128 THE RING OF NATURE 



the leaves of which they speedily strip. This is 

 one of the creatures on which our Board of 

 Agriculture has declared war, and it is the subject 

 of a leaflet all to itself. 



Less maggot-like in appearance than the ermine, 

 though at times scarcely less destructive, is the 

 lackey. Last August, Lackey Mere decorated 

 a twig of one of our willows with a close band of 

 eggs like redskin beadwork. All tits, wrens and 

 tree-creepers notwithstanding, the decoration held 

 through the storms of winter, and as soon as there 

 were leaves to eat, produced from every egg a 

 tiny caterpillar. Now, there is a big white tent on 

 a limb, by no means the first to be stripped, and 

 an army of caterpillars within the tent, each 

 striped with blue and red, so that, if one should 

 stray, no bird may imagine for a moment that it 

 is good to eat. 



An army caterpillar not given to travelling under 

 canvas is the buff-tip, striped somewhat after 

 the manner of the lackey, but having stronger 

 bristles. As you walk along the town avenue 

 you see their pellets on the pavement, and looking 

 up find that many branches have been stripped, 

 while one of them that is half stripped is thick 

 with fat green-and-yellow caterpillars. A slight 

 shake will bring down a shower, but you had 

 better make sure that they all fall on the ground. 

 It is disconcerting to find a little later in the 

 middle of afternoon tea that a great fat, cold 

 caterpillar is leaving your collar for the recesses 



