Now, the power of conveying fish to some distance without destroying life has for countless ages been possessed by the Pelican, one of which birds is shown in the accompanying illustration.
As every one knows, the chief peculiarity of this bird is the large and very elastic membrane of the lower jaw. When not in use, it contracts by its own elasticity, and the bill looks quite slender, as well as long. But, when distended with water and fish, it presents the appearance shown in the illustration.
Any one who wishes to see the exercise of this power can do so by attending the Zoological Gardens, and visiting the Pelicans at feeding-time, and an hour or two before it. They hardly seem to be the same birds. Some years ago I made a series of sketches of the same Pelican under different circumstances, and it is scarcely possible to believe that they could be, as they are, truthful representations of the same bird.
The right-hand figure of the next illustration requires no comment, as it simply represents the ordinary hen-coop.
As everybody is aware, the object of the coop is to keep the hen within its bars, while the little chicks can run in and out as they choose, and the coop is made so as to prevent the egress of the mother, while the offspring find no difficulty in escaping.
Now, in the world of insects we find an exactly analogous structure. As is the case with many hymenopterous insects, there is in the nest of the Termite, or White Ant, as it is popularly called, a single perfect female, which is the mother of the nest. A similar arrangement occurs in the common hive-bee, but there is a notable distinction between the queen Bee and the queen Termite, the latter belonging to the neuropterous order.
The former is unconfined, and moves about from cell to cell, depositing her eggs within them, and taking the greatest pains that they occupy exactly their proper place within the cell. The latter never moves after she has begun to deposit eggs, but remains motionless in the same spot, and allows her subordinates to dispose of the eggs which she lays.
How this end is achieved will now be seen.
The reader is probably aware that the queen Termite attains to enormous dimensions, her head, thorax, and legs retaining their normal size, but the abdomen becoming several inches in length, and thick in proportion. The legs are necessarily unable to move so vast a body, and in order that so important a personage should not receive injury, a large oval cell is built around her, from which she never moves for the rest of her life. She has but one duty, namely, to lay eggs, and so is fed that she may have strength to produce them. She is simply passive, and never even sees her eggs, much less has care of her young.