The Life of the Caterpillar 



Moth has to mature for a time and to put her 

 distillery in order, A female Great Peacock, 

 born in the morning, sometimes has visitors 

 that same evening, but oftener on the second 

 day, after preparations lasting some forty 

 hours. The female Banded Monk adjourns 

 her summons longer than that: her banns of 

 marriage are not published until after two or 

 three days' waiting. 



Let us return for a moment to the problem- 

 atical functions of the antennae. The male 

 Monk sports a sumptuous pair, similar to 

 those of the Great Peacock, who vies with 

 him in his matrimonial expeditions. Are we 

 to look upon these hairy feelers as a guiding 

 compass? I repeat, without laying much 

 stress on the matter, my former amputations. 

 None of the patients comes back. We must 

 be chary of drawing inferences, however. 

 The Great Peacock has shown us that the 

 failure to return is due to more serious rea- 

 sons than amputation of the horns. 



Moreover, a second Monk, the Clovet 

 Bombyx, nearly akin to the first and, like him, 

 superbly plumed, sets us an exceedingly per- 

 plexing problem. He is fairly plentiful 

 around my place ; even in the enclosure I find 



298 



