" I picked up on the bare ice of the river a furry caterpillar, black 

 at the two ends and red-brown in the middle, rolled into a ball of 

 close rings, like a woodchnck. I pressed it hard between my fingers 

 and found it frozen, put it into my hat, and when I took it out in 

 the evening it soon began to stir, and at length crawled about, 

 though a portion of it seemed not quite flexible. It took sometime 

 for it to thaw\ This is the fifth cold dav, and it nnist have been 

 frozen so long." 



Now you are wondering, perhaps, how this little " woolly bear," 

 as the caterpillar is sometimes called, came to be out of doors that 

 cold day. It was the larva of an Isabella Tiger moth. This larva, 

 instead of spinning a cocoon in which to rest during the winter as 

 many larvse do^ crawls around in search of some cozy nook wdiere 

 it can sleep during the cold weather. You will occasionally find 

 one of these caterpillars, which seems to have been over-particular 

 about its hiding place and did not find any. In the spring the larva 

 comes out and feeds for a time. Then it makes a blackish-brown 

 cocoon out of its own hair. I hope if any of you find a larva of the 

 Isabella Tiger moth you will tell Uncle John about it. 



EVERGREENS. 



How many kinds of evergreens are there near your home ? 



How do they differ in shape and size ? ^ 



In pines the leaves are borne in clusters. Find the number iri 

 each cluster. 



Describe the cone. Make a drawing of one of the scales of the 

 cone and one of the seeds. 



Does the bark of evergreen trees differ? 



AVhich holds the snow the longer, the pines or the spruces ? 



What is the difference in shape between the pines that grow in 

 the forest and tliose that grow in the field? 



Why have so many of the lower ])ranche8 of the pines in the 

 forest died ? 



In some places the evergreens do not stand erect. AVhat has 



caused them to bend over ? 



454 



