THE CATERPILLAR HUNTER. 
131 
for me, it has another purpose in life which, now that I 
think of it, is even more absorbing than the first. It 
would like not to be eaten, but it must eat. Now a half- 
eaten leaf easily catches the eye, and the thought that 
this effect must have had a cause easily suggests itself 
to the mind. But there are other things besides cater- 
pillars which eat leaves : goats do, crickets do, beetles 
and ladybirds do. Fortunately each of these eats in its 
own way, and practice soon teaches one to diagnose 
“ eating.” 
From the experience gained in my early days I know 
that a caterpillar eats from the edge in curves, but a 
beetle eats holes out of the middle of a leaf, and a leaf- 
cutting bee cuts out neat semicircular pieces all of the 
same size. A cricket, or grasshopper, may eat like a 
caterpillar, but when it has finished a meal it hops 
away to another branch, while a caterpillar, being an in- 
different walker, will generally stay at one place, finishing 
leaf after leaf. 
So, when you see “eating,” your first question must 
be, Who did it ? If the answer should be, A caterpillar, 
you put your second question, When ? Domestic ex- 
perience is useful here. Your butler says a plate was 
K 2 
