SOCIAL CATERPILLARS. 101 



in two or three weeks, come forth a Tiger Moth complete, 

 a winged creature, glorious in " crimson dyes " and richest 

 brown and cream colour. Although these and a few other 

 fur-clad Caterpillars seem partly indebted to their clothing 

 for protection against the cold, there are also several which 

 live through the winter, and show moreover signs of life, 

 that have scarcely a hair upon their backs. Of these, some 

 are exceedingly plump as well as smooth, and have therefore 



been supposed to be kept warm by encasing fat. 



*.*.#** 



Leaving the garden, let us extend our hunt over a wider 

 range, and here, without the paling, we discover, hung upon 

 an oak-tree, another cloak of protection for Caterpillar life 

 amidst the surrounding death of vegetation. We have here 

 no solitary survivors, but a social company, if social we may 

 designate a few dozens of half, or quite, dormant little animals, 

 bidding defiance to Jack Frost from behind the triple tapestry of 

 a silken hammock woven by themselves. This their winter dormi- 

 tory is of shape irregular, with here and there a brown oak-leaf 

 woven into its outward texture, the interior being divided, also 

 with tapestry, into various snug apartments, where the little 

 inmates lie coiled together by twos and threes, till waked into 

 activity by the coming spring. These, at present harmless 

 slumberers, will grow, by and bye, into tremendous ravagers 

 of the oak and other trees, and will then on the boughs they 

 have stripped bare, be sufficiently .discernible in their tufted 



