NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



lit upon rose-leaves. And they were everywhere around 

 — yonder in the mistress's rose-garden, and there in the 

 red-and-white ramblers that wellnigh cover the flag- 

 arbor. 



How deftly she does her cutting! Hers is indeed a 

 fairy tread as she stands upon the velvety softness of 

 the leaf, her body held up high by her outspread legs, 

 and bends down her scissors-like jaws to her task. She 

 clips the serrate edge and moves as on a pivot towards 

 the midrib, leaving m her circuit a curved incision. 

 Can that fragile floor uphold her weight? It does. 

 The leaf hardly bends beneath her. Do the good fairies, 

 indeed, put their shoulders inunder it — the tiny Atlases 

 for this midget world. 



Now a circular or semicircular bit is cut out, and, 

 striding the gap, poised the while on fluttering wing, 

 she balances the segment in her jaws and flies to her 

 chosen nest-site. That may be in the butt-end of a 

 hollow branch, in a cavity in a rotten stump, or, with 

 some species, in a depression on the surface or a hole 

 within the ground. The wee eremite seeks a space that 

 shall be a little wider than herself. Good working room 

 she must have; but not too much, else the tubular roll 

 with which she is to drape the wall will not take and 

 keep due shape. 



Leaf tissue is dainty material to work therewith; but 

 she manages to bend a cutting against the surface of 

 her cave, to smooth it into place, and leave it there 

 while she garners another piece and yet others, mitil 

 she has hung a space the length of her body or more with 

 overlaid bits of leaf that quite encompass the cavity. 

 With feet and jaws, head and abdomen, she pulls, 

 pushes, thrusts, and beats the pieces into place, trust- 



146 



