124 EYE SPY 
knob suddenly appears and is firmly glued to the 
summit of the hair. Another and another are 
added to the group, until a complete tuft or fringe 
hangs beneath the leaf. Of course the reader 
will have now guessed the secret of the episode 
that this is a mother lace-wing fly thinking only 
of her future brood. But what a unique method 
she employs in egg -laying! What seeming 
reckless consideration for her offspring ! Fancy 
awakening from one's crib only to find one's self 
on the top of a telegraph pole, or clinging tor 
dear life at the end of a dangling rope or rod ! 
Yet such is the initial experience of the baby lace- 
wing flies as they emerge from their filmy, iri- 
descent cradles, whose very first experience in life 
must needs be a daring feat of acrobatics. But 
hunger is a mighty incentive to work and dar- 
ing deeds, and the lace - wing infant is born 
hungry, grows hungrier with each moment of its 
subsequent life, and is apparently the more fam- 
ished in proportion to its gluttony, fully realiz- 
ing the comment of Josh Billings upon the vora- 
cious billy-goat, " All it eats seems tew go tew 
apetight." 
We may be sure that this gauzy mother -fly, 
with her appetizing reminiscences of her former 
epicurean days, has placed her progeny in a land 
of plenty a land almost literally of "milk and 
honey." For wherever we find this delicate 
