GOLD-TAIL DESTRTJCTIVENESS. 269 



day happened to transpose some of the Gold-tail feeders 

 from a hedge to our collecting-box. The said Gold- tails, in 

 return, transferred to our glove some dozen, perhaps, of their 

 defensive hairs, which, lastly, were re-transferred unconsciously 

 to our face and throat. Irritation and inflammation were 

 presently the consequences, proved by subsequent experiment 

 to have proceeded indubitably from this caterpillar cause, the 

 handling of which, incautiously, or with hands ungloved, may 

 give others, as well as ourselves, occasion for repentance. We 

 would advise our collecting friends to bear this in recollection. 

 The havoc occasionally wrought by these caterpillars of the 

 Gold-tail, and those of the Brown-tail, a closely-allied moth, 

 has been recorded as matter of history. Reaumur, when 

 travelling between Tours and Paris, in September 1731, found 

 every oak in possession of one of these devastating legions, 

 the foliage looking parched, and embrowned as if by lightning. 

 This was the work of innumerable companies of leaf-marching 

 infantry, such as those we have described. After spinning and 

 spending the winter in their warm silken hammocks, they re- 

 appeared in the ensuing spring, marking their passage through 

 grove and garden, as if with fire and sword. So extensive 

 became the evil, and so mighty the alarm, that the parliament 

 of Paris issued an edict for the raising of conscript armies to 

 exterminate the crawling invaders ; in other words, to compel 

 the people to go forth and " decheniller les arbres " : a work, 

 perhaps, beyond human power, but in which they were assisted, 



