86 LEAF-CUTTER'S NEST. 



watching quietly at hand, it is not unlikely that we may see 

 the industrious little body busy at her cutting out. To follow 

 her as she carries her work home, may be more difficult, at 

 least on some occasions, but not on all, as her chamber and 

 designed nursery may happen to be in a gravel-walk ; an old 

 wall, or an old post, as likely to be close by as far off. Be it 

 where it may, it consists generally of a cylindrical excavated 

 hole, of which the site once discovered, the interior art and 

 mystery may easily be brought to light by help of a spade or 

 other adapted instrument. In truth, though, to disturb thus 

 the labour of love exercised by this little artizan, would give 

 us pain hardly to be balanced by gratified wonder at the skill 

 and neatness wherewith she has fitted up her leaf-lined nest. 



We mean not to say, indeed, (and what lover of entomology 

 would be credited if he did ?) that tenderness would be cer- 

 tain, in our own case, to master curiosity on discovery, for the 

 first time, of a leaf-cutter's abode, or on other the like occa- 

 sion ; but those from whom the maternal upholsterer is likely 

 to meet with more consideration, may obtain, without invading 

 her nursery, a very excellent notion of the style of its fitting 

 up. This they may acquire from pages much more accurately 

 descriptive than ours ;* but in the meantime we may briefly 

 tell them how that, having excavated or found her hole (a 

 cavity in ground, or wood, or wall, of from six to ten inches 

 deep), she proceeds to construct within it, of the pieces of leaf 



* Keaumur ; also ' Insect Architecture.' 



