196 IRambles witb nature Students 



their own account. Their instinct teaches them 

 to do exactly as their unseen parent did, and 

 so they perpetuate their species in a similar 

 manner. 



In the angles of brickwork we may often see 

 a small mass of grey mud, which looks as if it 

 might have been thrown there by a passer-by. 

 We have only to investigate with a, penknife and 

 remove a portion of the mud wall, and we shall 

 find there also is a hidden life history. 



A small species of wasp forms its cells in the 

 angle, and covers them with grey mud, which 

 hardens and protects her eggs through the frosts 

 of winter, so that in the coming summer her 

 young will come out in safety and begin their life 

 work, 



I was much interested this year in a dwelling- 

 place which happened to be new to me, and may 

 possibly be so also to my readers. A minute 

 fragment of a leaf was swinging at the end of an 

 invisible thread depending from an oak branch. 

 Something led me to examine it, and I found it 

 was a cone-shaped dwelling inhabited by a lively 

 little caterpillar. I could hardly believe my eyes, 

 so minute was the whole thing, and yet so 

 perfect Evidently the tent-dweller knew what he 

 was about, and was carrying out his life-destiny 

 in thus descending from the oak tree to the 

 ground. 



The case was about the size of the capital letter 

 I on this page ; it was formed of atoms of oak 

 leaf glued together. The caterpillar in his house 

 careered about on the surface of an oak leaf where 

 I had placed him, and when he grew a little fatigued 



