106 GOLD-TAIL CATERPILLARS. 



complete her simple, but most elegant attire. We might 

 almost fancy, as we look at this most delicate of creatures, that 

 we had surprised by day-light one of the fairy elves, fabled to 

 hold their moonlight revels beneath the oak. And truly she is 

 not more beautiful than innocent : a drop of honey-dew is the 

 coarsest nutriment her frame requires, if even air suffice not to 

 support it. But what has she in common, or what has she to 

 do, with the greedy ruthless strippers of the noble tree she rests 

 on? Everything. She has (with them) a common origin: 

 she is the Gold-tail moth, and they were the Gold-tail cater- 

 pillars, of which she once was one, and of a brood of which she 

 will most likely become the parent. 



There remains but little more to be said, en naturaliste, 

 descriptive of the Gold-tail, either in its form of destruction or 

 of beauty. In the former, however, that of caterpillar, we 

 shall describe its " black and scarlet uniform " with somewhat 

 more precision, and for a reason which will presently appear. 

 Its body-coat of black velvet is enlivened by two stripes of 

 brilliant scarlet down the middle of the back, a row of white, 

 resembling embroidery, running along each side ; and again 

 below these, two other scarlet lines. The head and six-clawed 

 feet are shining black, the hinder and intermediate legs 

 yellowish, and the whole body beset with tufts of gold-brown 

 hair. 



Leaving wood and hedge-row, let us in May, or even in 

 April, walkthrough the garden, and observe in what manner 

 the second division of our destroying army may be there em- 

 ployed. Have these intrusive devourers shown more respect 

 to the queen of flowers, than to the monarch of the woods ? 

 Not a whit ; and see here the proof ! On almost every rose- 

 bud is a bundle of young leaflets, all drawn from their propriety, 

 and, contrary to their own expansive inclination, bound 

 together, usually in a fan-like form, by means of a silken tie. 

 If we pull asunder the leaves thus unwillingly united, we shall 

 find, living within and upon them, the agent of their union, a 



