THE CABBAGE-CATERPILLAR 297 



contrives an exit-way by gnawing a hole in its enclosure. 

 In this manner, it obtains near the top of the cone a 

 symmetrical dormer-window, clean-edged, with no joins 

 nor unevenness of any kind, showing that this part of 

 the wall has been nibl^led away and swallowed. But for 

 this breach, which is just wide enough for the deliver- 

 ance, the egg remains intact, standing firmly on its base. 

 It is now that the lens is best able to take in its elegant 

 structure. What it sees is a bag made of ultra-fine gold- 

 beater's-skin, translucent, stiff and white, retaining the 

 complete form of the original egg. A score of streaked 

 and knotted lines run from the top to the base. It is the 

 wizard's pointed cap, the miter w^th the grooves carved 

 into jeweled chaplets. All said, the Cabbage-caterpillar's 

 birth-casket is an exquisite work of art. 



The hatching of the lot is finished in a couple of 

 hours and the swarming family musters on the layer 

 of swaddling-clothes, still in the same position. For a 

 long time, before descending to the fostering leaf, it 

 lingers on this kind of hot-bed, is even very busy there. 

 Busy with what? It is browsing a strange kind of grass, 

 the handsome miters that remain standing on end. 

 Slowly and methodically, from top to base, the new- 

 born grubs nibble the wallets whence they have just 

 emerged. By to-morrow, nothing is left of these but 

 a pattern of round dots, the bases of the vanished sacks. 

 , ' At his first mouthfuls, therefore, the Cabbage-cater- 

 pillar eats the membranous wrapper of his egg. This 

 is a regulation diet, for I have never seen one of the 

 little grubs allow itself to be tempted by the adjacent 



