NEUROPTERA, 481 



By giving to each creature one kind of material alone, they 

 were unable to exercise any choice : hence Miss Sniee was able to 

 compel the creature to make houses of a considerable variety of 

 objects. Beautiful cases were made of fragments of coloured glass, 

 amethyst, cairngorm, cornelian, agate, onyx, coral, marble, shells, and 

 mother-of-pearl. When the little creatures were supplied with brass 

 shavings or gold and silver leaf, they were sorely puzzled, and with 

 the latter they could only make an irregular case. With coralline a 

 pretty basket-like case was constructed. With fragments of a tortoise- 

 shell comb one formed 'a case like a hedgehog. They were unable to 

 make cases at all of round beads, although they have been known to 

 use a cherry-stone. Neither could they succeed with slate, coal, brick, 

 lead, or copper ; and if supplied with chips of resinous wood, the 

 creatures were always destroyed. 1 



FtG. 1062. Fossil Cadhaits (real size'. FFG. 1063. Small Cadbaits. 



At some former geological epoch these caddis-worms were so 

 common, that in France hills are composed of their cases alone (fig. 

 1062). The winged insects fly over the water, and settle upon it. 



"To sunny waters some 

 By fatal instinct fly ; where on the pool 

 They sportive wheel ; or, sailing down the stream, 

 Are snatch'd immediate by the quick-eyed trout." 



THOMSON'S Seasons. 



We have a vast number of species of these water-flies. One little 

 cadbait makes its case of small stones, and many- may be seen in the 

 Central brook attached to a single pebble (fig. 1063). It is remarkable, 

 however, that the Wandle is one of the few rivers in England where 

 the true May-fly never appears. 



1 Intellectual Observer, No. 29, " On the Caddis-worm and its Houses," by 

 Miss Elizabeth Mary Smee. 



I I 



