Fritz climbed a tree, and succeeded in securing a young green
parrot, which he enveloped in his handkerchief, with the intention of
bringing it up, and teaching it to speak. And now we met with another
wonder: a number of birds who lived in a community, in nests, sheltered
by a common roof, in the formation of which they had probably laboured
jointly. This roof was composed of straw and dry sticks, plastered with
clay, which rendered it equally impenetrable to sun or rain. Pressed as
we were for time, I could not help stopping to admire this feathered
colony. This leading us to speak of natural history, as it relates to
animals who live in societies, we recalled in succession the ingenious
labours of the beavers and the marmots; the not less marvellous
constructions of the bees, the wasps, and the ants; and I mentioned
particularly those immense ant-hills of America, of which the masonry is
finished with such skill and solidity that they are sometimes used for
ovens, to which they bear a resemblance.
We had now reached some trees quite unknown to us. They were from forty
to sixty feet in height, and from the bark, which was cracked in many
places, issued small balls of a thick gum. Fritz got one off with
difficulty, it was so hardened by the sun. He wished to soften it with
his hands, but found that heat only gave it the power of extension, and
that by pulling the two extremities, and then releasing them, it
immediately resumed its first form.
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