Any one possessing a garden, and taking delight therein, has ample opportunity of watching the habits of birds and insects, and of confirming, if not of adding to, the accounts given by naturalists, of the commoner species. But we must still be indebted to the patient observations of those who have made insects or birds their especial study, for many of the most curious particulars, and for all our knowledge of rare or foreign species. Interesting as is the whole subject of bird and insect manufactures, there is one department in which we are more concerned than the rest; namely, that in which the product can be applied to our own use, either in the way of food or clothing. Now this department is supplied wholly by insects, no bird, that we are aware of, producing by its own manufacturing powers, any substance that can be so employed, unless, indeed, we except the curious edible nests of the Java swallow, which have been converted by the taste of oriental epicures into an article of food. Let us then proceed to notice such of the insect manufactures as are useful to man, and trace, at the same time, the history and performances of these small but not insignificant manufacturers. [Illustration: [Butterflies]] CHAPTER I. MANUFACTURE OF SILK BY CATERPILLARS OF VARIOUS KINDS. The most important of all the insect manufactures is doubtless that of silk-spinning. It seems almost past belief that the magnificent velvets, satins, and silks which form so elegant a part of female attire, and which are heaped together in such costly profusion in the shops of the metropolis, and in those of all considerable towns, whether in our own, or in foreign countries—that these splendid fabrics, together with all ribbons, gauzes, damasks, or other articles composed of silk, should owe the raw material of which they are formed to the labours of a race of little creeping caterpillars, which in this their early and imperfect state spin for themselves cocoons, or cases of silk, where they may quietly undergo their changes until they become perfect winged insects. [Illustration: CATERPILLAR SUSPENDED BY ITS SILKEN THREAD. ]