AN INSECT LAW-BREAKER 



53 



marvelous little grating or screen made of strands 

 of strong gray silk laid at right angles, the very 

 neatest and prettiest bit of weaving ever made by 

 an insect. But this dirty -looking place in the 

 waterfall suggested no such tidy worker. Some of 

 us were disposed to prefer the museum specimen. 

 Not so after we had actually discovered the little 

 traps and gently freed them from the dirt about 



THE NETS WERE FUNNEL-SHAPED, WITH A MARVELOUS LITTLE 

 GRATING AT ONE END " (TWICE NATURAL SIZE) 



them. There they were just as the wily fisher- 

 man had set them. What if some May-fly nymph 

 or other small creature should lose its hold up 

 stream and be borne down to the falls? Might it 

 not actually lodge in one of the very nets we had 

 cleared out so painstakingly? Would the little 

 fisherman, lurking in his shabby house under some 

 stone, hurry forth and devour his prey before our 

 very eyes? Vain hope! None came, and we could 

 only search among the mass of tiny traps for one 



