100 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM 



creatures that used to make a, promenade along our 

 streets in summer a horror to ladies before the advent 

 of the sparrows V" 



" The very same ; but I doubt whether citizens have 

 made a favorable exchange for the pretty hairy creeper, 

 the caterpillar of the Tussock-moth {Onjijialeiu^osligma), 

 (Fig. 35), that now fills the squares, fences and walls 

 with its knobby white cocoons." (Fig. 36). 



'' Why, don't the sparrows eat 

 //;o», too?" asked Abby. 



"Ah, a mere question of taste. 

 The soft, smooth, Geometers ai'e 

 a dainty bit to the birds, and the 

 plumed crawlers are not at all 

 to their liking. Why, I have 

 seen the very bird-boxes in the 

 jniblic square covered with the 

 Tussock-moth's cocoons— crown- 

 ed with their white egg-masses. 

 Were the caterpillars crawling 

 at their verj" doors, and their 

 hungry fledglings gaping for food, 

 ^^'^' the iiarent birds would come 



COCOON OF TUSSOCK 



MOTH, NATURAL SIZE, liomc witliout suppllcs ratlicr 

 than forage upon the Orgyia 

 worms. So the larvK breed securely and in yearly 

 increasing numbers. 



" If a little wise energy and forethouglit could be 

 shown by the city authorities in this matter, the evil 

 could soon be remedied. The chief f '. : es of these cocoons 



