100 TENT- MAKERS. 



Next for the tent-makers those who, not living in the 

 streets, set up their lighter tabernacles on the verdant spots 

 the green parks of our embowered city ; in other words, upon 

 the foliage of the oak. These also are caterpillars, belonging 

 to a family of small moths,* which employ the leaves of 

 various trees, not only for food, but also as material for the 

 construction of most curious and elegant abodes. " These 

 tentsf are from a quarter of an inch to an inch in length, and 

 usually about the breadth of an oat-straw. They are of the 

 colour of a withered leaf, being cut out, not from the whole 

 thickness, but artfully separated from the upper layer, as a 

 person might separate one of the leaves of paper from a piece 

 of pasteboard." For a minute description of the ingenious 

 shaping of the pieces employed, and the mode of their joining 

 and elevation, we must refer our reader to the details of 

 " Insect Architecture,"^: and his own observation, only adding, 

 that when completed the constructor and occupier of this 

 pretty pavilion carries it upright on his back, as a snail its 

 shell ; and with body thus shaded and protected perambulates 

 the leaf on which he feeds. Tents of this description are 

 plentiful through the summer on the elm, the hawthorn, alder, 

 pear, and other fruit trees.. 



Next to these, and much more conspicuous, on a survey of 

 our insect city, come the silken hammocks and their luxurious 

 occupants and weavers. These are also caterpillars those of 



* Tineida. t Vignette. % Insect Arch. p. 225 ; also Keaumur. 



