THE PUSS MOTH. 97 



early friend among them. 



I am afraid you are beginning to ask when I am 

 going to talk about my subject, so without any more 

 digressions (though I am rather fond of them) I will 

 commence. Peculiar looking as the creature is, so 

 that the attention of a stranger is at once drawn to 

 it, it is really one of the very " Common objects of 

 the country ;" here in Folkestone you may gather 

 them by the dozen all the summer through, where- 

 ever you come across willow or poplar tree. The 

 Lower Koad is perhaps one of the besthuntinggrounds. 



About June or earlier we may find the brown eggs 

 of the moth laid on the flat surface of the leaves, one 

 here, and one there, hemispherical in shape and 

 attached by their flat sides. With a tolerably good 

 magnifying glass hexagonal markings may be seen 

 on them, for the eggs of moths and butterflies, small 

 as they are, are often beautifully sculptured they 

 are in their way more beautiful than those of birds. 

 If you see a tiny hole in this brown egg it is a sign 

 that the inmate has escaped, and probably he is close 

 beside it, looking at you all the time, but unrecog- 

 nised mistaken for a bit of black cotton. He is not 

 unlike it and looks remarkably stiff and even uncom- 

 fortable ; almost wholly black, with a head, or at 

 least what you suppose a head large out of all pro- 

 portion to the rest of his body, which tapers towards 

 the tail and ends in two fine points. Collect as many 

 of these bits of animated black cotton as you can find 

 and take them home, put them in a glass 

 cy Under or tumbler, and supply them with fresh 

 leaves from the tree on which you found them (or 

 one of the same species), and you will have enough 



H 



