THE WATER CABINET. 127 
weed, pebbles, minute shells, even if the snails within 
them are alive, and any small debris that their fingers can 
seize hold of. Last season I had amongst a large num- 
ber of cads, one that had his case nearly destroyed by | 
accidentally falling from the table. I removed from him 
what remained of his case, and threw him into a jar with 
a soldier plant and a few Lymnea. He set to work to 
repair his tabernacle, and the Lymnea helped him, for 
they nibbled a plant of Stratoides into shreds. These 
shreds the cad gathered, and every day he added a fresh 
piece, so that, in about ten days, he appeared in a suit of 
green, his clothes bulged out to an enormous size, and 
everywhere studded with points and corners, the most 
comical sight that could be imagined. Since he could 
find nothing of a small neat pattern, he took what he 
could, and became a perfect Jack in the green, nearly an 
inch and a half in length, and thicker than a carpenter’s 
lead pencil. 
The movements of these creatures are as comical as 
their specimens of tailormg. We see them mounting a 
stem or leaf with great gravity, when suddenly up goes 
the tail, the legs hold tight, and the case turns completely 
over, as if on the first of May, Jack-in-the-green were to 
dance on his head. When the creature is hidden, and the 
case sways to and fro like a buoy attached by too short a 
rope, the sight is very curious. This case-maker is the 
larva from a fly which bears resemblances to the two 
families which stand on either side of it—the Lepidoptera, 
or true butterflies, and the Newroptera, of which the 
dragon flies and other membranaceous winged insects are 
