UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 173 



be seen over our lofty trees, and I went to the 

 window and leaned out to look for objects 

 which I knew but nothing was to be seen 

 except my beautiful and inexplicable landscape. 

 I lay down and still saw it from my pillow ; 

 but my eyes gradually closed and, when I 

 again wakened, heavy mists had risen with the 

 sun and my fairy prospect had vanished. 



" I. now recollected the description I had long 

 ago read of the Fata Morgana, and I was sa- 

 tisfied that this was no vision of my fancy, but 

 the reflection of real scenery upon some peculiar 

 vapour which only appears at that early hour of 

 the morning." 



2nd. I spent a great part of this morning in 

 examining the ingenious leaf-nests of some little 

 caterpillars, which Mary says are the larvae 

 of the tinea moths. She explained to me 

 their construction. The caterpillar fixes a 

 number of fine silken cords from one edge to 

 the other of the leaf, and by pulling at them with 

 its many strong feet, the sides are gradually 

 forced to approach each other till they meet, 

 when it fastens them together with short threads. 

 Sometimes the large nerves of the leaf are too 

 strong to yield to these efforts, and the clever 

 little creature immediately weakens them by 

 gnawing them half through, in different places. 

 I could distinctly perceive those places in several 



Q 3 



