Show familiar misnomers the camel s hair brushes used for fine art work are not made of camel s hair but of the fur of russian and siberian squirrels says a writer in the commentator the lead in lead pencils is graphite a form of carbon and has no relation to the metallic element catgut used for stringed instruments is the in te stines of sheep and occasionally horses but never of cats tortoise shell comes from the caretta ambr cata which properly is a turtle cuttlefish isn t a fish it s a kind of octopus which is a mollusk the famous rice paper used by the jap anese and chinese for their paint ings is manufactured from the pith of a small tree whalebone is not bone at all but baleen a horny sub growing in the mouths ot 0 bome u species of whales |