FIELD AND STUDY 



and hatch out in the spring. The under side of a 

 stone on the top of a stone wall seems like a very 

 cold cradle and nursery, but the caterpillars in their 

 shrouds survive here, and may not the spiders' eggs? 

 In October you will find the caterpillars in all 

 stages of making ready for winter. They first cover 

 a small space on the stone upon which they rest 

 with a very fine silken web; it looks like a delicate 

 silver wash. This is the foundation of the coming 

 cocoon, but I could never catch any of them in the 

 act of weaving their cocoons. I brought one to the 

 house and kept it under observation for several 

 days, but it was always passive whenever I glimpsed 

 it through the crack between the stones. The nights 

 were frosty and the days chilly, but some time dur- 

 ing the twenty-four hours the creature's loom was 

 at work. One morning a thin veil of delicate silver 

 threads, through which I could dimly see the worm, 

 united the two stones. It seemed to be in the midst 

 of a little thicket of vertical, shining silken threads. 

 It was like some enchantment. A little later the 

 thicket, or veil, had developed into a thin cradle in 

 which lay the chrysalis and the cast-off skin of the 

 worm. This caterpillar had been disturbed a good 

 deal and made to waste some of its precious silk, 

 so that its cocoon was finally a thin, poor one. "Life 

 under a stone " forms a chapter in Nature's infinite 

 book of secrecy which most persons skip, but which 

 is well worth perusal. 



