246 ROSE-LEAF HAMMOCK. 



One of the latter, nearest to the mouth of the pendant horn, 

 displayed recent marks of excising jaws ; and presently, pro- 

 truding from the open end of this curious leaf-case, appeared 

 the head of a green Caterpillar, which, thus protected, resumed 

 its juicy meal. 



Having gained possession of master Leaf-roller and his 

 ingenious tent, by cutting off the branch to which they were 

 appended, we placed it in a flower-pot filled with mould, 

 and when the twig withered took care to plant beside it a 

 succession of others. To these our tabernacled feeder 

 never failed to transfer himself and habitation, slinging the 

 latter, as we originally found it, close beside the leaf of his 

 pasture. Increasing in bulk and length as he thus regaled, 

 he soon outgrew his twisted tenement, which he then cleverly 

 contrived to lengthen by the addition of a piece of fresh leaf 

 nicely joined and fitted to the larger and upper end of the 

 spiral horn. Thus far, and no farther, can we carry, from 

 observation, the history of this artificer in rose leaves; for, 

 supposing that when his caterpillar life approached its close, he 

 would either quietly spin himself up in his case, or bury him- 

 self in the earth of the flower-pot, we trusted too confidingly to 

 his apparently non-roving propensities, as was proved one fine 

 morning in July, when we found our Leaf-roller absent without 

 leave, his habitation being left (vacant) behind him. That, 

 barring accidents, he subsequently became a moth, there is 

 every reason to believe from the nature of his constructive 

 labours while a caterpillar. 



Lastly, a word or two about the Leaf-miner; he, like the 

 Leaf-roller, and the Leaf-tent-maker, holds his verdant estate 

 by the slight tenure of a fragile foot-stalk ; but compared with 

 theirs, indeed without comparison, his lot seems a highly fa- 

 voured one. His path, a covered way, is through a leaf, often 

 of the rose ; and each step of progression (for labour he has 

 none) would seem an act of self gratification, as the little 

 Sybarite, lodged between the upper and the lower membranes 



