uS 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
Geometer , march along a twig, looping his back up at each 
giant stride, till he came to a nice leaf, and then to see 
him try it at different points, till he found a bit to his 
liking and settled down to eat. He had a pair of jaws 
which worked sideways, like little pincers, nipping bits out 
of the leaf, and an upper lip like a sharp knife, following 
up the jaws with a clean cut. And he ate from the edge 
in curves, each a little bigger than the last, till a large 
half moon was cut out of the leaf. But when he came 
upon a tough rib, he stopped and began at another place. 
He was a very docile fellow, always ready to eat ; quite 
unlike another pig-headed little beast, which refused to 
move from the old leaves to the new. I had infinite 
patience, however, for my heart was in the cause. I put 
a new leaf edge to edge with the old, and gave him a 
gentle push behind with my forefinger. This made him 
begin to move, as I knew it would, but when he came 
to the new leaf, he got suspicious and wanted to turn 
back. So I presented my forefinger to his head and 
checked his purpose. After a time he had advanced on 
the new leaf as far as his first three pairs of sharp -pointed 
feet, but the other five pairs, the graspers, were on the old 
leaf. In this situation he remained, turning his head 
