CATERPILLARS INNUMERABLE 131 



in a sort of lavender smoke with lots of hairs and 

 black velvet rings round the body between the 

 sections. We find it on the heather, where it is 

 finishing a sort of three-course meal of bramble, 

 hawthorn and ling. It is well known to the 

 children of the village by the name of ' lucky 

 farmer.' This is the northern egger. The oak 

 egger is much like it, and the fox-moth caterpillar 

 in rich chocolate with orange bands is a worthy 

 connection of the family. These aggressively 

 coloured worms make very sudden appearance on 

 the grass of a mowing field or on the short turf of 

 the common. Where no caterpillars were apparent 

 the day before there is one to every square yard 

 to-day, and to-morrow perhaps none again. 



The pride of the heather is the fat green cater- 

 pillar, bright as the shoots of the young heather, 

 running to warts all over and with the prominence 

 of each wart of a deep yellow thrown at you by 

 means of black rings. Put it on a plain ground 

 and you cannot help asking why it should be so 

 aggressively marked, but replace it on its heather 

 bush, turn once round, and you will have to look 

 very hard to find it. The bumpy outline and the 

 yellow spots somehow match to a T the stippling 

 of the heather needles. 



The last caterpillar, which we affectionately 

 call ' Buttons,' is the offspring of the emperor moth, 

 a creature as distinguished as, and sometimes con- 

 founded with, the purple emperor butterfly. It 

 spins a clever cocoon of staves running from end 



