186 OUT OF DOORS. 



to keep near the shore, they were afraid to trust them- 

 selves in the open leaf, and followed "^very little pro- 

 jection with conscientious regularity. 



Anyone who wants to know how gorgeous a British 

 insect can be, let him tie a piece of gauze over some 

 of these mined leaves, and watch them until a tiny 

 moth appears in the gauze, the perfect state of the 

 little caterpillar that made the zigzag track. It will 

 be so small that it hardly looks like a moth at all, its 

 outspread wings together not being as large as the 

 letter 0. Take the little creature to the microscope, 

 concentrate a beam of light on it, and then, if you can, 

 find words to describe its glories. It is useless to do 

 so by comparing it with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, 

 emeralds, gold, or so forth, because the moth infinitely 

 surpasses the gems, and if we say that some imperial 

 suite of jewels approaches the splendour of the leaf- 

 mining moth, we should almost appear to be dis- 

 paraging the insect. There are plenty of these won- 

 drous little moths, every species having its own special 

 beauties. 



Some of the leaves are seen to be rolled up in 

 little cylinders, while others are merely doubled, their 

 edges being brought together and fastened. The dif- 

 ference of behaviour exhibited by the inhabitants of 

 the rolled and folded leaves is very remarkable. If we 

 pick one of the rolled leaves, out tmnbles a little cater- 

 pillar, and drops to the ground, letting itself down by 

 means of a silken thread, upon which it means to re- 



