THROUGH LEAFY PATHS. 47 



sharp spines. It is not over an eighth of an inch 

 long, and appears like an animated bit of dry leaf, 

 as it slowly crawls along, and seems unwilling to 

 quit its roof. 



Here is a hickory leaf rolled up as regularly as 

 a cigarette by a leaf-rolling caterpillar! The 

 inhabitant after a long spell of feasting fell asleep 

 and then woke up to find itself with wings, to 

 make a part of the summer's day. Its parent 

 deposited a single egg in the expanding bud, 

 early in the season. As soon as the young larva 

 appeared, it became necessary for it to eat ; but it 

 must eat in safety. So nature, knowing its needs 

 beforehand, provided the means. Under its skin 

 were placed two long pockets (silk glands) stuffed 

 full of the needed material. With its curious 

 spinneret, which is really its under-lip formed into 

 a short tube, it began, like a conjurer, to draw 

 from its mouth line after line of the silken thread, 

 and glued it at intervals along the edges of the 

 young tender leaf. All the guys being stretched 

 and in their proper places, the little work -worm 

 took its position midway along them, and per- 

 formed a series of contortions — pulling, wrenching 

 and jerking until the leaf was furled as neatly as a 

 sprit-sail. Then the little glutton, hungry after 

 its labors, gorged itself with the green pulp. The 

 curled leaf, after awhile, appeared with almost as 

 many holes as a grater, but before the little 



