TENT-MAKERS. 235 



alone that the zephyrs are making sport. Mischievous rogues ! 

 They are laughing also at the panic and commotion they 

 create among the tiny tribes which people those pleasant 

 places, tossing them now here now there, while our Insect 

 Arabs, with other shelterless wanderers, have much ado to sup- 

 port themselves on the quaking, shaking plains, which, bearing 

 their light pavilions, they are accustomed to perambulate. 



The elegant and curious erections of these tent-making 

 caterpillars are commonly to be seen on various forest and 

 fruit trees, especially the elm, oak, hawthorn, and pear, of 

 which the leaves furnish them at once with food, and material 

 for the construction of their habitations. These are usually 

 about a quarter of an inch in length, and being formed out 

 of pieces of leaf, assume, as they wither, a feuille-morte, or 

 golden hue.* 



By depriving one of these tent-makers of its habitation, 

 we entail on it the necessity of constructing another, which, 

 when furnished with material for the purpose, it will be sure 

 to do, under our inspection, since, as was observed even by 

 Pliny of the clothes-moth, it will rather die than feed unpro- 

 tected. The way in which it goes to work in the shaping, 

 cutting out, joining, and elevation of its tent, has been mi- 

 nutely described by Keaumur, also by Eennie, from whose 

 " Insect Architecture" we subjoin a few details of the modus 

 operandi of one of these clever artificers found upon the haw- 

 thorn. In commencing a new tent after having been dislodged 



* Vignette. 



