62 CHANGE OF SKIN. 



his neck stretched to its fullest reach, and he then brings 

 it up by jerking out mouthfuls as before. The middle and 

 hind legs, as well as the holders, grasp the leaf very tight 

 during the operation of gnawing, which is almost incessant. 

 The head of the grub is now quite black, and its eyes are 

 no longer to be seen : the colour of the body is a dull, 

 bluish green, with a yellowish space just behind the head, 

 and another just before the tail; it is indistinctly divided 

 into twelve rings, and each ring has a number of black 

 warts ; these warts, upon all the rings except the first, 

 second, third and twelfth, are ranged in three indistinct 

 transverse rows, and on each side of each ring is one lar- 

 ger and more conspicuous wart; from each wart rises a 

 strong, upright, black bristle, and there are several of these 

 bristles on the head itself; the last ring has a black plate, 

 ending behind in two short rather hooked points. 



When about half an inch in length, the grub leaves off 

 eating, a very remarkable event, for its appetite is not in- 

 termittent, like that of almost all other created beings, but 

 a continued gnawing, craving, never-ceasing, all-consum- 

 ing propensity. The black head separates from the neck 

 and splits down the middle, and the skin of the neck also 

 splits, thus together making an opening large enough to 

 let the grub poke out his new head, which feat he forth- 

 with performs, and gazes about him, moving his head 

 slowly and majestically from side to side, as though he 

 were just landed in a new world, though a world totally 

 unworthy any expression of wonder or approval : after the 

 head comes the body, which is wriggled through the open- 

 ing by tedious, laborious, and seemingly painful struggles. 

 When the skin is completely cast, the grub has none of the 

 black spots which before distinguished it, the warts and 



