The Caddis-Worm 



range of its implements, the place at which 

 the bit is to be fixed. When the piece is sol- 

 dered, the worm turns a little aside, to a 

 length equal to that of the last soldering, and 

 here, along an extent which hardly ever va- 

 ries, an extent determined by the swing which 

 its head is able to give, it fixes the next piece. 

 These several conditions ought to result in 

 a geometrically ordered dwelling, having a 

 regular polygon as an opening. Then how 

 comes it that the cylinder of bits of root is 

 so confused, so clumsily fashioned? The rea- 

 son is this : the worker possesses talent, but 

 the materials do not lend themselves to ac- 

 curate work. The rootlets supply stumps of 

 very uneven shape and thickness. They in- 

 clude big and small ones, straight and bent, 

 simple and ramified. To combine all these 

 dissimilar pieces into an orderly whole is hard- 

 ly possible, all the more so as the Caddis-worm 

 does not appear to attach very much import- 

 ance to its cylinder, which is a temporary 

 work, hurriedly constructed to afford a speedy 

 shelter. Matters are urgent; and very soft 

 fibres, clipped with a bite of the mandibles, 

 are more quickly gathered and more easily put 

 together than joists, which require the patient 

 work of the saw. The inaccurate cylinder, in 



