are the various kinds of salmon, the cod, herring, mackerel, and halibut.

The gelatinous fin-rays of certain sharks (see Fig. 103) make an excellent soup, much valued by the Chinese.

In most regions the flesh of the fish is cooked before eating. In arctic regions it is salted or smoked. In Japan and Hawaii fishes are largely eaten raw.

Insects, such as locusts and the larvæ of certain beetles, are used as human foods by the lowest races only. The honey made from nectar gathered from flowers by the honey

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FIG. 241.-The palolo or edible worm of the Atlantic (Eunice fucata Ehlers), Tortugas, Florida.-After A. G. MAYER.

bee has, however, been regarded as a delicacy by all races of men who dwell in regions inhabited by bees. Various crustaceans, as the lobster, cray-fish, and many crabs, are, however, much esteemed. The "bêche de mer " is a holothurian used as food in the western Pacific; and many people eat certain species of sea-urchins. Worms have rarely any economic value. The common earthworm is, however, of the greatest service in pulverizing soils. Certain sea-worms are edible. Most notable of these is a worm of the coral

reefs called palolo, found about Samoa and Fiji, and a second species in the tropical Atlantic. Twice during the year-in October and November-the posterior half of the body, bearing the reproductive elements, separates from the head end of the animal, and swims to the surface for spawning purposes. This phenomenon occurs at definite times at dawn of the day on which the moon is in its last quarter, and on the day previous. At this season the water fairly boils with countless thousands of these headless worms, that are collected by the natives and esteemed a great delicacy.

Among the mollusks many species are excellent as food for man. Foremost among these is the oyster. With it are many species of clam, scallop, cockle, snail, abalone, squid, cuttlefish, and octopus.

321. Clothing from animals.-The hair of certain mammals may be used as a fabric for cloth. The most valuable in this connection is the wool of sheep. Wild sheep have little or no wool, the great yield of this article being a product of artificial selection. A coarser wool is produced by some goats, as also by some animals related to the Peruvian llama. The hair of the camel is used to make a coarse cloth.

Another textile fabric of great importance is silk, which is the fine-spun covering of the larvæ and chrysalids of a white moth. The furs and skins of many animals formed the chief clothing of primitive man, and are still largely used in cold regions among fashionable as well as primitive people. Among the finest of furs are those of the weasel tribe, the otter, mink, ermine, marten, and their relatives. Most valuable of all these is the fur of the sea-otter of the north Pacific, a single skin being sometimes valued at upward of $1,000. The female and young of the fur seal (Otoes) yield a very soft and beautiful fur after the long hairs have been plucked out. Many foxes yield delicate and beautiful furs. In general, those animals living in the

coldest regions are most valued, because their hairs are longer and more closely set than in similar animals living with less need of protection from the cold. Coarser furs are taken from the various bears, wolves, and other carnivorous animals, from wild goats and other animals of northern or mountainous regions. The skins of tigers, leopards, and other large members of the cat family, with short, close-set, glossy fur, often beautifully colored, are also highly valued. The long, coarse hair of the buffalo caused the "buffalo-robe" to be highly appreciated by our fathers before the species was exterminated. The skins of animals with indifferent fur, as squirrels and prairie-dogs, are often stitched together to form blankets.

The skins of many animals, as the ox, sheep, goat, hairseal, etc., have been tanned as leather. Leather is used for shoes for the feet of men. In more primitive times it formed a large part of the clothing of men. In Alaska, the stomach and intestines of the sea-lion are used for waterproof rain-coats. It forms a light and serviceable garment. In Japan, slippers are made from the skin of the longhaired native monkey.

The feathers of many birds are used in pillows. Most valuable is the down of the breast of the eider-duck. The most common feathers for pillows come from the hen and the goose. The downy breasts of young eagles are in Alaska stitched together to form mantles. The close-set feathers of the grebe, a diving water-bird, form a kind of fur when the skin is tanned. In Hawaii royal cloaks of great cost have been made, the texture filled and colored with the scarlet and golden feathers of native song-birds.

322. Animals as ornaments.-The most valuable ornament derived from any animal is the pearl, the product of a large bivalve mollusk, the pearl-oyster in tropical seas. The pearl is a fine secretion from the mantle of the animal surrounding a grain of sand or other source of irritation. In the museum of Harvard University there is a small fish in

closed in pearl, it having entered the shell for protection. Coarser pearls occur in other species. Occasionally valuable ones are found in the river-mussel (Unio) of our American streams. Other mollusks, as the abalone on the Pacific coast and the Unio, furnish material for buttons or for inlaid work. The large scales of certain fishes (as the tarpon) serve a similar purpose. The shells of many small sea-snails are used as beads, and shells of mollusks as well as skins of birds have been used as money by native aboriginal races.

The fine furs above enumerated are largely used for ornament rather than for use. The plumes of various birds, notably the ostrich and the egret, are used for ornament. Dead birds and parts of birds have been worn as ornaments on the hats of unthinking women of even civilized races. Incalculable injury has been done through this fashion by the destruction of insect-eating birds. The singing-birds of Japan have been practically exterminated by the remorseless demands of the milliner, and those of our own country have been greatly reduced in number. Recently our statutes have protected our own singing-birds, but the remorseless destruction of parrots and egrets in Mexico and of terns and other beautiful sea-birds for ornamental purposes still goes on.

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323. Animal products used in the arts.-Chief among the animal products used in the arts is leather. This is derived chiefly from the skins of the ox, sheep, and goat, but that of the horse, hog, deer, and many other animals, native and domestic, has a certain value. Waterproof shoes are made from the skin of the hair-seal. The skin of the alligator is often tanned for portmanteaus, and the skin of snakes for purses.

Oil is procured from many animals. The fine oil from the liver of the codfish is largely used in medicine, being readily assimilated. Coarser oils are produced from other fishes, especially from the liver of sharks. Still coarser oils are taken in large quantities from the blubber of the right

whale and other large whales. These whales also yield whalebone from structures used in straining out their food developed on the roof of the mouth. Finer oils come from the sperm-whale, the most valued being a wax-like substance, spermaceti, found in the head. Ambergris is an abnormal secretion sometimes found about the liver of the sperm-whale. It has a very high value, being very fragrant and used as a perfume. The old-fashioned perfumery musk is a secretion of the musk deer; civet is produced by the Viverra, a weasel-like animal of South America.

Ivory comes from the tusks of the elephant. The long teeth of the walrus are very similar to true ivory.

The horns and bones of different animals have many uses in the arts. The quills of birds have also certain uses. The scales of sea-tortoises are used in making combs. The coloring-matter, cochineal, much used before the introduction of anilin dyes, came from the bodies of certain scale insects living on cactus, chiefly in Mexico.

324. Animals as enemies and destroyers of enemies of man. The chief enemies of man are the larger carnivorous animals which are personally dangerous to him, to his flocks, or to his crops. Among these are the great wildcats (lion, tiger, leopard, panther, etc.), the wild dogs (wolf, coyote, jackal, etc.), the rodents (rabbits, rats, mice) which devour his crops or his stores, and the great multitude of insects which destroy his crops.

Against the great carnivora, the dog, itself a tamed wolf, is his best defender. The dog, cat, ferret, and mongoose have been brought into his service as destroyers of rodents; the mongoose, by destroying lizards and birds' nests also, doing more harm than good. The hawks, owls, and snakes also help him in keeping down the numbers of rats and mice.

Against the hordes of noxious insects man's chief natural protection is found in the singing-birds, most of whom feed on insects which destroy vegetation. He has also a large