United States or San Marino ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In order to pass through it, the Penduline, small though he be, has to force the elastic partition, which yields slightly and then contracts. Lastly, the house is furnished with a mattress of first-quality cotton. Here lie from six to eight white eggs, the size of a cherry-stone. Well, this wonderful nest is a barbarous casemate compared with that of the Banded Epeira.
Where shall we find in the Penduline's mattress aught to vie with the Epeira's eiderdown, that teazled russet gossamer? The Spider is superior to the bird in every way, in so far as concerns her work. But, on her side, the Penduline is a more devoted mother.
The outward appearances increase the likeness: one can almost see the traces of a knitting-needle working with coarse stitches. That is why, struck by this shape, the Provencal peasant, in his expressive language, calls the Penduline lou Debassaire, the Stocking-knitter. The early-ripening seedlets of the widows and poplars furnish the materials for the work.
You speak to me, in your own fashion, of a strange psychology which is able to reconcile the wonders of a master craftsmanship with aberrations due to unfathomable stupidity. Let us compare the work of the Banded Epeira with that of the Penduline Titmouse, the cleverest of our small birds in the art of nest-building. This Tit haunts the osier-beds of the lower reaches of the Rhone.
They require a canvas, a warp, to keep them in position. Tiny dead stalks, with fibrous barks, well softened by the action of moisture and the air, furnish the Penduline with a coarse tow, not unlike that of hemp.
Word Of The Day