Strange dwellings. Abridged from 'Homes without hands'. Popular ed1882 |
Términos y frases comunes
abdomen Amazon Ants animal Ants aperture attached Baltimore Oriole beak beautiful Beavers Bedeguar beetles bird body branches British British Museum build burrow called caterpillar cells Chaffinch cocoon colour combs common common wasp constructed covered curious Driver Ants earth eggs entrance excavated exterior FAIRY MARTIN fastened feathers feet female FIERY TOPAZ flies gall grass ground grub habitation hair hatched hexagonal hole hollow hornet hymenoptera illustration inches inhabitants insect interior jaws labours larva larvæ leaf leaves length look male manner materials Mole moth Mouse natives nearly parasitic pass peculiar pensile nests perfect placed plants plentiful prey pupa remarkable resembles Ringdove Sand Martin scarcely seems seen shape side silken slender SOCIABLE WEAVER soft sometimes soon species specimens spider spot structure substance surface tail Termites thick threads Titmouse tolerably tree tube tunnel twigs walls wasp WEAVER BIRD wings wonderful workers young
Pasajes populares
Página 51 - ... that it is time they should return. They rise in a mass, receiving additions to their numbers from every intervening place, till they reach this neighbourhood in an amazing flock. Sometimes they pass on without stopping, and are joined by those which have spent the day here. At other times they make my park their place of rendezvous, and cover the ground in vast profusion, or perch upon the surrounding trees. After tarrying here for a certain time, every rook takes wing. They linger in the air...
Página 41 - ... gives a perfect hexagon. Many years ago Maraldi, being struck with the fact that the lozenge-shaped plates always had the same angles, took the trouble to measure them, and found that in each lozenge, the large angles measured 109° 28', and the smaller, 70° 32', the two together making 180°, the equivalent of two right angles.
Página 1 - The central apartment, or keep, if we so term it, is a nearly spherical chamber, the roof of which is nearly on a level with the earth around the hill, and therefore situated at a considerable depth from the apex of the heap. Around this keep are driven two circular passages, or galleries, one just level with the ceiling and the other at some height above. The upper circle is much smaller than the lower. Five short descending passages connect the galleries with each other, but the only entrance into...
Página 35 - I have not the slightest doubt of it. And, my conclusions have not been arrived at from hasty or careless observation, nor from seeing the Ants do something that looked a little like it, and then guessing the results.
Página 44 - ... closed at midday, the same as they are at night. In the midst of this dreary drought, it was wonderful to see those tiny creatures, the ants, running about with their accustomed vivacity. I put the bulb of a thermometer three inches under the soil, in the sun, at midday, and found the mercury to stand at 132° to 134°; and if certain kinds of beetles were placed on the surface, they ran about a few seconds and expired. But this broiling heat only augmented the activity of the long-legged black...
Página 18 - ... it performs. Having found its thread, the feathered tailor begins to pass it through the holes, drawing the sides of the leaf towards each other, so as to form a kind of hollow cone, the point downwards. Generally a single leaf is used for this purpose, but whenever the bird cannot find one that is sufficiently large, it sews two together, or even fetches another leaf and fastens it with the fibre. Within the hollow thus formed the bird next deposits a quantity of soft white down, like short...
Página 5 - ... and scattering dismay among the inmates. As the ants run hither and thither, in consternation, their dwelling falling like a city shaken by an earthquake, the author of all this misery flings its slimy tongue among them, and sweeps them into its mouth by hundreds. Perhaps the ants have no...
Página 45 - The nest is usually fixed among the horizontal branches of an apple-tree; sometimes in a solitary thorn, crab or cedar, in some retired part of the woods. It is constructed with little art, and scarcely any concavity, of small sticks and twigs, intermixed with green weeds, and blossoms of the common maple. On this almost flat bed, the eggs, usually three or four in number, are placed; these are of a uniform greenish blue colour, and of a size proportionable to that of the bird. While the female is...
Página 4 - December retreats to the side of a rock, where, by dint of scraping, and allowing the snow to fall upon her, she forms a cell in which to reside during the period of her accouchement. Within this strange nursery she produces her young, and remains with them beneath the snow until the month of March, when she emerges into the outer air, bringing with her the baby bears, who are then about as large as ordinary rabbits. As the time passes on, the breath of the family, together with the warmth exhaled...
Página 3 - In spite of the formidable foes by which it is attacked, and which take up their residence in the very centre of its habitations, the Prairie Dog is an exceedingly prolific animal, multiplying rapidly, and extending its excavations to vast distances. Indeed, when once the Prairie Dogs settle themselves in a convenient spot, their increase seems to have no bounds, and the little heaps of earth which stand near the mouth of their burrows extend as far as the eye can reach.