, arches,
staircases and colonnades and to eX-
cavate tunnels. The scarlet hangings
of the ancient city Of Tyre excited the
admiration of the then known world,
but there was a little insect that knew
the art, long before the celebrated
Tyrian dye was discovered. of hanging
the walls of its cell with tapestry of
scarlet more brilliant than that Of
Tyre.
Selecting the scarlet petals of the
poppy. the upholsterer bee cuts small
oval pieces as neatly as If done with n
pair Of scissors, sezes the pieces be-
tween her legs and carries them to her
nest. She overlays them three or four
in thickness, fitting the pieces very
dextrously, and thus hanging her nest
all around with this splendid scarlet
tapestry In this beautiful nest her
eggs are hatched.
Men have been ages in bringing pop
ulous cities to their fullest extent, but
the white ants require only few
months to build city containing
much larger number Of inhabitants
than Babylon in all its glory. These
habitations are built with two stories,
with long galleries and numerous
chambers. The spider weAves his
home as a silken net; the locust con-
structs his of the bark of trees, cut in
to shape by a sawlike organ which he
possesses; the kingfisher rears its
young in a floating cradle; the ant
builds winding passages to numerous
chambers. In the innermost of these
chambers the infant treasures are laid
at night to protect them from cold. In
the morning. when the sun is up, the
workers convey the larvae to the upper
chambers, close under the roof, where
they may have warmth.
The beaver hut is round and arched
and has cellar, a flooring. a ceiling
and n roof raised by an animal desti-
tute of the builders art and instructed
only by nature. The hare keeps open a
chimney to his burrOw for circulation
of air, from which in cold countries a
little column of steam is often seen to
arise. The chimpanZee builds for him
self hut of branches and leaves,
which is. however, roofiess. Many
shellGsh have been taught by Mother
Nature to enlarge their houses without
moving out of them. Birds build vari-
Gus kinds of nests In various kinds of
places. They hang them from trees,
they sew them to a living leaf. they
weave mating above them, they
build them in sections under a common
TOOl III lue shape VI Il purse, luey pldSc
them in tufts of grass where
They found their lowly house OF withered
bents
And coarser spear grass.
They line their houses with feathers,
leaves, grass. hair, string. moss; they
cement them, they glue them, they plas-
ter them.
The most Insignificant Of natures
creative bounty have talent for max
ing houses for their young. The gentry
In yellow jackets deposit their eggs in
brown paper cups or in little clay cells;
the spider, that sly spinner, ties them
up in bags of Quaker colored silk.
Some do them up in gray bundles and
hang them on trees; some find cradle
for them in the ripenlng apple or the
reddening cherry. while some shelter
them beneath the leathern umbrella OF
the toadstool. Everywhere these larvae
may be found as spring opens. They