156 EYE SPY 
alights with wings folded close above his back, 
disclosing the silver " comma " in the midst of 
the dull brown of the nether surface. Many are 
the tiny tokens which she also leaves behind 
her as she flutters away in search of a new nettle- 
clump. 
We have been closely observing these two but- 
terflies perhaps for half an hour, and during that 
time our eyes have rested a dozen times upon a 
condition of things here among the leaves which 
certainly should have immediately arrested our 
attention. Almost within touch of our hand, upon 
one stalk, are three leaves which certainly do not 
hang like their fellows. One of them has been 
drawn up at the edges, and fully one-half of its 
lower portion is gone, while its angle of drooping 
indicates more than the mere weight of the leaf. 
" A spider's nest, of course," you remark. As 
such it has been passed a thousand times even by 
young and enthusiastic entomological students 
who would have risked their lives for a "cecropia" 
or a " bull's-eye " caterpillar, or stung their hands 
mercilessly as they swept their butterfly net among 
those very stinging leaves. It is interesting to 
gather a few of these " spider's nests," and examine 
the cause of their heavy droop, which proves to 
be a healthy-looking gray caterpillar an inch or 
more in length, covered with formidable spines, 
perpetuating as it were the tendency of its foster- 
