WINTER TENANTS OF OUR TREES. 41 



/ /, 



FIG. 13 &. — LARVA OF POLYPHEMUS MOTH. 



lier keen eyes discerned the forms of several cocoons 

 pendant among the branches of an oak. 



"I have them !" she cried. "Curious things they 

 are, to be sui'e, and a curious story, no doubt, you have 

 to tell about them." 



"Curious, certainly, to those who have thought 

 little of such things ; and yet it is only a small chap- 

 ter of a great book that lies open everywhere — open, 

 but unread. Such things as I have to tell are curious 

 only because people have not looked into the commonest 

 facts around them. This is the cocoon of the Polyphe- 

 mus moth (Fig. 1.3c). You observe how snugly the 

 leaves have been tucked around it. Teor them away 

 and there appears a yellowish, oval, silken case, inside 

 of which the pupa is stowed. The thread of which this 



