HOUSE-CARRIERS UNDER WATER 303 



by the side of this rare product. With its ready re- 

 serve of silk it is an easy matter for the bag-worm to 

 weave a mere pouch, while the further attachment of 

 the sticks and leaves is mere pastime; but what shall we 

 say of the intelligence that gleans among the pebbles 

 beneath the water, constructing a mosaic tube about its 

 body, even in the current of the stream? This is what 

 the caddis larva does. As in the bag-worm, this case 

 of the caddis serves as a protection against its enemies; 

 and while the basket -carriers in the trees are keeping 

 an eye out for the birds, dodging into their case and 

 literally " pulling the hole in after them," or drawing- 

 it close against a twig, on the approach of the enemy, 

 the caddis is continually on the alert for hungry prowl- 

 ing fish that know a tidbit when they see it. The 

 number of empty shells to be found in every caddis 

 pool would seem to show that the fish know all about 

 caddis. I was once greatly amused at the sly arts of a 

 tiny rockfish in my aquarium that soon left nothing but 

 empty shells to show for my caddis and my snails. His 

 plan of operation was to steal up from behind as the 

 unsuspecting victim was regaling itself in the water, and 

 with a sudden dash grasp the head of his prey, when, 

 after a vigorous shake and determined grip, the shell 

 was released, and the victorious fish retired to its corner 

 among the pondweed to think which of the two yonder 

 snail or caddis it would rather have for supper. 



I have said that few of us ever see the caddis in its 

 home. And yet he is an old acquaintance with most of 

 us. There are few summer evenings when he does not 

 make himself perfectly at home around our " evening 

 lamp " in the country, that brown, circling, moth-like in- 

 sect, with steep- sloping wings, and such a powerfully 



