[2] The nest is contained within the hanging leaves, which are its sole support—this, at least, is my impression. Now if the nest is made _first_, on what does it rest—where is it—before the leaves wrap it round? In the _tout ensemble_ the leaves correspond to the outer cup of the nest, and the nest proper to the inner lining. It is the latter which, in the ordinary building of a nest, comes last. [3] Particularly and most remarkably in the case of spiders. In one species, for instance, the males are of two patterns, as one may say, each of which dances before the female, in its own way, which is very different from that of the other (see Professor Poulton’s _Colours of Animals_ in the “International Scientific Series”). [4] By Mr. Hudson in _The Naturalist in La Plata_. [5] In South America at least. [6] This last, I should say, is as I imagine. Nobody tells one how the bridge itself gets over. [7] This floor, however, according to Professor Drummond, may be sunk considerably below the level of the ground, which would make it, more properly speaking, a basement. [8] In spite of the damage done by them, however, white ants, by turning over the soil, play an important part in the economy of nature, and take, in the tropics, the place of earthworms. See Professor Drummond’s _Tropical Africa_. [9] _Wanderings in South America_, pp. 223-4. [10] _Wanderings in South America._ [11] They had been noticed long before Bates’ paper, which was later, if I mistake not, than _The Origin of Species_. [12] The Rev. J. G. Wood, in _Homes without Hands_, p. 301. [13] Were the pilot-fish to eat alone, he would not be under the shark’s protection. [14] From an old translation. [15] _A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa._ [16] The gun is set with great exactitude and on a nice calculation, so that the fox, if shot at all, is shot in the head. He dies, therefore, suddenly, and without pain, whilst not expecting it—which some think the best kind of death. [17] The string must run, for a little way, behind the trigger (before passing round a stick) in order to start the gun: and it is this part of it that the fox gnaws. If we assume it to do so, as believing the trigger to be the part of the gun from which the discharge comes, still there are the two ideas—to gnaw the string, namely, thus preventing the discharge, and to get behind the trigger whilst gnawing it. [18] The word was used by the Portuguese in their great days, and may have come from a West Coast tribe. It is unknown, I believe, to the Kaffirs of South Africa. [19] Or, as we are told _now_, the palm of the hand. PLYMOUTH: WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON PRINTERS