BROOK LIFE. 



149 



Nature study — before the study of insects except as 

 a part of zoology was taught in any school in this 

 country — he began his study of caddice-worms. It 

 was not a thorough study — in fact, he w^ould have 

 been surprised to have heard it called study at all. 

 To him it was fun, after a long tussle with a hard 

 Latin lesson, to run over the long bridge across the 

 river and on to the swamp near the lake where the 

 Azaleas blossomed, and to lie face down on the bank 

 of a stream and watch the curious worms that had 

 tiny log houses about their bodies. 



It was his first introduction to a field of study 

 that has since happily occupied the greater part of 

 his time for several decades. Probably for this rea- 

 son he always expe- 

 riences a thrill of 

 pleasure when he is 

 permitted to intro- 

 duce these little architects to other Nature-loving 

 youngsters. 



This was a sluggish stream, and the caddice- 

 worms found there built cases of fragments of partly 

 decayed wood, like that shown in Fig. 118. Later, 

 in another quiet stream where grass was growing in 

 the water, there were found other cad- 

 dice-worms, which built cases having a 

 still greater resemblance to log houses. 

 These cases were composed of tiny lengths 

 of grass laid crosswise (Fig. 119). They 

 i«- 119- ^j.g rough-appearing structures, but within 

 they are smooth and lined with silk — an excellent 

 protection to the soft-bodied larvae that occupy them. 

 Caddice-worms, like either of these described 



Fig. 118. 



