NATURAL HISTORY. 15 



it is. Now listen, and I will tell you all about 

 it. There is a kind of fly called the saw-fly ; 

 it has four wings, and commonly its body is 

 yellow, and its head is black ; but the most 

 curious part of it is the saw. The young 

 ones feed upon the leaves of rose-bushes, and 

 gooseberries, and raspberries, and currants, 

 and several other kinds of bushes ; and the 

 old ones always lay their eggs on the branches 

 of these bushes, so that the young ones may 

 have something to eat as soon as they come 

 out. It uses its saw to make a place in the 

 branch to put its egg in." 



" Uncle Philip, what is the saw made of?" 

 " It is made of something like horn, and 

 is fixed very nicely in a case ; it resembles 

 what the cabinet-makers call a tenon-saw more 

 than it does the carpenter's common saw. 

 The tenon-saw is made of a thin plate of 

 steel, and has a stiff brass back, to keep it from 

 bending. The brass back has a groove in it, 

 and the saw is put in that groove, and then 

 it is fastened to it. But the fly's saw is fixed 

 in another way : there is a back to it too, but 

 that back is not fastened to the saw. The 

 groove is in the saw, and there is a ridge all 

 along the back-piece, which just fits in the 



