254 SHARP EYES 



are comparatively drear, there are few objects of life more 

 certain to reward your search than the large cocoons of 

 the Attacus Cecropia and the Attacus Prometheus two 

 among our most beautiful and important moths. 



The twigs of most thickets are now quite denuded, 

 with only what might appear a stray determined leaf 

 here and there. Often this leaf is precisely what it ap- 

 pears to be, clinging by its stem, or perhaps tangled in* 

 a tiny spider's web which the winds have as yet been 

 unable to sever. Here and there, however, a cluster of 

 two or three will be found which have a suspicious look, 

 and a closer examination discloses that they are but the 

 artful disguise of a living secret within the Cecropia 

 in its warm double cocoon. But there is a great deal 



o 



of hocus-pocus, too, among these deceptive leaves. 

 The bunch of leaves often proves a delusion. They 

 are a continual challenge to the analytic eye ; a puzzle 

 often only to be settled by so small a factor as their 

 degree of firmness in the wind, a light, beckoning leaf 

 seldom being worth answering. It is often a matter of 

 no small skill to tell at a hundred feet distance just 

 which cluster of leaves holds its cocoon. 



These cocoons vary considerably in size and shape ; 

 some being nearly five inches long and very much in- 

 flated and bag-like ; others pointed at each end and be- 

 ing more contracted, hut always of the toughest of silky 

 gray parchment in texture. They are secured to the 

 twigs by their longest side, and are quite commonly 

 (especially early in the winter) attended by the few 

 leaves which the caterpillar originally drew together 

 while constructing its silken framework. Occasionally a 

 specimen is found partially incased in a leaf, which leaves 

 a perfect mould of itself in the silk upon removal. 



