NATURE STUDY. 
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old, has a nice little tube to live in. If his “folks” before 
his time, lived in wooden houses, he gets bits of twigs or 
grass, and fastens them together. Whether he builds of 
stones, or sticks, or grass, or leaves, he keeps adding at 
one end, making his house longer as he grows bigger, and 
some day the small end, where he first began, breaks off, 
or he breaks it off. It must be broken off in some way, in 
order that more water may flow through the tube, as the 
insect increases in size. For all creatures must breathe in 
order to live, and the caddis-fly larva can get only so much 
air as is brought in the water that constantly flows through 
his tube. If a caddis-fly, in its case, is placed in a dish of 
water that is not quite clear, the little current can be seen 
flowing in at the front end of the case and out at the hind 
end. 
When the caddis-fly larva is full grown, and is about to 
go to sleep and change into a pupa, it usually stops up the 
hind end of the tube, and weaves a nice, open-work net a- 
cross the front end, which will keep out its enemies, and 
still let in a little fresh water while it sleeps. By and by, 
when it has changed a great deal, it wakes up, opens the 
door and leaves its house forever. It crawls out of the wa¬ 
ter, its skin cracks open, and it comes out a grace¬ 
ful creature with four wings and long, slender “feelers” or 
antennae. It is a qniet little creature, resting on twigs a 
great deal, mostly near the water where it passed its early 
life stages, and where it lays the eggs that will hatch out 
more tiny house-builders. It lives only a few days more, 
flies but little, and then more by night that by day, so it is 
rarely seen except by those who go to look for it. 
It is while the caddis-fly lives in the water that it is of 
greatest interest to boys and girls, as well as to scientists, 
and as some kind is certain to be found in almost any bit 
of fresh water, during winter, spring and early summer, it 
is easy to observe it in its natural situation or to collect it, 
