38 MOTHS' EGGS. 



is shaped like the arch stones of a bridge, the whole of them 

 being cemented together in like manner, and thus rendered so 

 strong, compact, and impervious, as to preserve unharmed 

 through winter's wet and cold, the embryo lives for whose 

 protection it was intended. 



On another leafless spray of hawthorn hangs another group 

 of Insect eggs, the embryo progeny of another maternal Moth. 

 These, however, instead of being united, as in the bracelet, 

 with strong cement, are loosely scattered, but by no means 

 carelessly, for they are laid upon an oval silken bed, the warm 

 cocoon, which having, while she was a Chrysalis, served to 

 protect the mother, was converted by the maternal instinct of 

 her mothhood into a winter cradle for her eggs. From these, 

 in the Month of May, will appear a brood of Caterpillars, at 

 first dark and hairy, afterwards black and grey, with bright 

 yellow tufts, and red and yellow spots, and from these, after the 

 usual changes, we shall have a company of Moths called 

 " Vapourers," the females of which are almost wholly des- 

 titute of wings. One of these was the layer of the eggs in this 

 cocoon, which furnishes, therefore, a striking instance of a 

 seeming deficiency of organization being compensated by an 

 instinctive perception. The mother Moth has no wings where- 

 with to travel far in search of a safe asylum for her eggs, and 

 she would seem, for this reason, guided instinctively to employ 

 her own discarded covering as a bed suited to preserve 

 them. 



Let us seek now for a specimen of insect life (though still it 

 may be only " Life in death") advanced one step beyond its 

 threshold, or from egg to Caterpillar. But without a leaf yet 

 opened for its support, where is the Caterpillar to be found ? 

 Perhaps we must go farther than our little garden to discover 

 it, for as we look about us, not a living thing, or one like it, 

 can we see, except that rogue of a thrush, busy yonder at a 

 currant bush. Suppose we watch him, and see if he may not 

 prove a guide, an indicator to assist us in our search. What 



