In this case you will carefully turn over the leaves to examine the under sides, and also the leaf stalks and branches or stems; but you must be prepared for all kinds of protective mimicry. Little green caterpillars will be seen lying on the midrib or veins, so straight and so still that they are scarcely perceptible. Others are snugly tucked in a depression of a leaf with the same result. Then we must also be prepared for the artful little tricks of the larvae of _Geometrae_ (p. 268), by which they imitate stalks and twigs so closely that a sharp eye is necessary to discriminate between the two. While thus searching we may meet with the cast skin of a caterpillar. This gives us fresh hopes, and so we continue our careful examination. At last, on grasping a leaf in order to turn it over for inspection, we feel something hairy or something soft and smooth. But lo! it is gone. It is one of those numerous caterpillars that feign death and drop to the ground on the slightest sign of danger. We search below for it, but the density of the vegetation renders this hopeless, and we are just about to start off in search of a more productive locality when we espy a quantity of the excrement of larvae lying on a little bare patch of ground close by. This gives us a new idea. Here is another indication of the presence of the creatures we require, one that we can put into practice; and by-and-by we learn that in many cases this is really the surest sign of their whereabouts. We look at these little pellets of excrement, and gain at once some idea of the _size_ of the larvae that produce them. Then we observe whether they are fresh and moist, or dry and stale. If the latter, it is not of much use to examine the leaves above; but if otherwise, there is little doubt of our meeting with larvae, as the present position they occupy is so truly marked. The leaves just over them are carefully examined, either by turning them over as before described, or, if the height of the foliage admits of it, by placing our heads below and looking upward. If we find that the larvae are some of those that endeavour to escape by feigning death and allowing themselves to drop at the slightest disturbance, the net is always kept beneath the leaves we are touching in order to intercept them in their downward journey. Continuing the search, we meet with leaves that are rolled up and bound with silk threads, and others that are drawn together and similarly bound. These are carefully uncurled and pulled asunder with the result that active little larvae are exposed to view, or, it may be, pupae are discovered. In some cases flowers are drawn together in just the same way, and an examination reveals one or more of the species that prefer petals and other parts of flowers to the green leaves.