. The natural history of the farm : a guide to the practical study of the sources of our living in wild nature . Natural history. 158 NATURAL HISTORY OP THE FARM of a primitive loom, such as women of certain tribes use to-day. Into this warp the threads of the woof are woven, by the woman with her fingers (aided, perhaps, by a crude wooden shuttle), by the bird with its slender beak. If anyone think that the weaving of the oriole is not well done, let him sit down with an empty nest and try to unravel all its threads! The fiber products used by the oriole are such as were first used by man for
. The natural history of the farm : a guide to the practical study of the sources of our living in wild nature . Natural history. 158 NATURAL HISTORY OP THE FARM of a primitive loom, such as women of certain tribes use to-day. Into this warp the threads of the woof are woven, by the woman with her fingers (aided, perhaps, by a crude wooden shuttle), by the bird with its slender beak. If anyone think that the weaving of the oriole is not well done, let him sit down with an empty nest and try to unravel all its threads! The fiber products used by the oriole are such as were first used by man for textile work—strips of bark, strands of bast fibers, long hairs from the tails of horses and cattle, grass stems and leaves; in short, anything that nature offered, and that had sufficient length, strength and pliancy. In our day, this bird has adopted one of the products of our spindles, cotton-wrapping twine, for the warp of its nest, doubtless finding, just as we have found, that this is superior for the purpose to anything that nature offers ready-made. Perhaps we thus repay an unacknow- ledged debt we may be owing this bird-weaver; for possibly some poetic soul in an age long gone may have watched an oriole at his labors, as Lowell did: "When oaken woods with buds are pink,. Pig. 63. An oriole at his nest, bringing a I, thread for the weaving. Then from the honeysuckle gray The oriole with experienced quest Twitches the fibrous bark away The cordage of his hammock-nest,1'. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Needham, James G. (James George), 1868-1956. New York : Comstock Pub. Co
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
