FUNGUS ANT. port the weight of so large an animal. The form of the nest is essentially conical, a large cone occupying the centre, and smaller cones being grouped round it like pinnacles round a Gothic spire. It is stated that nests have been seen that were full twenty feet in height, and that had a circumference of one hundred feet. The accompanying illus tration represents a most singular structure, which very little resembles an insect's nest. It might very well be taken for a sponge, looks much like a fungus, and has the appearance of an overgrown and partially decayed puff-ball. The real material, however, of which the nest is made, is formed of the short cottony fibres which fill the seed pods of the cotton tree. The fibre is so short that it is incapable of being wov en into fabrics. The Fungus Ants, however, find it useful for their work, and contrive to weave it so dextrously that the individuality of the fibres is lost, and they are all made into a compact and uniform mass. The size of the nests varies, but is sometimes very considerable, a full-sized one, being often as large as a man's head. The ant itself is rather a curious little cocoon being large in proportion to the size of creature, dark in color, covered with many the moth, and the quantity of silk is necessarily angular protuberances, and being remarkable very great. Although the thread is not so fine for a couple of long, sharp spines that project from the thorax, one on either side. On the right hand of the next illustration may be seen a large moth flying downward, and just above it are a couple of oval objects attached to a slender bough. This moth is that magnificent insect the Atlas Moth, and the oval objects are the cocoons which are spun by its larva. The Atlas Moth is a truly splendid insect. Creamy white, soft yellow, and pale brown are the chief tints it wears; but they are so beautifully blended, the plumage is of so downy a softness, and the expanse of wing is so great that the Atlas holds its own high rank even among the more vividly colored insects of its own country. There are many members of this genus scattered over the different parts of the earth, the finest and largest specimens being found between the tropics. In all the species the antennæ of the males are remarkable for their beauty, being deeply feathered, and shaped something like a spearhead with a triangular blade, and in many examples there is a loose membranous talc-like spot in the middle of the wing. The cocoons of the Atlas Moth are made of silken thread, much like that of the common silk-worm, the or glossy as that of the ordinary silk-worm, it is strong, smooth, and serviceable, and capable of being woven into useful fabrics. The House-builder Moth is an insect which is common in many parts of the West Indies, in several places being so plentiful that the sight of its long pendent domiciles is any thing but pleasant to the proprietor of a garden. The reader will observe that in the illustration the nest is shown as depending from the caterpillar, part of which protrudes from its mouth and the other part is hidden. This attitude is given because it is that in which the insect is generally seen. Scraps of wood mixed with fragments of leaves are the materials which are used, and they are bound together very firmly by the silken threads with which so many caterpillars are endowed. There is a tolerable degree of elasticity about it, especially at the entrance, which is slightly expanded so as to assume an irregular funnel-like shape, and can be drawn together at will by means of the silken threads attached to its circumference. caterpillar has thus two means of guarding itself from attacks. If it is still clinging to a branch, it can retreat into the house and press the mouth so firmly against the branch that it The PENSILE SPIDER'S NEST. is closed effectively, just as a limpet shelters its soft body by pressing the top of the shell against the rock. Or, if detached, it can pull the lips together, and thus shut itself up in its strange house as completely as a box tortoise in its shell. The Oriental idea that feminine delicacy is only to be maintained by concealing the face, seems to have been borrowed from the House-builder Moth, which is a perfect model of female excellence, according to Oriental notions, always staying at home, always hiding her face, and always producing enormous families. Perhaps the male may be attracted to the female by some peculiar instinct, for the eyes can have little to do with the discovery, she, being so closely shut up in her house, and never leaving it till the day of her death. The Tufted Spider of the West Indies spins a large, oval, cocoon-like nest. This creature derives its name from the remarkable tufts of stiff, bristle-like hairs which decorate the limbs. Of the curious Spherical Spider nests, with their black cross bars, nothing is known except the mere fact of their existence. ranged methodically upon the other. The labor must have been considerable, even if the spider had nothing to do but to arrange and fasten together pieces of leaves which had already been selected. The Water Spider is a most curious and interesting creature, because it affords an example of an animal which breathes atmospheric air constructing a home beneath the water, and filling it with the air needful for respiration. The sub-aquatic cell of the Water Spider may be found in many rivers and ditches, where the water does not run very swiftly. It is made of silk, as is the case with all spiders' nests, and is generally egg-shaped, having an opening below. This cell is filled with air; and if the spider be kept in a glass vessel, it may be seen reposing in the cell, with its head downward, after the manner of its tribe. The Water Spider places her eggs in this cell, spinning a saucer-shaped cocoon, and fixing it against the inner side of the cell and near the top. In this cocoon are about a hundred eggs, of a spherical shape, and very small. The cell is a true home for the spider, which passes its earliest days under the water, and when it is strong enough to construct a subaquatic home for itself, brings its prey to the cell before eating it. There is another spider which frequents the water, but which only makes a temporary and movable residence. This is the Raft Spider, which is represented in the illustration of its natural size. Not content with chasing insects on land, it follows them in the water, on the surface of which it can run freely. It needs, however, a resting-place, and forms one by getting together a quantity of dry leaves and similar substances, which it gathers into a rough ball, and fastens with silken threads. On this ball the spider sits, and allows itself to be blown about the water by the wind. Apparently it has no means of directing its course, but suffers its raft to traverse the surface as the wind or current may carry it. The spider does not merely sit upon the raft, and there capture any prey that may happen to come within reach, but when it sees an insect upon the surface, it leaves the raft, runs swiftly over the water, secures its prey, and brings it back to the raft. It can even descend below the surface of the There is a species of spider which constructs a remarkable pensile nest, as seen in the illustration. The spider takes several concave seed-water, and will often crawl several inches in pods, and fastens them firmly together with the silken thread of which webs are made, and in the interior the eggs are placed. In the lower part of the illustration is a leaf upon which are piled a number of fragments of leaves, so as to form a rude conical heap. This is also the work of a spider, and is made with great ingenuity, for the structure has been regularly built up of a great number of pieces, each being ar depth. This feat it does not perform by diving, as is the case with the water spider, but by means of the aquatic plants, down whose stems it crawls. Its capability of existing for some time beneath the surface of the water is often the means of saving its life; for, when it sees an enemy approaching, it quietly slips under the raft, and there lies in perfect security until the danger has passed away. THE RAFT SPIDER. There is a well-known marine species of this group, called the Fifteen-Spined Stickle-back, a long-bodied, long-snouted fish, with a slightly projecting lower jaw, and a row of fifteen short and sharp spines along the back. This creature makes its nest of the smaller algæ, and the delicate green and purple seaweeds which fringe our coasts. Sometimes, indeed, it becomes rather eccentric in its architecture, and builds in very curious situations. A case is on record where a pair of Stickle-backs had made their nest in the loose end of a rope, from which the separated strands hung out about a yard from the surface, over a depth of four or As a rule, fishes display but little architect- | five fathoms, and to which the materials could ural genius, their anatomical construction de- only have been brought, of course, in the mouth barring them from raising any but the simplest of the fish, from the distance of about thirty feet. edifice. A fish has but one tool, its mouth, They were formed of the usual aggregation of and even this instrument is of very limited ca- the finer sorts of green and red sea-weed, but pacity. Still, although the nest which a fish they were so matted together in the hollow can make is necessarily of a slight and rude formed by the untwisted strands of the rope character, there are some members of that class that the mass constituted an oblong ball of which construct houses which deserve the name. nearly the size of the fist, in which had been The best examples of architecture among fishes deposited the scattered assemblage of spawn, are those which are produced by the Stickle- and which was bound into shape with a thread backs, those well-known little beings whose of animal substance, which was passed through spiny bodies, brilliant colors, and dashing cour- and through in various directions, while the age make them such favorites with all who rope itself formed an outside covering to the study nature. These fishes make their nests whole. of the delicate vegetation that is found in fresh water, and will carry materials from some little distance in order to complete the home. The materials of which the nest is made are extremely variable, but they are always constructed so as to harmonize with the surrounding objects, and thus to escape ordinary observation. Sometimes it is made of bits of grass which have been blown into the river, sometimes of straws, and sometimes of growing plants. The object of the nest is evident enough, when the habits of the Stickle-back are considered. As is the case with many other fish, there are no more determined destroyers of Stickle-back eggs than the Stickle-backs them-reader will take up a branch of the ordinary selves, and the nests are evidently constructed for the purpose of affording a resting-place for the eggs until they are hatched. If a few of these nests be removed from the water in a net, and the eggs thrown into the stream, the Sticklebacks rush at them from all sides, and fight for them like boys scrambling for half-pence. The eggs are very small, barely the size of dustshot, and are yellow when first placed in the nest, but deepen in color as they approach maturity. The wonderful creatures which are classed together under the general term of Corals, are familiar to us either in a manufactured state or as ornaments for the drawing-room. How vast are their submarine labors is evident from the enormous "coral-reefs" which they raise, and which form great islands whereon an army can live, and inlets wherein a fleet can ride securely at anchor. The young Coral animal passes through various changes, gradually developing new and remarkable powers, until it arrives at its perfection. The precise connection which exists between the animal and its coral habitation may not be generally understood. If the coral of commerce, he will see that it is slightly grooved or fluted throughout its extent, and that its surface is studded with little projections having star-like discs. Now, if this piece of coral could be again clothed with the living creature by which it was deposited, we should see a beautiful and a wonderful sight. Next to the stony core lie a series of longitudinal vessels, each vessel corresponding with a groove, and above them lies a confused mass of irregular vessels communicating with each other. At |